"Parachute" - A Devotional for Thursday

Charles Plumb was a U.S. Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience.

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!"

"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "I packed your parachute, the man replied."

Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!"

Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how are you?' or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor. Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.

Who is the person behind your survival? Who is the one helping you reach your potential? Who is packing your parachute?

Who gets the late night call...or absorbs all of your frustrations...but doesn't get the credit for your success? Who can you turn to when you just want to be yourself. They may never get the credit, but they are responsible for so much in your life...

This morning in your journal...make a note to thank that person. Let them know how much of a difference they have made in your life... raise them up! A level 10 friend is hard to come by...and when you find one... you are never afraid to jump... because you know that they will be there to catch you.

See you tomorrow,
Pastor Brian