It’s the smart thing to do.

Some of you will feel my pain and understand my embarrassment when I tell you I don’t understand technology. It astounds me. I have a smart phone, and the silly thing is a lot smarter than I am. My grandchildren have explained widgets to me and why it is helpful to use them. Those same grandkids have installed all sorts of apps and pages and accounts for me that I’m still not sure how to use. I’ve got a ten-year-old who likes to communicate with me through Snapchat, and she’s much snappier in her chats than I could ever be. I’ve accosted teenagers from church to explain about ringtones. I was amazed when a sixth grader told me I could use different ringtones for different people.

I am a reasonably intelligent person, but my smart phone makes me feel dumb.

It’s a lot like what happened to the odd combination of a doctor, a lawyer, a priest, and a six-year old boy. For some strange reason, the four of them took a Sunday afternoon ride on a small plane. Suddenly, the plane developed engine trouble, and in spite of the efforts of the pilot, it soon become clear the plane was going to crash. The pilot threw three parachutes to his passengers, grabbed a parachute for himself, and told the passengers if they wanted to live, they needed to bail out of the plane. Then he did just that.

The doctor, the lawyer, the priest, and the little boy quickly did the math and realized they were one parachute short. The doctor grabbed the closest parachute and said, “I’m a doctor, and I’m smart enough to save lives. Therefore, I must live to save another life.” And he jumped.

Then the lawyer grabbed another parachute and said, “I am a lawyer, and everyone knows lawyers are the smartest people in the world. Therefore, I must live to spread my knowledge.” And he jumped.

The priest looked at the six-year old and said, “I am an old priest, and I’ve lived a long and full life. You are young and have your whole life in front of you. Take this last parachute and live in peace.” He handed the parachute to the boy and sat down, determined to go down with the plane.

The little boy grinned and handed the parachute back to the priest. “No worries, Father. We have two parachutes, because one of the smartest people in the world just jumped out with my back pack strapped to his shoulders.”

The smart ones amongst us know that we need help to make it through this life. We need friends to help us through the hard times.

We need more experienced people guide us through our personal land mines. And we need the Lord. He’s our parachute. He keeps us from plummeting into destruction. Hold tight to Him. Don’t settle for grabbing onto anything else.

Remember that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the only way to the Father. Grab onto that and use it as your parachute. It’s the smart thing to do.