There Was An Attempt

Mathis Rust was a teenager with a big dream, to end the Cold War. In 1987, he wanted to do something to reduce the tension with the Soviet Union. This desire became a plan. As an amateur pilot, he wanted to fly from Finland to Moscow to create an ‘imaginary bridge’ to the east. It seemed like a good way to get shot down by the supposedly impenetrable Russian air defense system. Yet Rust was able to make the flight landing in the middle of Red Square.

Rust’s flight didn’t quite have the effect he had hope. He ended up with a 4-year prison sentence. The incident was a joke among the Muscovites as they started to refer to Red Square as the third terminal of their airport. Yet, it may have helped end the Cold War.

The fiasco forced major changes in the military. Many questioned the senior officer’s inability to stop an inexperienced teenage pilot from landing in the capital. This allowed the reform-minded Mikhail Gorbachev to replace those officials, officials that also happened to be against his policies. Those policies would eventually bring down the regime’s power base and topple the communist state.

Life has a funny way of working out.

I think we sometimes think our actions have no repercussion. Either the bad things we do won’t come back to haunt us, or the good we do will be forgotten. However, God is an excellent scorekeeper. In Galatians 6:7-8 we read; “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

Actions have consequences, even if they take time to come about and even if they were not what he thought they might be. That why we need to make sure our actions are not ruled by the flesh but by the spirit. Being spiritual-minded causes actions that will bring spiritual rewards. Being fleshy-minded causes actions that are ruinous.

If we want things to work out for the good it starts by adopting the right mindset.

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