Overcoming Challenges

Jet Lag

I remember my first Transpacific Flight from Atlanta to Narita, Japan which was over 14 hours. It makes me tired just thinking about it. Are we there yet??!! The aircraft flew through approximately five “TIME ZONES”. Merriam Webster defines time zone as , “a geographic region within which the same standard time is used”. Traveling from one time zone to another has distinct affects on the body. According to the Mayo Clinic, these affects are due to exposure to sunlight and fluctuations of our body clock’s rhythm, called the circadian RHYTHM, that can produce symptoms of tiredness, fatigue, irritability, headache, insomnia and lack of concentration. The result of this disruption causes JET LAG. Airspace Magazine puts it this way, “jet lag derives from the simple fact that jets travel so fast through time zones, they leave your body rhythms behind.”

I was a victim of JET LAG for my entire career with Delta. If you’ve never experienced it, I want you to know that it is no picnic! For some crew members that chose to fly internationally, this condition was extremely severe and the recovery process was a matter of TIME. The amount of time for readjusting to normal sleep patterns was different for each individual.

Has it ever seemed as if you were out of RHYTHM or your TIMING was just a little bit misaligned for whatever reason? In your pursuit of PURPOSE, are you are traveling so fast that you get ahead of time or lag behind which causes you to become irritable, out of focus, unable to sleep, and extremely fatigued? Is it difficult for you to distinguish exactly where you are in life? Even after I left my flying career, I recall waking up every night trying to figure out where I was!

Consider this, each TIME ZONE of the earth has different characteristics relative to SEASONS. It’s summer in Georgia where I live, but winter in Rio de Janeiro. In different seasons of our existence, the experiences we encounter should help us locate exactly where we are. On our LIFE’S JOURNEY, we sometimes lose a grip on timing which is key in reaching our true DESTINY. We conclude that we are in the correct time zone or season by gauging external circumstances which often distorts our true perspective of SUCCESS. It becomes incumbent upon us to hurriedly get ahead of God’s TIMING when really we unknowingly LAG behind. This can result in feelings of despair and defeat.

In the RHYTHM of life, SEASONS speak to TIMES. As we constantly pursue PURPOSE without recognizing and embracing the necessary changes of the specific times we encounter, challenges orchestrated by the enemy will pursue us and cause distractions.

We tend to ignore the segmented (zones) assigned to destiny’s pathway. King Solomon explains it this way in Ecclesiastes 3:

For everything there is a season, and a time for every ^[a]purpose under heaven: ² a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; ³ a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; ⁴ a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; ⁵ a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; ⁶ a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; ⁷ a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; ⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

Remember that your TIME ZONES are in His hands, as encouraged in Psalms 31:15.