My nephew trained in flying helicopters by using a simulator.  He says it is pretty realistic, and enabled him to encounter and deal with all manner of situations without actually crashing a million dollar bird. I am not sure how such skills were learned before technology. Well, I guess I do. Orville and Wilbur got banged up. 

In my efforts to learn how to fly metaphorically speaking, I imagine myself as courageous, magnanimous, able to take in the larger picture. The very things that are hard to achieve when you are stuck on the ground. 

This week the spiritual growth group I am in is delving into the story of Daniel. I have written songs about him and his three friends, the ones who dared to stand up to King Nebuchadnezzar. I had not before realized that when the monarch renamed them, he tried to snatch away their allegiance to God, and replace it with loyalty to himself. Their real names all included forms of God's qualities, either El for Elohim or Yah, from Yahweh. Yet they remained true to their Lord. They were robust and more youthful after three weeks of eating vegetables and water, than the members of the royal house who ate and drank indulgently.

The stories of Daniel in the lion's den and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego being thrown in the fiery furnace are pretty much at the top of the scale for courage. Yet if those circumstances are symbolized by the anger that threatens to consume me in my suburban living room when my lifestyle is challenged, I have a chance to be brave too. I get to lift off with a fidelity that sails above self proclaimed puppet kings. 

Maybe when I find myself living the Real life, rather than this pretend existence, those abilities will have become second nature, and I can truly soar.