It’s obviously very important to be safety-conscious when skydiving, because it’s an endeavor where you purposely insert yourself into a scenario where certain death will occur unless something extracts you from that eventuality. Some activities have equipment that’s designed for high performance and dependability during emergency usage, but in skydiving you actually go into it intending to use life-saving equipment to pull you out of an emergency situation on every single jump. A bad day in skydiving is not even in the same league as a bad day in tennis.
The absolute minimum safety inspection a jumper should perform after putting on their equipment is known as a “six-point check.” A six-point check includes: (1 and 2) making sure each leg loop on the harness is buckled completely, (3) ensuring the chest buckle running between the shoulder straps is fully secured, (4) making sure you can easily access the mechanism that deploys your main chute, and double-checking to see that the handles for (5) cutting away your malfunctioning main chute and (6) deploying your reserve chute haven’t become tangled, twisted, or obstructed and are easily accessible. This can be done before getting into the plane, and it should be done again right before jumping out.
On one plane ride up several of us were stuffed into a tiny plane, just waiting until we reached our jump altitude. On these flights you’re often crammed into some awkward position and there isn’t much to do while you wait. The engine is loud, and you have to yell to be heard, so conversations don’t normally last long. That means when someone starts talking, it’s usually worth listening to. The most experienced jumper on this load spoke up, and he was talking to me. He had trained himself to sweep his eyes over the equipment of his fellow jumpers. He said to me “would you please fasten your chest strap.” Sure enough, I looked down, and it was not secured properly. I had somehow missed it before getting in the plane. That’s when a feeling that was a cross between embarrassment and horror came over me. A skydiving harness, in addition to leg loops, has a strap that goes across your chest and connects the two shoulder straps. It’s there so that as you deploy your chute and you decelerate quickly, the harness doesn’t get ripped off your body. The leg loops are still there, but if they’re the only thing connecting you to the rig, you’d flip upside down and probably slide out of them. A parachute won’t do you any good unless you’re connected to it somehow.
In many skydiving circles, the popular currency is expressed in terms of cases of beer. When you first get your skydiving license, you owe the drop zone a case of beer. If you surpass some milestone or perform some new formation during a big jump, you might celebrate by supplying a case of beer. If you mess up, you usually owe someone a case of beer. Seeing the look on my face, he said “I just saved your life. You owe me a case of beer.”
Christians deal with vital safety equipment of a different sort. Think about the armor of God. This is equipment that’s meant to protect your saved soul! Many of our helmets are dinged because they’ve taken repeated blows from the enemy’s weapons. Our shields have varying degrees of pockmarks and burn marks from where flaming arrows struck, only to burn themselves out. Due to an infinite number of variables, some Christians are more battle-weary or have taken more hits than others. Some are still fresh and are swinging that sword like tomorrow’s not coming, but others are barely standing, reeling and about to start dropping vital equipment that will leave them more exposed to danger.
If there are Christians around you, there are people nearby that are using this equipment to varying degrees on a daily basis. Some will have more experience as a Christian than you, and sometimes you’ll be the “senior Christian” in the group. If you see someone who’s not using the equipment correctly, or it doesn’t “fit” properly, don’t be afraid to help them out. There are pitfalls and traps everywhere for Christians, we often need help from one another to walk through this life intact.
The guy that helped me out on the plane was experienced enough to be on the lookout for problematic equipment not only on himself, but on others. We should try to do the same. I don’t know if he actually saved my life that day, but I’m sure glad he spoke up when he did. Who’s out there, waiting for you to notice a problem and say something about it?
Lord Jesus, You know exactly what I’m going to encounter today, and You’ve charted my path through it long before I was even born. Please help me recognize opportunities You place in front of me to tighten up my own spiritual armor, along with that of others. Help me speak up not out of arrogance, but of a genuine desire to mitigate fellow believers’ vulnerabilities, and be humble enough to listen when others do the same for me. Amen