7Millionaire
Today
is a
GreaT
d ayPreFaCe
Larry Walters was a truck driver, but his life-long dream was to fly. He tried
to join the Air Force, but his poor eyesight had disqualified him. So, one day he took
matters into his own hands.
He went down to the local army-navy surplus store and bought forty-five
large weather balloons and a tank of helium. He blew up the balloons, attached them
to a lawn chair (which he temporarily anchored to his Jeep), packed a BB gun and
some sandwiches, and cut the anchoring cords.
Larry’s launch climbed faster and higher than he expected, and in a matter
of minutes, he rose to an elevation of 11,000 feet! Now scared about shooting out
any of the balloons at such a high altitude, Larry stayed up there, sailing around for
fourteen hours.
Eventually he drifted into the
approach corridor for the Los Angeles
International Airport. A PanAm pilot
radioed the tower about passing a guy in
a lawn chair who had a gun in his lap.
Finally the Navy dispatched a
helicopter and performed a successful
rescue.
As Larry was being led away
by the authorities, a reporter called out
and asked, “Mr. Walters, why did you
do it?”
Larry replied, “Hey, if you want
to turn your dreams into a reality, you
can’t just sit around.” *
Isn’t that the truth? This point was brought home to me further from a movie
I watched, “The Closer.” I want you to picture how this scene opens. In a large, dark
auditorium you see hundreds and hundreds of people waiting to hear a speech from
the top income earner. He is the top of the top. They are all there waiting to hear
his advice on how to become a superstar like him. The lights dim and the only thing
you really see is a spotlight focused on the podium. Then, he walks out and says this:* Flemming, Sermon Notes, Oct. 18, 1998, Springvale Baptist Church“...If you don’t
have a dream,
if I don’t
have a dream,
how are we going
to make a dream
come true?”
In the great musical South
Pacific, Mary Martin sang,