Where is YOur Beacon?
Did You Know?
In 1959 a British Petroleum survey crew, while looking for oil in the North African desert of Libya, spotted the wreckage of a B-24 bomber. Upon investigation, it proved to be the remains of the “Lady Be Good,” a WWII bomber that had returned from a mission in Italy but had never reached the airbase. Mysteriously, the plane was empty.
What caused the “Lady Be Good” to miss her base, landing more than 400 miles away in the north Sahara desert, has remained an unsolved mystery and caused much controversy. Upon the first examination of the plane, Air Force investigators made some startling discoveries. First was the fact that the crew of nine was neither in the plane nor anywhere nearby. Second, the navigator made no log entries after the initial bombing mission was aborted. Third, the navigator’s equipment and charts were stored in their cases. How could the navigator give directions to the pilot with the equipment in storage?
Over a period of several years after the discovery of the plane, the bodies of all but one of the crewmen were discovered in the desert—over 80 miles from the plane. The crew apparently had parachuted from the plane as it ran out of fuel. Though a diary found in the clothes of one of the crewmen told of the harsh desert conditions and of having only a half a canteen of water and no food between them, it gave no clue as to the cause of the accident.
Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise.” After removal from the plane and testing, all the instruments were found to be operational. One of the hypotheses is that, due to a severe tailwind that night, the plane might have passed the base earlier than expected. In this case, the crew would be forced to decide between following the radio beacon or their own calculations as to how long the trip should have taken.
Being right in our own eyes can be fatal, not only physically, but, more important, spiritually. Let us allow the infallible Word of God to be our beacon, whether it always makes sense to us or not.
There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.
Proverbs 14:12
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