Paul the Apostle and the Paratrooper

The US Army has a course that doesn’t get a lot of attention – Jumpmaster school.  The reward for successfully graduating is additional work and responsibility.  There are two very challenging parts to Jumpmaster training; Practical Work in the Aircraft or “PWAC” and Jumpmaster Personnel Inspection or “JMPI.”  

One of the daunting things about PWAC is the way it demands “grace under pressure” from the student.  There’s something about hanging out the door of an airplane wearing 125lbs of gear and parachute while flying one-thousand feet above the ground at 150 mph in the middle of the night that gets your adrenaline flowing.  Combine that with trying to locate your drop zone, maintaining control of your jumpers and countless other safety considerations and “keeping calm” becomes crucial.  But PWAC is not really the hardest part.

JMPI is what spelled the demise of most Jumpmaster wannabes.  Performing a timed inspection for improper rigging or defects of three rigged paratroopers and their equipment is very taxing.  Merely exceeding the time limit, missing one major or three minor deficiencies, spells failure.  

Here’s what Wikipedia says about the course, “Generally speaking, it takes a potential jumpmaster at least two attempts to pass the course (less than 30% of attendees earn a first time Go). In recognition of this, returning students are commonly referred to as ‘alumni’ by their Black Hat instructors. There is also a common joke that those who pass on their first attempt actually tested out early from the ‘full six week course’.”

Before each airborne operation, after donning his equipment, each paratrooper gets inspected by a Jumpmaster.  You could always tell how much trust the jumpers had in a particular Jumpmaster by how long the line of jumpers he had waiting in his inspection line.  Some Jumpmasters had fifteen guys waiting, while others were waiting for a jumper.  Jumpers wanted a thorough inspection from a guy that would tell them the truth.  If they were screwed up, they wanted to know it while there was still time to correct it.  

That seems to have all changed in our culture today.  “Don’t tell me what to do” could become the new National motto.  But that is not really what they mean.  What they really mean is, “I am going to tell you what to do.”  Unlike the jumpers who wanted their deficiencies and flaws uncovered, there are segments of society today that demand everyone accept, and even celebrate their deviance.

It has come to the point now where a pizza parlor owner in Indiana, a florist in Washington, and bakers in Oregon, and Denver have all had their livelihood’s and lifestyle’s destroyed, simply because they would not surrender their religious convictions to celebrate “alternative” lifestyle choices.  That is what happens when people no longer want to be one Nation, under God -- there will not be liberty and justice for all.  

The Apostle Paul foresaw this day two-thousand years ago. In writing to the Romans, Paul said, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”

Paul declares that you have to deliberately deny the Creator because His creation alone makes His existence apparent.  Choose to deny the self-evident, and there won’t be any acceptable excuse.  But that’s just the beginning of their end. 

Paul continues, “Their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools…Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie… Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.”

Debasing yourself is destructive enough, but devastating others’ livelihoods is disgraceful. 

So, you want a Jumpmaster that won’t tell you the truth, have at it.  Just be prepared for a very hard landing.