Who's Packing your parachutes?
How do we feel about the people around us? The ones we work with, serve with and worship with…are they really important to us or are they somebody we just tolerate? Do we think we’re smarter than them or our role is more important than theirs? I think this story will make you stop and think…it did me:
I recently read a great story about Captain Charles Plumb, a graduate from the Naval Academy, whose plane, after 74 successful combat missions over North Vietnam, was shot down. He parachuted to safety, but was captured, tortured and spent 2,103 days in a small box-like cell. After surviving the ordeal, Captain Plumb received the Silver Star, Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit and two Purple Hearts, and returned to America and spoke to many groups about his experience and how it compared to the challenges of everyday life. Shortly after coming home, Charlie and his wife were sitting in a restaurant. A man rose from a nearby table, walked over and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!" Surprised that he was recognized, Charlie responded, "How in the world did you know that?" The man replied, "I packed your parachute." Charlie looked up with surprise. The man pumped his hand, gave a thumbs-up, and said, "I guess it worked!"
Charlie stood to shake the man's hand, and assured him, "It most certainly did work. If it had not worked, I would not be here today."
Charlie could not sleep that night, thinking about the man. He wondered if he might have seen him and not even said, "Good morning, how are you?" He thought of the many hours the sailor had spent bending over a long wooden table in the bottom of the ship, carefully folding the silks and weaving the shrouds of each chute, each time holding in his hands the fate of someone he didn't know. Plumb then began to realize that along with the physical parachute, he needed mental, emotional and spiritual parachutes. He had called on all these supports during his long and painful ordeal.
How many times a day, a week, a month, do we pass up the opportunity to thank those people around us who are "packing our parachutes?" I know I’m guilty of doing it and know what it feels like to have it done to me. Just today I was thinking of people I needed to call to say “Thank you!” to for all they do to allow me to do my ministry at HRCC. And, then tonight in a conversation I felt like someone around me forgot we were on the same team. I don’t want to miss the opportunities to show appreciation and do want to miss the ones that say I’m more important than someone else. We all need parachutes…thanks to all of you who pack mine…I plan to take care to pack yours.
Pastor Ron
