Planes and Trains

If you have ever flown on a plane you know the pre-flight safety drill from the flight attendant by heart...

"In the event of a decompression, an oxygen mask will automatically appear in front of you. To start the flow of oxygen, pull the mask towards you. Place it firmly over your nose and mouth, secure the elastic band behind your head, and breathe normally. Although the bag does not inflate, oxygen is flowing to the mask. If you are travelling with a child or someone who requires assistance, secure your mask on first, and then assist the other person. Keep your mask on until a uniformed crew member advises you to remove it."

We have heard it so many times that we don't truly hear the message being offered to us.
Listen closely...

"If you are travelling with a child or someone who requires assistance, secure your mask on first, and then assist the other person."

Why do I have to be told to put my mask on first?
The Airline knows the answer...
The Church knows the answer...
The Child of God Christian knows the answer...

We "have" to be told to put our mask on first for the profound reason that the way God has wired us is to help the weak, the disabled, the disenfranchised or the innocent little child sitting next to us first over ourselves.

Her nickname is Andy.
She is 11 years old.
She's in 6th grade.
She gets straight A's.
She is a Girl Scout.
Her 45 year old mom, also known as the "Cookie Mom", Mary Jane Chancey calls Andy the "Miracle Child."
Her 45 year old dad is named Geary. He's a Marine. His motto for life is "Semper Fi" (Always Faithful).
Andy suffers from Cerebral Palsy and is confined to a wheelchair.

Mary Jane and Geary thought it would be great to give Andy the experience of a lifetime by scheduling a ride on the Amtrak Sunset which covers the southern part of the United States on an west to east course.

At approximately 2:48 am in the predawn hours of September 22, 1993 the Amtrak Sunset Limited plunged off the tracks on the bridge it was crossing down into the cold waters of the Alabama bayou below.

With their car quickly filling up with water the "Cookie Mom" and the "Marine" lifted Andy's wheelchair as high as they could. With the water rising and the precious breathable air becoming a rare commodity, Mom and Dad faithfully held Andy up. With one last herculean effort of love and strength Mary Jane and Geary shoved Andy through an open window into the waiting arms of another passenger. It would be Mary Jane's and Geary's last selfless act on this earth. Andy's mom and dad perished along with 45 other passengers that night.
Semper Fi...

My iWitness...

The illustration of the planes and trains leads me to share a few compassionate thoughts...

If we, the people of this earth are truly the result of a bunch of random acts of physics and biology and we have become who we are through the process of evolution where the foundation of such an ideology is the "survival of the fittest", then please tell me, "Why would Mary Jane and Geary, two able bodied strong, productive, smart, intelligent people sacrifice their own lives for the one who was disabled, weak and physically challenged?"

If we, the people of this earth are truly the result of evolutionary changes why then am I inclined to help the helpless in case of cabin decompression over myself?

And if any of my friends who don't believe that God exists at all, has the gumption to ask me, "Where is God in this incredible tragedy?", then I will laugh out loud at the ridiculousness of the question being posed by the one who says there is no God to begin with. And after I have recovered I will seriously answer, "In the fog laden, murky cold waters of the Alabama bayou."

And if the conversation should turn to how can a "loving" God so indiscriminately and callously slaughter 47 people in the bayou for this would truly be an immoral act, then I would have to ask the question, "Why is it then, when God plays God and things happen that we don't understand, we call God the perpetrator of an immoral act, yet when we play God and make the decision to abort an unwanted pregnancy we call it a moral right?"

Please know that I am not one to pick a fight.
However, I am one to wonder if we really take a hard look at our positions before we so ardently take a stand on this side or that side.

Here is some good news...no matter what side you stand on, you will always be able to count on me to stand with you. And more importantly, so will God.
We may disagree but that doesn't have to keep us from standing with one another.
More than likely if the occasion would ever arise I would offer you my oxygen mask first...

Semper Fi...

And that's my iWitness...
Laugh often and Fear not!
David!

"But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
    he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
    I have called you by name, you are mine.
² When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
    and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
    and the flame shall not consume you.
³ For I am the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior." (Isaiah 43. 1-3)