Disaster at Tenerife

 The date was Sunday, March 27, 1977 in Tenerife in the Canary Islands in Europe. Planes had been diverted to the Los Rodeos Airport in Tenerife due to a bomb explosion at the Gran Canaria Airport. The Los Rodeos Airport sits in a valley in the shadow of one of the largest volcanoes in the world. It was not uncommon for low-lining clouds to roll down the mountain and cover the airport with fog.

After waiting for hours and the getting restless, the pilot of KLM flight 4805 carrying 248 passengers and crew, requested permission for take-off. His instructions were to proceed to the end of the airstrip, make a 180 degree turn, and wait for clearance to take off. Visibility on the ground at this point was down to 300 meters. One of the passengers was quoted as saying, “You couldn’t even see the cement.” Although the captain of the KLM jumbo jet was told to wait, he ignored the order and after a three and a half hour delay, the captain of the KLM released the brakes and began accelerating the 300,000kg jumbo jet down the runway. What he didn’t know was 1400 meters ahead of him in the thick fog was Pan Am flight 1736 carrying 394 passengers and crew. At 290km per hour, the KLM smashed into the Pan Am. There were no survivors from the KLM and most of the people on the Pan Am died. In all, 583 people died Sunday, March 27, 1977. It is the worst aviation accident in history.

This historical incident has always moved me and it still does. It moves me because it strikes real close to home as I identify all too well with the captain of the KLM. Simply put, I struggle with waiting and I think many of us do if we were to be honest with ourselves. We live in an “instant” society and we bow at the altar of convenience. The concept of waiting or being inconvenienced has become an insult. We want what we want and we want it now! Is this not the mind set of many?

If many people struggle with waiting then the stage is set for great conflict with God. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about waiting on the Lord it is this: In God’s mind, the only timing that matters is His. In other words, God is going to do WHAT He wants to do WHEN He wants to do it WHERE He wants to do it and HOW He wants to do it. And here’s another reality that we must learn, we cannot make Him move earlier than He has chosen but we can cause Him to delay. What we’re getting at here is when we allow impatience to take over all we’re doing is making matters worse which pushes God’s date to act further out. I cringe in saying that because I’ve experienced the pain of that lesson more times than I care to mention.

I used to have a very childish view of waiting on the Lord. It went something like this, “If you’re God and can do all things and is powerful over all things then what’s the point in all this waiting?” or, “I need something by this date and if I don’t have it by that date then this outcome happens and that date has passed so I’m going to have to own the situation now since You chose not to help me!” Ever play those cards? Truth be known, all I was doing was attempting to manipulate God into surrendering to my timing and when He didn’t, I foolishly took-off without clearance headed for disaster!

Here’s what I’m learning and have learned about waiting and we would all do well to embrace these truths:

1.            Waiting is Designed to Increase Your Knowledge of God.

Psa 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

There are wonders about God that we simply cannot and will not learn while we’re moving and God wants you to know these things because they are necessary for you to know.

Know this, from God’s perspective, the outcome of your knowledge of Him after waiting is of greater concern than the outcome you are concerned about. Why is this? Remember, there is no outcome that is greater than God! This is the lesson we miss when we steam down the runway without clearance.

In an instant, fast-moving world without realizing it, we forget who God is and in our wheeling and dealing we become God. This is why God will introduce seasons/situations in our lives that mandate stillness so that we can know that He is God.

                2.            Waiting is Designed to Increase Your Faith in God.

                                Psa 39:7 And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.

                                Psa 62:5 My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.

Albert Barnes articulated well on the phrase “And now, Lord, what wait I for?” He stated: “means, what do I now expect or hope for; on what is my hope based; where do I find any cheerful, comforting views in regard to life? He had found none in the contemplation of the world itself, in man and his pursuits; in the course of things so shadowy and so mysterious; and he says now, that he turns to God to find comfort in his perplexities.”

David declares that his hope was in God alone. Part of what God aims to accomplish in us in waiting is that our confidence rests in no one or nothing except Him. One of the greatest enemies to waiting on the Lord is our plans or improvisations which always fall miserably short of what God has for us. This is one of the things that extends the waiting period. God will not place the last period on the trial until He is satisfied that He alone is your hope.

                3.            Waiting is Designed to Increase Your Love for God.

Psa 40:1-4 I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.

First of all, waiting on the Lord is never a vain act. God hears the cry of His own and He moves on their behalf and when He does, it sets off praise from us to Him.

When you’re in situations that are dire and God moves specifically on your behalf, not only do you praise Him but you love Him more than you ever have.

In closing, waiting has nothing to do with God being bored and then deciding to pick on you for a little entertainment as He sits back watching you squirm in tough circumstances. In the case of the disaster at Tenerife, had the captain of the KLM waited, it would’ve spared his life and many others. Sometimes, God wants us to wait because He desires to protect us from danger ahead that He sees that we cannot see. Whatever the reason, God knows what He’s doing and He has your best in mind. If you wait you’ll experience the blessing, joy, and peace of that. However, should you ignore the instruction to wait, it will only be to your detriment.

Wait.