I've loved flying since I was seven years old—anything from Boeing 747s to little commuter planes. The wings of the plane catching the air and lifting off the ground always excite me. And soaring over the earth, I have time to think—and a new perspective for these thoughts.

So, I was surprised to find myself feeling very apprehensive at the prospect of a flight from Honolulu to Minneapolis. Perhaps I'd been reading too much in the newspapers about crashes; but whatever it was, I found myself picturing our "tin can with wings" going down in the ocean and my having to open the escape door and deploy my life raft.

I tried comforting myself with the fact that I'd never heard of a Pacific Ocean accident. The counter thought was that statistically we were due for a Pacific crash, and it might just be this flight.

The worst part was that I didn't know in which suitcase I'd packed my raincoat, to keep me dry in the life raft.

I don't know how long I continued with these worst-case scenarios before I decided I needed to pray. On other occasions, I'd overcome fear of dramatic changes in weather, anxiety while driving through snow-storms, and confusion when needing to get someplace without a proper map or clear road signs.

In the hours before I left for the airport, I combated the gloom and doom that filled my mind. In place of thoughts of fear and anxiety, I put all the truths I knew about God up front—thoughts about God's comforting, healing strength. Thoughts of a power greater than all the forces of nature, including the winds and the ocean we'd be flying across.

I reminded myself that God fills all space in the entire universe, and that space includes every cubic inch over and under the oceans. God's love for me could never go off course—would not leave me, not even for a split second. With the comfort of knowing that I wouldn't be flying any place where God hadn't already done all the safety checks, my anxiety fell away, and I felt peaceful.

As we were heading down the runway, however, some of those uneasy thoughts began to come back. I was definitely not comfortable with the choice of movie in our cabin that afternoon—The Perfect Storm.

I began reassuring myself, almost out loud, "God is in complete control of this flight. He is mightier than any other force we can encounter, and we are all safe."

Then it seemed pretty much a case of "I told you so," when, half an hour into the movie, our plane was caught in the worst turbulence I have ever experienced in the air. I knew that I had to force down the fear that was again taking hold of me and overcome it completely. I just wanted to be back on the ground—preferably at home.

I could hardly think with all of the noise in the plane, but I shut my eyes and prayed. This is an example of how I reasoned: "My home is wherever God is. God fills the entire universe, including the plane. And if God is everywhere, turbulence has no place to be. We can never fly out of the range of God's love. God is Love. We are flying through Love and being supported by Love. Everyone is in God's love, and He will not allow harm to come to anyone."

It came to me that strength, wisdom, and calmness from God were available to the pilots, mechanics, engineers, flight attendants—everyone who had anything to do with the smooth operation of the plane. Love was guiding everyone to do his or her best job to make this plane fly. It was Love that was holding the plane together and keeping it up in the air.

Then I thought of Jesus telling his disciples that the tiniest seed of faith could move mountains. Such is the power of one person's prayer. Jesus also said that the healings that he did could be done by other people, too—and even bigger and better ones.

I reassured myself that the purpose of prayer isn't just to make individual lives better, but to help the world. In this case, I wasn't just praying for my safety and peace of mind, but that peace would be tangibly felt by everyone.

It wasn't long before the plane stabilized and the pilot came over the intercom to say that the turbulence had not been as bad as expected and was virtually over.

Was it my prayer that had stopped the shaking? Maybe it was just coincidence, and it would have stopped anyway? That didn't really matter. We were all relieved and at peace.

Soon we were having our dinner—which wasn't that bad for airplane food. To my knowledge, no one was airsick during the flight, and the turbulence was not mentioned again. We landed smoothly.

Whether or not our plane was really ever in danger, I suspect that we all learned something that day about self-control, teamwork, and calmness. In my case, it was a timely reminder about the power and protection of God. I have never again been afraid of flying.

Eric Oyama
Cambridge, Massachusetts