I thought you did?

I thought you did?

?TIME?[5/8/2000, page 26] magazine recently had a short piece in it abouta pilotless aircraft that crashed in the desert. The fact that an aircraft crashed in the desert was not that big of a story and probably wouldnot have made it in the magazine. What is unusual about this is how andwhy the plane crashed.

The Air Force has an aircraft called the ?GLOBAL HAWK?. This aircraftcosts in the neighborhood of forty-five million dollars. This is an unmanned ?spy-drone?. The plane is controlled entirely by computers.

The mishap in question occurred after the plane landed. After the drone landed, the on-board computer was supposed to command the plane to taxi along the runway at about 15 MPH. Instead, the onboard computer sent commands to accelerate to 180 MPH. The plane reached about 90 MPH before going off the runway, smashing the runway gear and crashing into a sand dune.

The cost of this little accident - $5.3 million!

What happened? As a result of the investigation, it was decided that there was a programming error. The experts missed this because ?each thought another part of the process was checking for this type of error?.

How easy it is for us to say ?someone else will do it?. How many opportunities to help someone or witness do we miss because we are confident that someone else will do it.

I remember one day a few years back when my car had a flat tire on amain highway. As I was sitting on the side of the road, many cars passed by. My spare was flat as well and I had no phone. The following Sunday at church, two people told me that they saw me on the side of the road with a flat but didn?t stop because they were sure that ?someone else? was helping.

Do we pass up kids that we know should be in church and not invite them? Do we miss witnessing opportunities? Do we miss teaching opportunitiesin class? WHY?

The devil tells us that somebody else will do it! He tells us therewill always be time later. THIS IS A LIE! None of us can see the future.

Men, women, boys, girls, teachers, leaders, pastors ? we need to reachout to the lost NOW!

The Bible tells us in James 4:14 ?Whereas ye know not what shall be onthe morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth fora little time, and then vanisheth away. ?

Spread the word. Get those kids in church, Sunday school, Royal Rangers, Missionettes, and youth. These kids are going to be our leaders of the future.

Don?t believe satan when he tells you that ?somebody else will do it?.

?Allen R. Cook