Preparation

Yesterday God played “connect the dots” with me.  He used a series of apparently random or loosely-connected ideas to form a whole – a picture of what He’s up to or what He wants to communicate.  I’d like to share what I learned in the process.  So here are the “dots”:

Be Ready
Tim Challies told an amazing story about a crash landing that took place at the Toronto airport in August 2005 during a horrific storm.  The plane overshot the runway and came to a crashing halt.

Some fifteen to twenty seconds had elapsed from the time the aircraft left the runway. Amazingly, the fuselage was largely intact. But as the plane had crossed Convair Drive, fuel had begun to leak and had immediately caught fire. As the plane came to a halt the fire began to spread and to intensify.

Keep in mind that it had been 27 years since a similar incident had happened in Toronto.

For twenty-seven years the firefighters had trained to deal with a situation like this one. An entire generation of firefighters had come and gone without seeing a single incident. They could almost be excused for being under-prepared, slow to respond, slow to act.

They weren’t.  By the time the tower controller activated the airport’s crash alarm, 26 seconds after the flight left the runway, the firefighters were already in route.  They arrived only 52 seconds after the plain left the runway.

Despite twenty seven years without an incident, those firefighters were ready and they responded well in advance of the parameters dictated by safety regulations. In less than a minute they were on the scene and were assisting the passengers. It took less time for them to get to the crash site than it did for fully half of the passengers to leave it.

Fifty-two seconds!  After not having an incident in 27 years.  The key was training.  They had disciplined, trained, and practiced so much that when the crash occurred, they were ready.

[click to continue…]

{ 3 comments }