A Navy pilot and I were
sharing stories we had experienced in aviation careers.
He told me about a fellow pilot who had flown the same type
of jet aircraft for years and had actually ejected from a disabled
airplane several times by pulling the ejection lever located on
either side of his pilot’s seat.
The Navy retired the old planes and taught him to fly a new,
more capable one but he constantly talked about how he wished he
still had the old plane.
The new plane was faster, had better weapons and had an improved
ejection system with a handle in front of the seat and one overhead,
giving the pilot a better chance to reach the handle regardless of
the airplane’s position.
One day the pilot was
landing the new plane on an aircraft carrier when the landing cable
on the deck, that grabs the hook on the plane, broke and allowed the
jet to continue down the deck and plunge off the front of the
aircraft carrier. When the
Controller saw the cable break he radioed the pilot to EJECT, EJECT,
EJECT! The pilot never
ejected. Rescuers pulled
the wreckage out of the ocean with the pilot still in the cockpit;
he had drowned. When they took
the body out, a crewman noticed that the ejection handles had not
been pulled, but the seat had been bent upwards on both sides, right
where the ejection handles had been on the old airplane he loved so
much. An unwillingness to
change had led to the pilot’s inability to make the right choice in
an emergency.
Are you stuck in a rut? How
do you react when you sense that God wants you to break out of
your mold and do a new thing for Him? Maybe
He wants you to change a routine that has prevented you from
being available to your church group for a ministry that you’ve
never done before. You must be willing to take risks and embrace
the unknown if you are going to get out of your comfort zone for
God. Isaiah 43: 18-19
says, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See,
I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not
perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the
wasteland.”
Common Sense Application
1.
Go to your spiritual leader or pastor and ask for help in
discovering your spiritual gifts.
There are several good tests available.
I recommend the spiritual gifts assessment and the
accompanying personality assessment available from Uniquely You.
You can order it at the web site
www.uniquelyyou.com.
2.
Make a list of the habits (traditions) in your life which
limit your availability to be a good example to those around you (be
honest now!). Make a
commitment to start changing them, at least one at a time.
I have heard that, with concentrated effort, you can change a
habit completely in 31 days.
Why not start today?
3.
Volunteer to be part of an existing spiritual group that is
making a real difference in peoples lives.
Better yet, you start a ministry team organized to meet an
identified need in lives.