"Spatial Disorientation"

Friday, July 30, 1999

Dear Friends,

"Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight" (Isaiah 5:21).

These last couple of weeks many of us have learned a new term due to the fatal plane accident involving JFK Jr. Most aviation experts feel it was likely that Kennedy experienced a phenomenon known as "spatial disorientation", which led to his accident. In flight a pilot can become so confused in haze or darkness without landmarks that he has no sense of direction. This is very serious for pilots that are not able to use the instruments. A pilot may feel he is going straight ahead when in fact he is diving down! I’ve heard the closest that most will ever experience this feeling is on the Space Mountain ride at Disney World, which I rode on, but I really don’t recall the effect very much.

The closest I recall to being spatially disoriented was in a very low-tech attraction that I remember going to as a kid in Silver Dollar City in the sixties. We plan to go to Silver Dollar City (in Branson, Missouri) on vacation and I’m curious as to whether they still have this. Essentially by walking down a dark tunnel with various twists and angles your sense of direction gets all fouled up. You then entered this house where water appears to run uphill, pots and pans hung sideways, balls rolled up, etc. I was always amazed at this.

All this has got me pondering a much more serious form of spatial disorientation, which affects mankind in the spiritual realm. Amazingly most are not even aware of its affect or even that they are disoriented. They give no consideration to the eventual consequences of this disorientation. What a serious "woe" is expressed in our daily text. Does this describe man’s condition at the end of the twentieth century or what? "Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight." "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Corinthians 4:4). "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death" (Proverbs 16:25).

As believers we cry out today with the Psalmist "lead me to the rock that is higher than I" (Psalms 61:2). We trust in the One of whom it is written, "He will be the sure foundation for your times" (Isaiah 33:6). "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" (Hebrews 6:19).

Be encouraged today,

Stephen C. Weber

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