Sometimes, when I travel abroad, I get on an airplane. The takeoff is always a little difficult. The plane runs along the runway with tremendous power, and for a moment, it seems almost impossible for such a heavy machine to leave the ground. But after a while, something changes. The airplane rises into the sky and begins to fly so smoothly and lightly.
Looking out the window, I sometimes feel as if the airplane is flying like a bird among the clouds. At such moments, I begin to think about the weight of our lives. Is life heavy or light? Sometimes, when I listen to popular songs, I hear people singing about how difficult life is and how heavy the burden of life can be.
But I have come to think that the weight may be the same, but the way we carry it can be different.
Think about a cup that is half-filled with water. Some people see it as half empty, while others see it as half full. The water itself has not changed. What changes is our perspective.
In the same way, the reality of our lives may not change immediately, but our lives can change dramatically depending on how we look at that reality.
Think about an airplane. How heavy is it? Imagine an airplane carrying 300 passengers. Add all their suitcases, fuel, equipment, and the enormous weight of the airplane itself. When it is sitting on the ground, it seems almost impossible that such a heavy object could ever fly. It appears to crawl along the runway.
But once it takes off, it flies through the sky as lightly as a feather.
Why?
The airplane does not become lighter. Its weight has not disappeared. Rather, its speed, the movement of air, and the shape of its wings create lift that allows the airplane to rise and remain in the air.
I don’t understand all the scientific details, but one thing is clear to me: the airplane flies not because it has no weight, but because another force enables it to overcome its weight.
Isn’t this also true of our lives?
Many people carry enormous burdens. The weight of life is real. We cannot simply deny it. We have responsibilities, failures, disappointments, relationships, memories, and circumstances that are sometimes very difficult to carry.
But must we carry those burdens in the same way for the rest of our lives?
We cannot always throw away our burdens. Some things cannot be changed. What has already happened belongs to the past. We have made mistakes, and sometimes we have experienced painful things. We cannot go back and rewrite those pages.
But we can change the way we look at them.
The reality may remain the same, but our perspective can change. And when our perspective changes, the way we live can change.
Perhaps the wisdom of life is not always about making our burdens disappear. Sometimes it is about learning how to rise above them.
An airplane is heavy, but it flies lightly.
Our lives may be heavy, but we do not have to live heavily.
We can learn to look at our past with wisdom, our present with gratitude, and our future with hope. We can allow faith, purpose, love, and God’s grace to become the “lift” that carries us above the weight of life.
So, even though life may be heavy, let us not live as though we are permanently stuck on the ground.
Be like an airplane: heavy in reality, but light in the way you fly.