WHO PACKED YOUR PARACHUTE?

Proverbs 3:27: “Withold not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.”

How many times have you ignored the very people who, perhaps indirectly have helped to make your life what it is. God has spoken clearly through the Bible that we should be there for others and give to him that asks of us. Bob Gass related a story of an American Navy pilot, Charles Plumb who fought in Vietnam.  

                

After 75 missions his plane was shot down and he parachuted into enemy territory.  He survived for 6 years in a communist prison. Now he lectures on his experience.   One day a man came up to him and said, ‘You are Plumb! You flew jet fighter from the air craft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!’ Plumb replied, ‘How in the world did you know that?’ Smiling the man said, ‘I packed your parachute, I guess it worked.’ 

The story goes on to say that that night Plumb could not sleep. He kept wondering what that man might have looked like in uniform. How many times he had walked past him without speaking because he was a fighter pilot and the man just a sailor?     Plumb began to wonder how many hours this sailor had spent in the bowels of the ship carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silk of each parachute, holding in his hand the fate of someone he didn’t even know.

If Plumb’s parachute were faulty he would have never survived the war! The question is, ‘Who packed your parachute?’ Who has helped you to arrive where you are today? In Romans 16:4, Paul mentioned people most of us would never have gotten to hear of like Pricilla and Aquila, ‘Who for my sake risked their necks.’

Bob Gass makes us know that there are no self made people. For the higher you go the more dependent you become on others. ‘Everyone who has ever done a kind deed or spoken a word of encouragement has entered into the make-up of our character, our thoughts, and our success; says George Matthew Adams. Don’t be self centered and look down on others. Find out who packed your parachute? Be Christ-like and do appreciate others.

PRAYER/CONFESSION: LORD I WILL LOVE OTHERS EVEN AS YOU HAVE COMMANDED.

CULLED FROM: DAILY NUGGETS BY PASTOR (MRS) PHILOMENA UMA UKPAI