Who Packed Your Parachute?

I read this story about Captain J. Charles Plumb a former US Navy Pilot and had to share it with you.  Captain Plumb was a jet pilot in Vietnam and after seventy-five combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile.  He ejected, parachuted into enemy hands, and was captured spending six years in a communist prison.  He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from his experience. 

One day Captain Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man from 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?” Plumb asked.  “I packed your parachute,” the man replied.  The captain gasped in surprise and gratitude.  The man grabbed his hand and said, “I guess it worked!”  Plum assured him, “It sure did, if your chute hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here today.”

Captain Plumb couldn’t sleep that night, thinking about that man.  He kept wondering what the man might have looked like in a Navy uniform.  He wondered how many times he might have seen him and not even said “Good morning” or “How are you” or anything else; because you see, he was a fighter pilot and the other man was just a sailor.  Plumb also thought of the many hours that sailor had spent in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands the fate of someone he didn’t know.  Now when Plumb speaks to his audiences he asks them, “Who is packing your parachute?”

My question to you today is simply, “Who packed your parachute which enabled you to be where you are today?”  Nobody is successful all by themselves; some person or persons packed their parachute that got them here today.  John Mason says it more eloquently than I do when he wrote, “There’s no such thing as a ‘self-made’ man; we’re all made up of thousands of others.”  Just like Plumb, we make the error of not acknowledging others in the workplace, congregations, and neighborhoods or even on the streets because they are ‘different’ than we are.  We never say “Good morning” or “How are you” or “Thank you” because others look, speak or act differently than we do.  If someone does a ‘lower’ job than we do, saying “Good morning” or “How are you” is a chore.  However, that job packs the parachute which enables our higher jobs to function smoothly.  Proverbs 16:18 tells us, “Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.”  Are we haughty because of our position in life?  Beware, haughtiness eliminates parachutes and we all know what happens when we are ejected without one.  From today, let us remember some parachute packers who enable us to do what we do:

·         Parents

·         Teachers/mentors

·         Preachers

·         God-parents and other relatives

·         Spouse

·         Nannies

·         Housekeepers

·         Home Aides to our elderly parents

·         Doormen/elevator operators

·         Train operators

Take some time now to complete the above list as we contemplate the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 12: 5-6, “There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.” (NLT)

            Wow, imagine relating with others per the aforementioned understanding!  I’m just thinking . . .