--- id: flying-free-22-level-flight title: Chapter 22 – Level Flight category: Spiritual Reflection predicted_narrative_arc: reflection on faith forged through trials and military service sentiment: reflective emotions: - faithful - humble - resilient - inspired keypoints: - Faith is assurance of things hoped for and conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1) - Trials test and develop perseverance leading to maturity (James 1) - Faith requires knowing God through prayer and yielding control - 'Colonel Chappie James briefing: strap it on and learn from every mission' - Uniqueness and value come from God; establish a personal faith standard before crises summary: Chapter 22 emphasizes building faith in advance of crises rather than as an emergency tool, drawing on Hebrews 11:1, James 1, personal corporate experiences, and a Vietnam-era mission briefing with Colonel Chappie James that stressed strapping on faith and learning from every mission. tags: - childhood - faith - work - military - testing - anxiety - warmth - conviction - faith-preparation - vietnam-mission - biblical-wisdom - personal-testimony - chappie-james - surrender-control - faith-development - biblical-perspective sycophancy: 2 truth_score: 9 entropy: 5 updated: '2026-09-08T20:49:32Z' vault_stage: 07_CODEX headwaters: COMPA prefix: COMPA enrich_status: ok enrich_blockers: [] enrich_method: llm pipeline_filename: COMPA_2026-09-08_chapter-22-level-flight.md proposed_topic: Wisdom lane: Wisdom description: Faith must be exercised before the storm arrives. Dean shares how Colonel Chappie James’s briefing in Vietnam became a lifelong lesson in making every experience — especially the hard ones — part of who you are. corpus_topic: Wisdom --- # Chapter 22 ## Level Flight – Build Faith into Life **Full book:** https://deanrush.net/downloads/flyingfreebook.md --- ### Context for the Reader This chapter closes Section II by returning to the foundational theme of the book: faith is not a last-minute emergency tool — it is something built in advance. The powerful briefing from Colonel Chappie James (“strap it on” and “learn from every mission”) provides a memorable framework for turning every trial into training. --- If faith is so important in decision making, then how do we develop that important element in life? We often hear the term, but it is certainly tough to determine whether we could pass a test of faith until we experience a trial in life. The middle of a storm is not the time to question your faith so it might be wise to prepare for those events in advance. Let’s discuss faith from a biblical perspective. What is faith and why is it so necessary to maintain a devotion to a belief in order to live a satisfying life? If you are going to take proper action to get out of a crisis you must have belief in the plan or it becomes difficult to remain on course. Paul the apostle tells us that faith is the key to understanding life. The book of Hebrews defines faith very well and says in chapter 11, verse 1 (NIV): “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” That little sentence means that we have to believe in something we cannot see, touch, or smell. It is a tough request when we are going through hard times in life. In my life I found that I had to put faith into practice. I had to inject faith in my life no matter what was going on. I had to understand that faith is an important aspect of my being. Faith is a too-seldom-used ingredient of recovery from crisis. Just as you need to exercise your leg muscles if you are going to run a race, you need to begin flexing your prayer muscles if you are going to get to know God. You must know God before you can develop faith in Him. To know Him you have to believe that He is an integral part of your life. You can simply request His participation in your life. God made each of us unique and He knows you. You also need to get to know Him. The word “unique” comes from a French word that means “only one.” Do you think that God Almighty would have taken the time to create you in His image and make you different from all created beings if you had no worth? He is much too smart and much too omnipotent to waste His time cloning people who are not willing to decide they can believe Him. Our faith can open wonderful avenues to the world. As we age in this life there is an element of awareness that begins to creep over our thought process about existence. The development of that consciousness begins to instill in us the ability to prioritize problems. The awareness is usually accompanied by the reality that we are not in charge of everything around us. As I mentioned my personal situation concerning control, I learned that having faith demanded that I let God take control. I became aware that I was not in charge of my fate and when I admitted the fact to God, He very quietly assumed command of my life. What I had attempted to control became secondary to allowing my life to be directed by the God who had created me. It is God, not us, who can direct our lives to