Why Your Eyes Should Be Focused On Helping Others

Dear Customers and Friends:

Where’s your eyesight these days?

I’m not talking about your latest eye exam. At work or home, what is your focus?

My brother, Steve, recently got a firsthand lesson on what it means to keep your eyes pointed in the right direction. He was 35,000 feet in the air when it happened – a sudden bout with claustrophobia.

His panic attack came out of nowhere on an airplane in the middle of a long flight. It surprised him because there hadn’t been a similar episode in the past several years. But his fear of closed spaces has always been there, dating back to childhood when he remembers squeezing through a cave near our home and getting very nervous. He never went back there.

Later in life, his anxiety often led him to rent a car on business trips to avoid flying. When the feeling strikes, he knows there’s not much he can do to shake it off – and that’s what happened in early May of this year mid-flight on his way to Dallas.

Sudden air turbulence jolted him out of a deep sleep. He heard a voice over the intercom instructing everyone to buckle up and stay seated. Panicking, he got up and began walking toward the front of the plane. A flight attendant stopped him, politely asking that he return to his seat, but Steve couldn’t do it.

“I’m sorry. That’s not an option,” Steve said. “I’m having a claustrophobia attack.”

The flight attendant was calm but stern. “I’ll have to notify the pilot.”

Now Steve was really freaking out, figuring he would be all over the television news before the plane even landed.

Still contemplating his fate, he noticed a passenger intently watching with concern. The woman, who had been seated in front of him, said she was a doctor and wanted to help.

“I can tell you’re struggling,” she said. “Try looking into my eyes and just relax. Don’t look at anything else but me, and we’ll talk this out.”

It worked. I don’t know if she was an angel or a psychiatrist, but Steve was able to calm down for the rest of the flight. After they landed, he hugged her and said God surely put her there at the right place at the right time.

Later, after telling me his story, I thought about the parable from the Bible where Jesus walks on water and His disciple Peter steps out of his boat to join Him. As long as he keeps his eyes on Jesus, Peter is able to stay afloat. But when the winds and waves begin to distract him, Peter panics and begins to sink.

In life, our own walk of faith cannot happen alone. We need each other’s help to keep focused on God, following Him and doing the right thing – even when storms build up around us.

For my brother, this valuable lesson came not from a preacher or in a church, but from a perfect stranger in the most unlikely of places.

Blessed to be a Blessing,

Greg Syfan
President, Syfan Logistics

“When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.’”

Matthew 14: 26-27