Over-Ridden

On October 29th 2018 Lion Air took off from Jakarta in Indonesia, 189 souls were aboard this now doomed flight, which would actually only last a mere 12 minutes, but it appeared to all to be very normal.  They were flying one of the very latest Boeing 737 Max8 planes with a brand new Rolls Royce motor which was actually a much bigger motor, but also some 15% more fuel efficient.  Their competition Airbus, was already successfully flying these motors in their Airbus A320 Neo and all Airlines were quickly reaping the wonderful fuel saving benefits, so Boeing wanted some of the orders and new business, and to stop clients leaving to buy Airbus planes.

Boeing tried vainly to fit the new Engines to their current model, but as their aircraft were squatter and sat closer to the ground, there was no space left to fit them under their wings, and thus to stop them from dragging on the ground.  No time to re-engineer the planes to adapt them to this new technology, where Airbus, standing much further off the ground, just simply bolted the new engines on, minor adaptation and they were successfully flying, not so with Boeing though.  Solution, mount the new engines way up higher into the wings to gain the necessary ground clearance, but now the mouth of the new engine was now protruding just above the top of the wing.

This caused the plane to react very differently in certain situations, as the airframe was never designed for this size of engine and its unbalanced positioning, so when a pilot was under power in a take-off situation, the plane was badly unbalanced and the nose kept lifting and pushing the plane into a “Stall” and risking loss of lift and it would then quickly nose dive into a crash, with no altitude available for correction.  Quick Software fix, tell the computer, when it senses this situation to automatically compensate by bringing the nose back down to avoid a “Stall.”  So “Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System” {MCAS} was quickly programed into all the planes, and no pilot ever knew.  The 737 Max8 does have two sensors on-board to measure its “angle of attack,” the measure of the angle between its wings and the flow of air that determines a plane’s risk of stalling. Boeing designed the MCAS to only use readings from one of the sensors, its Achilles heel.

 

Training on the new plane was minimal, and they always failed to mention MCAS as they claimed that this plane flew just the same as the previous models.  By 2018, several pilots had complained to Boeing about this problem of the plane suddenly “nosing down” and the plane being very difficult to fly in that situation.  After the Lion Air crash, which forced Boeing to make MCAS less aggressive, just hoping that this would finally make the problem go-away.  Not so, on March 10th 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, with 157 souls on board, suffered the same fate as MCAS kept pushing the nose down at “Take Off,” until the plane quickly hit the ground at speed.  With that, ALL Boeing 737 Max8 planes were grounded, probably for good.  MCAS was there, no switches or knobs, just hidden in the background, no information about it and what it was capable of doing, hidden and potentially very deadly.  Question; what is hidden in your life that will potentially sneak up, and over-ride your safety systems, that will potentially destroy you?  What is your MCAS?  What is your Achilles heel?

Isaiah 59:2 “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid [his] face from you, that he will not hear.” Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  You see Sin once it gets hold of you, secretly re-programs your computer, your emotions, your responses, thoughts and actions, by inserting a secret code, “Sins – MCAS” and it will destroy you, maybe not today, maybe not next month or next year, but this “Sin MCAS” is going to activate right at the wrong time, and the end result is disastrous, for outside of God, sin will keep pushing your nose and directions downwards, it will destroy you.  “In Christ” MCAS has no power, and as you fly, you will lift your nose Heaven-Ward, you will fly above the “cares of this life” and will gain altitude, and wing your flight in a closer and closer relationship with God. 

God also has his own simple solution to sin, a “Program” that he is so willing to add to your “Programming” called “Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System” {MCAS}, and God’s Solution is to Manoeuver your Characteristics to be so much more like himself, Heavenly Characteristics, it’s called “The Holy Spirit” who is always there on duty augmenting our systems, lifting our sight Heavenward, focusing our attention upon Jesus Christ, and keeping us from crashing and burning, in destruction and death {wages of Sin}, Jude 1:24 “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present [you] faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,” so you see God has an MCAS, but Satan also has an MCAS, and we know that with God we fly, and with Satan there will come a day when you will crash and burn, we have the power of choice as to which MCAS will control your life.

On the other side, who are you in your daily life “Over-Riding” or are you being “Over-Ridden?”  Some things are for our betterment and for our best interest, yet there are people out there you will often meet, who have a bad MCAS, and they want to control, over-ride, boss you about, often to your own detriment, to them it is all about “power and control” as some sort of “Dictator” and their MCAS has no interest in what you are doing, their MCAS will just continue to blindly control, force issues, and drive you into the dirt, to destruction, just like a Boeing 737 Max8, you are going to come down, and very hard.  So which MCAS is in your life controlling, Satan’s – unto death and destruction, or God’s – Unto a better life here and a jaw dropping Eternity, which lasts a very long time, so are you going to over-ride, or will you let God over-ride you to life, through the Holy Spirit, unto happiness, and a future, so you get to choose right now, so who is programming your MCAS?.