the best conclusion. We cannot make real progress in life without faith. During my years in the corporate world I was privileged to have several great experiences managing companies. The people I worked with and for taught me a lot about success. I once heard one of our respected directors say during a difficult financial period in a down market, “Believe in yourself and establish a standard of value for life before you have to stand on someone else’s.” That director was saying you have to establish a “faith standard” in yourself and your work. Your uniqueness is worth developing to its ultimate value. Let me state that another way: “Be the best you can be,” to use the phrase of the U.S. Army recruiters. God will reward your uniqueness. He loves the value that you represent. If He did that for me, He will do it for you. Finding a method of discovering who you are often comes from the testing you experience in life. The crisis you are now experiencing or have recently gone through may be your test. Webster’s dictionary says that testing is “requiring maximum effort or ability….” Remember what James 1 said, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Drum that verse into your head because it reinforces exactly what we need to be doing when we say “have faith.” Whatever we are going through has a purpose. The purpose may be one that we don’t recognize at present but there is a purpose. I often like to remember a briefing I heard when I was in Vietnam. Our forward air control unit supported an F-4 unit on a regular basis, and I was invited to fly with that outfit on a mission with Colonel Chappie James. Colonel James had a stellar reputation from WWII, Korea, and now Vietnam. He was a Tuskegee Airman and the first rated four-star African-American general officer in the United States Air Force. The man was an icon of the modern fighter pilot generation. Our mission would take us to areas that were very unfriendly. I was there as a guest of the unit because of my job. It was my first mission up to North Vietnam, and the squadron I was going to fly with had lost two guys the day before so I paid close attention in the pre-mission briefing. This was an orientation flight, but one that was important to me, and a mission that I long remembered. The briefing for that flight told us two significant things, and they are entrenched in my memory for life. The director of operations for the unit stood before us and told us that when we walked out to the ramp where our airplanes were parked, we were not to climb into the airplane. He said we were to “strap it on.” We were being told to make the airplane a part of us. I have interpreted that instruction to mean that if I am going to do something in life I should do it to the best of my ability. Don’t take on a mission unless you are going to make the activity a part of you. My boss once said that if you are working at your avocation you have the ultimate job. You no longer must go to work. You are enjoying your hobby every day of your life. If you are undergoing a separation from a job or the loss of something significant in your life right now, you are probably feeling a part of you has been separated from your body. I remember experiencing that desperate feeling when the business we had built seemed to float away during my bouts with cancer. It was like losing an arm or leg. What I had known as security and a great way of life disappeared in an instant. That job or spouse that is now gone may have felt like a part of you and now you both physically and emotionally feel the loss. When an element of stability suddenly disappears from your life you want to hold on to it. You feel anxiety at any loss. The briefing we heard that day in Vietnam also told us that when we were under fire and in a stressful situation, we needed to be ready to use the situation to our advantage. The second point in the briefing from Colonel James was equally important. He told us that if we climbed in the airplanes, flew the mission, lived through the anti-aircraft fire, got back to our base safely, and climbed out of the airplane without having learned something, we should never climb in another aircraft. We should learn from every experience in the mission. Every situation, even the stressful ones, should become learning situations in our lives. The words of that briefer before our mission in combat have become firmly implanted in my mind. He was saying to use all those problematic life experiences to help get yourself to a safe landing. Gain knowledge from those trying times. It is important to learn from every experience in life, even the tough ones. If you are undergoing stress right now, plant that lesson in your mind as a tool to use later in life. If you have made mistakes and they are costly, don’t forget them. Look at every trial as a learning experience and not a hardship. --- **Next:** Section III – Land As Soon As Practical begins with Chapter 23: Find a Place to Land – Seek Safety **Full book:** https://deanrush.net/downloads/flyingfreebook.md