How Do You Use Your Parachute?

Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37

C.S. Lewis, in his book The Problem of Pain, said, "We regard God as an airman regards his parachute; it's there for emergencies but he hopes he'll never have to use it."

Fairly early on, combat pilots are taught that there’s no reason to jump out of a perfectly good plane. But they have a parachute in case something happens to the plane and they do need to jump out. It’s a circumstance the pilot doesn’t want, but after engaging in enough combat, it’s increasingly likely to happen.

And often we approach life this way. We engage in “combat” and then when it gets too tough we call on God. We ask Him to come save us instead of seeking Him before engaging in combat. We make sure we’re saved (have our parachute in the plane) but hope we won’t need any help (be forced to jump).

But what if instead of pilots we were skydivers? A skydiver plans the whole time on using His parachute. He depends on it for his life. He knows how important it is – he wouldn’t jump out of the plane without it! It’s not for an emergency, it’s necessary for the success of the trip. Before leaving home, the skydiver prepares his parachute, packages it and then takes it with him. As he suits up and gets on the plane, he’s got the parachute attached to him – they are fairly inseparable.

Not he nor anyone else can easily take the parachute off of him. That way when he jumps, he’s guaranteed to have the parachute with him. Afterwards, he folds it carefully, inspects in for areas that are warn or damaged and mends it appropriately. We should model our relationships with God more like this.

When we get ready to do anything in life, we should make sure to pay attention to God, ensure not only that He is with us (He always is), but that we’re paying attention. We should build our relationship so that we’re always listening, that no temptation can pull us away from Him. When things aren’t right between us and God, we should work them out and constantly inspect the relationship.

Our plan should be all along to be reliant on God to bring us through both the easy times and all the trials of life before we start any of them.

Just like a skydiver won’t jump without his parachute securely attached, so we shouldn’t jump into life without being firmly connected to God. ( Lincoln W )

*Father God, thanks for skydiving and airplanes. Thank you that we can count on you all the time, both in and out of emergencies; you are constant. Forgive us when we have relied on you solely as airmen do their parachutes. Help us to be more like skydivers, being bonded to you in an inseparable manner and always completely dependent on you. In Jesus’ name, amen!

“Blessings Daily Devotional” – WB Journal