Tests and Trials

Nearly 2 years behind schedule, Boeing began a 10 month test flight program in December on their new 787 Dreamliner. A lot is riding on the success or failure of this plane. They have already received orders for 840 planes at an official cost of $150 million per plane. Boeing is a major employer in the Seattle area and many, many lives are affected by what happens at Boeing. The first flight was a success and everything went as planned. The second flight however had some minor difficulties with the landing gear. Did they label the 787 a failure and scrap the whole project? Of course not! They expected there to be some problems. That is what the test flights are about--to see how the plane performs under a variety of circumstances, and if it doesn't perform as expected, to keep tweaking it until it does.

The link below tells more about the second flight and also has some great quotes that I will be referring to.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/boeingaerospace/2010568452_secondflight23.html

So why all this stuff about Boeing? Today I had a mini-inspiration and Boeing's story seemed like a great way to explain it. Today in church, the person giving the Invocation said something to the effect of "we know this life is a trial," referring of course to our belief that this life is a test to see if we will prove ourselves worthy of all that the Father has to give us. As he said it though, my thought was "this life is a trial-run, a chance to see if we are ready for the real thing."

As I've mentioned before, I'm in the process of reframing a lot of what I learned at church as a child. I think that I ended up with a lot of ideas that weren't necessarily doctrine, or even what those teaching me intended me to get. We learn through the filter of our own personal experiences and personalities. I was born a perfectionist and a rule keeper. Everything was black and white. I do believe that this was part of who I came to this earth as, part of my personality, and not just what I was being taught.

To me, tests and trials were about judgement, pass or fail, good enough or not good enough. I was frustrated that people kept telling me to think about the eternal perspective and that the difficulties of this life didn't matter much in the context of eternity. Our lives were just a tiny point in the line of our existence. Then in the next breath, they would say that this life is our one chance. If you do well, you get the highest degree of the celestial kingdom. If not, well it doesn't really matter what happens if not, because if you are not in the highest degree of the celestial kingdom, you have failed and will not be able to progress. You have one life and only one, and when you are dead there are no more chances to change. We are here to prove to ourselves, not all-knowing God, where we really belong.

Or at least that is what I thought they were saying to me.

The slightly more mature me sees trials and tests as learning experiences. Pass or fail is not as important as what you gain from the experience. It is in the process of getting there that we learn what we need to know. And so when I thought about life as a trial run, it just made sense. Heavenly Father has promised us all that he has, but he has to know that we can handle it. Life isn't a one time pass or fail. It is a series of test flights. Some are successful and some...well, not so much. Each of these flights gives Heavenly Father a chance to see where we are and what we need to become like him. It's not all or nothing. He's not going to scrap the project. He will (and we should) keep tweaking it and fixing the little things until all is as it should be.

Now for the quotes:

Aviation-safety expert John Nance, upon hearing a description of the problems based on recordings of the flight's radio chatter, said they sounded "pretty straightforward. ... These are things you always have on a test flight."

Did you catch that? "These are things you always have on a test flight." ALWAYS. Nobody is perfect. We should expect some mistakes and difficulties.

A company statement said, "It's important to remember that flight-test programs are conducted to identify and solve issues as they arise."

"To identify and solve issues," not to condemn, not to declare a failure, but to get to the heart of the problem and do something about it.

Here's another thing I heard in church today, "Heavenly Father doesn't expect you to be perfect, he expects you to try."