Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 108 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

Life is Like Flying in a Jet

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 108 of our Trek. Yesterday we learned howlife is like a bell and regardless of what type of bell we are, we need to serve that purpose faithfully and always ring true because we can never unring a bell. Today we want to see how life is like flying in a jet.

In celebration of our 100th day of our Wisdom-Trek, please check out Wisdom-Trek.com and sign up for our drawing for a free Wisdom-Trek t-shirt that will take place on October 5th.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. We are working hard to stay focused on some deadlines for our client work during the day as our evenings and weekend are filling up this week. We are having beautiful weather in the Charlotte area this week with sunshine and temperatures around 80°.

With this beautiful weather, it is a great day to continue on our Trek.  As we enjoy our time in nature feeling the warm breeze, watching the rustling of the trees and grass, and hearing the birds sing their melodies, we stare up into the cloudless blue sky and stand in awe of God’s creation. As we continue looking into the sky, we notice the faint lines left by the jets as they pass through the air 35,000 feet above us going nearly 600 miles per hour. Some of the modern inventions, such as the jets that pass overhead, are truly miracles.

As Paula and I are planning a trip to Arizona next month to visit the construction project that we are involved in, I have been thinking about flying again. During a three year time period, when I worked with a national consulting firm, I traveled every week, so I spent a lot of time on planes. I really enjoy flying, both commercially and privately, and understand the importance of safety and the checklist as part of that process.

One of the seemingly unusual instructions that we are given before taking off is “If cabin pressure should change, panels above your seat will open revealing oxygen masks; reach up and pull a mask towards you.  Place it over your nose and mouth and secure it with the elastic band that can be adjusted to ensure a snug fit.  The plastic bag will not fully inflate although oxygen is flowing. Secure your own mask first before helping others.”

From an emotional standpoint, especially as a parent, your initial reaction would be to assist your children with putting their masks on first before you would put your own on. Is it not selfish of us to think of ourselves first?

Growing up in church, we were taught the children's song Jesus and Others and You. What a wonderful way to spell JOY! And, while I understand that this was supposed to teach us to think of others first and not to be selfish, the song does lack some fundamental logic.

The logical conclusion in the flying scenario is if you do not take care of yourself first by making sure your mask is on and that you can breathe, you may be unable to assist anyone else to stay alive.

I remember 30 years ago before this became a popular analogy with public speakers, Paula mentioned how this statement is what we should practice in our lives. If we do not take care of ourselves in all areas of life, we will not be able to assist others properly.

Both Paula and I have a heart to help people, but there have been times when we have given more time, resources, and money than was probably logical. And, it has impacted us in a negative manner.

In today’s busy world, the first thing that we seem to neglect is ourselves.