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Sacramento Central SDA Church

Chris Buttery

Our Moment, Our Opportunity

We haven't got wings, but how many like to fly in airplanes?

We had the privilege to fly back to North Carolina, had to perform a wedding, and we tagged on a little family vacation to be with Jen's family back there.

And it's always exciting getting up in the air, you know, on the ground, jet engines, just full throttle, off you go.

It's been years since I've been in a plane.

Although it's not all that it used to be.

I'm not sure if I should say this, but you know, you get a little bigger.

I remember as a kid flying and it was phenomenal.

You get a little bigger and your legs get a little longer and your knees are up into your chin and they've just got you jam packed in those planes like sardines these days and you can't wait to get off but flying's a great experience.

I guess there's just something about being up there, something about having that bird's eye view, the perspective and checking things out from that great distance.

Maybe this is why truck driver Larry Richard Walters' lifelong dream was to fly.

Maybe that's why he signed up after high school for the Air Force, hoping to become a pilot.

Unfortunately, he was disqualified because of poor eyesight.

So when he left the service, he had to satisfy himself with watching others fly the fighter jets that crisscrossed the sky over his backyard.

As he sat there in his lawn chair he dreamed about the magic of flying.

Then 1 day, July 2, 1982 to be precise, Larry Walters got a bright idea.

He went down to the local Army Navy surplus store and brought a tank of helium and 45 weather balloons.

You may know the story, those are those heavy duty spheres that when expanded reach about 4 feet across.

Back in his yard, Larry took those things, strapped...

Used straps to attach the balloons to his lawn chair.

He anchored the lawn chair to the bumper of his Jeep, inflated the balloons, then went inside, packed some sandwiches, some drinks, got his pellet gun, figuring he could pop a few balloons when it was time to come back down.

His preparations complete, Larry Walters sat in his chair, lawn chair, which he dubbed Inspiration 1, and he cut the anchoring cord.

His plan was to lazily float back down to terra firma but things didn't quite work out the way he planned.

When Larry cut the cord he didn't gently float up into the sky, Instead he shot up as if fired out of a cannon.

Nor did he go up merely a couple of hundred feet like he thought he would.

He climbed and climbed until he leveled out according to news reports 15, 000 feet.

At that height he could hardly risk deflating the balloons with his pellet gun so he just kind of stayed up there and floated around for a little while.

He was at a total loss as to how to get down.

Eventually Larry drifted from his home in San Pedro, California near the approach corridor of LAX, Los Angeles International Airport.

Now some reports say that a Pan Am pilot radioed the tower about passing a guy in his lawn chair with a gun in his lap but I'm not sure that actually took place.

With planes flying all around him, Larry realized he needed to get down to planet earth and quick and so he shot a couple of the balloons.

This seemed to have the appropriate effect and Larry began to descend.

He hoped the descent would land him on the lawn of the Long Beach Country Club, but instead he landed just short in a residential neighborhood in North Long Beach.

His amateur aircraft finally settled on some high voltage power lines, 10 miles from his starting point.

Now, the plastic safety covers protected Larry from electrocution but he was stuck in place until the fire brigade and the utility crewmen could cut the lines to free him.

Consequently, blacking out Long Beach, a neighborhood in Long Beach, for about 20 minutes.

As soon as Larry was arrested, as soon as he landed, he was arrested and but as he was being carried off in handcuffs, a reporter called out to Larry and said, hey Mr.

Larry, later known as Lawn Chair Larry, stopped, eyed the man and then replied nonchalantly, a man just can't sit around.

What's interesting about Larry is that while he lost his opportunity to legitimately fly, he created an opportunity to fly nonetheless.

Not the way I would recommend to undertake it, mind you, but when opportunity comes knocking, and it often does in unsuspecting ways, what do you do?

Webster's Dictionary defines opportunity, and I think we've put it on the screen here, as a good chance for advancement or progress or a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something.

So opportunity comes with many different faces.

Many times we think of an opportunity, we might think of the moments that present themselves to merely better ourselves, but that's not the case.

As a homeschooling family, kids need help with their homework, of course I send them to their mother.

Now if there's something that I need to help them with, I'll help them with it.

That's an opportunity to better somebody else.

When somebody's stranded on the side of the road, tire's flat, you have some time, you can pull over, it's safe, you can do that, then you help somebody.

You're creating an opportunity to help that person or advance that person from a point of frustration to get them back on the road again, advancing that person.

Opportunity comes to advance or progress someone when there's been a catastrophe, when there's a need, when you can help in any way possible.

Someone suggested that failure is also an opportunity.

Failure is an opportunity to begin again more intelligently, that is.

Unfortunately, many miss life's opportunities like the parents.

He wrote a note to the school apologizing for their daughter's absence from school on Monday.

The note read this, this way, please excuse Jennifer for missing school yesterday.

We forgot to get the Sunday paper off the porch and when we found it on Monday, we thought it was Sunday.

Perhaps the best thing to do, however, is to open the door to opportunity and warmly welcome them when the moments come.

And if you don't think opportunity comes knocking at your door, then you do what someone recommended, build a door.

The Bible records a fascinating story and it's in 2 Kings chapter 7, if you turn there with me.

2 Kings, about 4 men who took advantage of an opportunity that was presented to them.

Now these weren't 4 usual run-of-the-mill hard-working fellas, not at all.

This story is an interesting story and 1 of my favorite Old Testament stories as a matter of fact.

It's in the second book of Kings chapter 7.

Now chapter 6 kind of sets the stage for the story in chapter 7.

You remember the Syrian King Ben-Hadad, he was scheming to hurt Israel and each time he planned to camp his troops and ambush God's people, Israel always seemed to be ready for his surprise.

Because this happened more than once, Ben-Hadad suspected that there was a spy among his officers.

But it was revealed to him that God's prophet was the 1 who was telling Israel's king, Ben-Hadad's, secret.

So he turned his attention on Elisha, who was staying at Dothan at the time.

It's kind of a familiar story about the massive number of Syrian forces that have surrounded the city during the night and you remember how Elisha responds to his servant.

He says, they that be with us are more than be with them.

That's something important for us to remember from time to time, isn't it?

Things seem a little overwhelming, you seem a little outnumbered.

You always need to remember that if your hand is in the hand of God, there is more with you than more with them, whoever the them is.

And so he prays that his servant's eyes would be opened.

He sees horses and chariots of fire surrounding the city to protect Elisha and his servant.

Man, wouldn't it have been awesome to have seen something like that.

So the enemy is struck with blindness and is led into Samaria where Joram, King Joram is asked to be hospitable to them, to feed them.

But not just simple fare, but to provide a feast for them.

That day, the Syrians were given a major object lesson of the power of the Israelite religion in making men merciful and making them kind.

What they left not as enemies, but they left as friends, not soon to forget the way they had been treated.

And that's why in verse 23, verse 23 tells us that they came back, the Syrians came back no more.

If you're there in the 2nd Kings, just go back to chapter 6 and verse 23.

It says they came back no more into the land of Israel.

This was the natural effect of the hospitable treatment that Jerome had given his captives.

For the time being, the Syrian inroads on Israel had ceased.

What could not be accomplished by force or war was done through food, was done through a feast.

That day kindness proved more powerful, a more powerful weapon than the sword.

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Our Moment, Our Opportunity

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