Flying Upside Down: Chapter 1, Part 1

Recently a pilot was practicing high-speed maneuvers in a jet fighter. She turned the controls for what she thought was a steep ascent – and flew straight into the ground. She was unaware that she had been flying upside down. This is a parable of human existence in our times… we live at high speed, and often with no clue to whether we are flying upside down or right-side up. Indeed, we are haunted by a suspicion that there may be no difference.

Willard uses this story as a metaphor to introduce the problem. The reading is heavy in the first few chapters, but stick with it – you’ll be glad you did. The problem is that our society is incredibly fast-paced, but its priorities and understanding of morality are upside down – to the point that many doubt whether there really is a right and wrong way to live.

“Secular humanism” is an idea movement, not the work of an individual, and before it, as a whole, individuals are little more than pawns. The seeming triviality and irrelevance of the “merely academic” is a major part of what misleads us about the power of ideas.

This point is the reason to stay engaged with this section of the book. Some of it abstract or “academic” in nature, but Willard’s point is that much of our societal views are the results of ideas from many years ago. The idea that the world is an accident – we accidentally came into existence through evolution – leads to the idea that life is absurd and we find happiness by striving for progress.

The peasants now watch TV and constantly consume media. There are no peasants now.

A writer, Tolstoy, struggling with the consequences of these ideas (life is an accident), noted that the peasants – who had no knowledge of these new ideas – remained very happy. The problem is that today there are no peasants. We are constantly being fed information by media that is likely detrimental to our happiness.

What is truly profound is thought to be stupid and trivial, or worse, boring, while what is actually stupid and trivial is thought to be profound. This is what it means to fly upside down.

Here, Willard pokes fun at some “wise” saying of the day such as “stand up for your rights” and “practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty”. A more useful saying, such as “stand up for your responsibilities” is thought to be boring and disregarded for sayings that don’t actually make sense.

In fact, the popular sayings attract only because people are haunted by the idea from the intellectual heights that life is, in reality, absurd. Thus the only acceptable relief is to be cute or clever.

Willard makes the connection of ideas from years ago trickling down into our popular culture. Ideas are important. This is all setting up the groundwork or us to evaluate a new idea – well, a 2000-year-old idea, actually. Life in the Kingdom of God is our rescue from all this nonsense. Prepare your mind to take a fresh look at Jesus and his message. We’ll cover the rest of Chapter 1 in the next few days.

As always, you’re welcome to comment on any part of the reading, not just the excerpts I pulled. In addition, I will present a study question with each post. I encourage you to post your answer in the comments. This study is open to the public, so feel free to share with any who may be interested.

Chapter 1, Part 1, Flying Upside Down Study Question:

What is a message from our culture that has impacted you that is contrary to the teachings of the Bible?

For me, the message that progress, or having more, is always better. When we seek the Kingdom first, all the other good things are added to us. When we seek only for progress and more stuff, we are only more unsatisfied.