Beech Tree News Network

ON A WING AND A PRAYER

Have you ever heard the expression, “coming in on a wing and a prayer”? Have you ever given much thought to what that really means when someone uses it in conversation? The expression means that you are in a situation where the outcome is unpredictable, risky, uncertain, and potentially dangerous and you are relying on hope, luck, or God, to pull you through. The expression actually originated in WW2 and was quite literal, it referenced airplanes that had been damaged in battle, returning home and hoping to land safely, despite the condition of the airplane. Airplanes are designed to fly with two wings and a host of other things which makes them aerodynamic (the ability to break free from gravity.) When some of that has been damaged, the odds of gravity defeating your aircraft and taking you down with it, are greatly increased.

Landing an aircraft that has been damaged does indeed put you into a pretty dicey situation, one where you have to rely on more than just skill or determination, to get you safely on the other side of the situation, on the side where life and limb are not in such a precarious predicament, that is where the prayer part of the equation gets thrown in, relying on something more than your own capabilities and resources.

Now, have you ever wondered about the word “dicey” and where that comes from (or am I the only one who is curious about words and language in that way) ? It also means to be in a situation where the possibility of a good outcome is far from being certain. Dice-y to be associated with a game involving dice, which by it's very nature involves a gamble, a bet that randomness might favor you, at least, from time to time.

I have heard the phrase “Coming in on a wing and a prayer” misquoted every now and then and I have even been guilty of altering its original syntax myself, upon occasion. I have heard “getting by; on a wing and a prayer” Which means, you are in a situation where resources are in short supply and you have little hope of that changing anytime soon but still, you have not given up on hope altogether. I have also heard “having nothing but a whim and a prayer” which, I suppose, means, starting out on a new venture or journey where the success is not assured and maybe not even likely. That last example is used by folks who don't know the story behind the “wing and a prayer” version and just misunderstood the word “wing” and heard “whim” instead, so that is the way they always use the phrase.

Getting by or relying on little more than just hope is not all that uncommon in this life. Have you ever asked someone how they are doing and gotten the response, “Hanging on,” or “Hanging in there”? Sometimes it is just said out of habit and out of habit we often respond with something similar to, “That's all we can do sometimes, isn't it.” The truth of the matter though, is those words often can be kind of a code, meaning they are running low on hope or faith, because life is starting to get overwhelming or it has been extraordinarily tough and filled with hardship, for an extended amount of time.

It is that extended amount of time thing that can get to even the strongest, most faithful and hopeful, among us. Most of us can overcome the short term stuff, even when it is dark and bleak but when there seems to be no end in sight is when even the hardiest of us may succumb to the whisper of hopelessness. “Hanging on,” means you have reached the end of a rope, used to draw you to safety or at the edge of a cliff about ready to fall into a deep abyss but you are still holding on to a thread of hope, you have not given up. When you reach a precarious, “dicey” situation like this, it can feel like you are not really a part of the world, that there is no plan, no rhyme or reason, it's as though you are standing on the sidelines watching the whole world go by without you. The reasons why don't really matter, they are irrelevant by that point, all you want in the world, is to feel like you matter.
This is where we may have misheard or misunderstood what life is really all about. Life itself is a pretty “dicey” situation. It is uncertain, risky, precarious, it is a gamble and a lot of it is anything but certain but we have been inserting, Luck; in the place of God ; to pull us through it. We are not meant to just get by or just hang on, until we get to the end of life, that is not the plan, that has no rhyme or reason to it. Luck is about random favor and a lot of us view God that way, we pray for random favor. God is about choice; it is about choosing love. It is ALL about choosing to love, in every circumstance; then we find purpose instead of hopelessness, then we change the world, instead of just losing all hope for it.