The silent flight

I remember several shows that left an impression on my childhood: Willy Fog, the gnomes, MacGyver, or Knight Rider were among my favourites.

However, the most exciting one was the A Team. It had a predictable structure but also characters that made you empathize with their fight for justice and lost causes, always running away from the military police that were harassing them for a crime they had not committed.

The most fascinating thing of the show was the dramatic effect produced by the brilliant plans of colonel Hannibal Smith, the team’s leader. His chameleonic ability to disguise himself and to remain in plain sight without being discovered had me hooked. 

Traditionally, a flight always takes place in the opposite direction to those who chase you. One runs as far away as one can. Smith, nevertheless, used to hide where least expected, so close and so evidently that he managed to go unnoticed. It’s what I call “silent flight”. To remain in the danger zone pretending to be a part of the pursuer’s scenario.

This military camouflage principle has become the “Trending Topic” of flights in all areas of life. People do not escape in the opposite direction. We have learnt to remain close to danger, concealing, behaving as if we had control over it.

We use so-called control techniques for our anxiety when our lives desperately cry out inside. The important thing is for people not to notice. What you don’t see, doesn’t exist. That is how we try to calm our uneasiness.

Running away in the opposite direction would attract attention, so we pass our lives silently escaping forward. Even when our heart insists that life is more than what meets the eye. Despite the fact that we have often asked ourselves if there is a God up there and if he cares about our destiny or our daily lives.

Even when we intuitively know that Jesus is real and that He is next to us, watching us. Our disguise of happiness, normality, or indifference cannot prevent him from seeing us and He will not give up, come what may. He will continue waiting patiently for us to drop the disguise, to look at Him in the eye and to stop running away from his love.

Óscar Pérez. Teacher and coordinator of Youth Alliance, in Spain.

This is an article of the Jesus on the Web 2016 series. You can learn more about the project visiting its website, Facebook and Twitter.