Survival Mode

When you're in severe pain or distress, life becomes pretty simple. You're in survival mode, and you have neither the heart nor the strength to spread around your emotional energy. As Chuck Swindoll might say, "Life gets boiled down to the nubbies."
Instrument-certified pilots know what this is all about. When visibility drops to nil, and storms rage around them, it is second nature for them to focus on the "artificial horizon" gauge on their instrument panel. No matter what their senses might tell them or what weird phenomena they see through the windscreen, they know the gauge will give them their true position and keep them flying level. They may feel as though they are in a steep dive, or even flying upside down. Yet their eyes must lock onto that gauge, and they must respond accordingly. When it comes to survival, it doesn't really matter what they feel like; what matters is what their instruments say.

- Stephen Arterburn and Jack Felton, "More Jesus, Less Religion"