by Sandy Kirby Quandt @SandyKQuandt

One year when I attended the Iditarod Sled Dog Race Conference for Teachers in Anchorage, Alaska, a teacher told of an airplane ride she and several of the Iditarod sled dogs took with the Iditarod Air Force from a remote checkpoint in western Alaska to Anchorage.

Seems the dogs were rather boisterous, and the pilot wished to quiet their howling. Without a word, he pulled the plane’s engine. The airplane dropped like a boulder. If you’ve ever experienced a turbulent plane ride, you get the idea.

The teacher said not one peep was heard for the remainder of the flight from any passenger. Four footed or two.

For those of us seated in the room the story was rather humorous. We could laugh because we weren’t the teacher in that airplane when it dropped altitude flying over the remote frozen expanse of how-knows-where Alaska. 

When I recall this story, I think about times in our writing lives when the engine gets pulled on us. We plunge into a freefall, auguring in, not knowing when, or if, we’ll land safely. And if we do happen to make it through the landing, where will we end up. In what kind of condition? 

Should we take our chances, stay with the plane, and hope for the best? 

Or should we put on a parachute and jump before we crash and burn?

The Iditarod Pilot in the story needed to get the dogs’ attention during the flight. He needed them to hush up, quit their complaining, and trust he would deliver them safely back to Anchorage, into the loving care of those who waited for them.

The pilot knew he had to do something to grab their immediate attention. He knew taking the time to explain his reasons to the dogs was useless. I would have to say by pulling the engine on the plane, the pilot knew exactly what he was doing.

Maybe that’s what God does with us sometimes in regard to our writing. Maybe he pulls the engine when he wants to get our attention. Maybe we’re howling too much and God wants to remind us who’s in control.

Perhaps God pulls the engine to get us to quit our complaining and trust he’ll take care of us. It might be when God pulls the engine, and we fall like a boulder, certain we’re not gonna make it, God wants us to trust he’ll deliver us and our writing safely to the place he intends for us to go.

Do you think if we quit our howling, sit back, and allow God to pilot our writing things might go smoother?

I wish you well.

Sandy

Sandy Kirby Quandt is a former elementary school educator and full-time writer with a passion for God, history, and travel; passions that often weave their way into her stories and articles. She has written numerous articles, devotions, and stories for adult and children publications. Her devotions appear in two Worthy Publishing compilation books; So God Made a Dog, and Let the Earth Rejoice. She has won several awards for writing including the 85th and 86th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition in the Young Adult category, First Place in the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference Children’s Literature 2016 Foundation Awards, First Place in the 2017 Foundation Awards in the Young Adult, Middle Grade, and Flash Fiction categories. Looking for words of encouragement or gluten-free recipes? Then check out Sandy’s blog, Woven and Spun. When The Way Is Steep