Hot Air Balloon

Many of you have asked for the text of the parable I told about the hot air balloon yesterday. Here it is:

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.” The woman below replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees north altitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.”

“You must be an engineer,” said the balloonist.

I am replied the woman, “How did you know?”

“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is, I’m still lost. Frankly you’ve not been much help to me at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip.”
The woman below responded, “You must be in management.”

“I am,” replied the balloonist, “How did you know?”

“Well,” the woman said, “You don’t know where you are or where you are going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. That fact is, you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, you’ve managed to make it my fault.”

When we fail to see things from the perspective of others we will fail in our relationships.

How are you doing at seeing life from the perspective of others?

On the running front: I did an easy run with Christy and Machelle. Congratulations to Machelle who only stopped three times to go to the bathroom. We did 12 miles in about an hour and a half.