Daily Jewel

by Pastor J.T. Carnell, McAlester, OK
Sept. 27, 2011

“Who Packs Your Parachute?”
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart…” – Proverbs 3:4

Trust is part of everyday life. Something we learned yesterday. It comes in many forms and it come in ways that we do not anticipate. We talked yesterday about some of the people we place our trust in on a daily basis…how about some of the things we place our trust in. Electric switches. Light bulbs. Traffic lights. Refrigerators. Cars. Parachutes. Wait a minute…parachutes? The following is a story I came across a few years ago that made me do some thinking about how our lives are touched each day by people we may never know – and how we touch lives as well. Charles Plumb was a US 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 man 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. Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute?" Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. Plumb also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory-he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety. Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason. What does this have to do with God? God has packed into our lives things that we often do not think about. A golden sunset – a cool summer breeze – a starry night – a hummingbird – a child’s laughter – a friend’s phone call – need I say more? Do we ever consider thanking God for any of these events? Do we compliment Him for a beautiful day? We tend to complain when things are not going well…what about when things are going well? Trusting in God means that we trust Him in all ways and at all times. So the next time you are thinking about jumping out of airplane – someone packed that parachute. When you look at the sunset tonight – God made it for you. Since He does so well in the big things – you can trust Him for the small things as well!
Pastor J. T. Carnell