Going Too Fast?

There is a story that has been around for many years that some have been dismissed as folklore, but the story is absolutely true. (See the link below if you'd like to verify it for yourself.) The story happened back in 1956, which was the early days of jets flying at supersonic speeds. The military was running experiments to see what would happen when firing its weapons at these speeds. During the test, the pilot slowed the jet, fired his guns four times and accelerated again. A few seconds later he again slowed the jet and fired four more rounds. After firing the second round of shells, what the pilot thought was a bird, came crashing through the cockpit windshield. He decided to head back to base, but he did not make it. Turns out that the bird was one of his own shells. He was traveling so fast that he had passed his own shell fire which was now catching up with him as he slowed down. Unknown to the pilot, a second shell had ripped into the engine, causing it to fail. He crash landed in the woods some distance from the airfield. Fortunately for him, he survived with some broken bones to his body because the military had decided not to use live ammunition for the tests, or his plane would have been blown to bits when the shells exploded.

This story came to mind a little while ago as I was talking to someone who was giving me a litany of excuses of why they had not been in church recently. They told me that there was just so much going on in their lives that there simply was not time for church right now and that they may not be back in service until after the first of the year. I suggested that they really needed to be in service to hear the series of messages I was preaching right now about slowing down, simplifying the Christmas season and keeping it about the main thing... the birth of our Savior. They laughed at me and said they'd be fine. I hope their right, that they will be fine, but I fear for anyone who tells me they don't have time for Jesus ANY TIME, but especially at Christmas. If you happen to be reading this... I hope you read that story about the fighter pilot and realize that when we are going too fast we tend to shoot ourselves down. Word to the Wise!

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=860&dat=19561025&id=rj4KAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cksDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2044,1438932