The Flight That Has No Plan B

In 2007, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey tracked a bar-tailed godwit they called E7 as she launched from the mudflats of Alaska and flew south over the Pacific Ocean. Nine days later, she landed in New Zealand, having covered 7,145 miles without once stopping for food, water, or rest.

There is no Plan B on that flight. No islands to land on. No second chances. Before she ever lifts off, her body prepares in astonishing ways — her intestines and kidneys actually shrink to make room for the fat reserves she will burn over open ocean. She commits everything she has to a journey she cannot abandon once it begins.

Here is what strikes me: E7 had never seen New Zealand. She carried no map, no GPS, no experienced guide flying beside her. She had only what the Creator built into her — an internal compass tuned to the earth's magnetic field, an instinct older than memory — and she trusted it with her life.

There are seasons when God asks us to do something similar. Not a cautious, incremental step we can reverse if it doesn't work out, but a full-bodied leap over deep water. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart," Solomon wrote, "and lean not on your own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5).

You may not see the destination yet. But the One who wired a small shorebird to cross an ocean has planted something in you, too — a quiet knowing that says, "Go. I will carry you there."