What is Important? What is Trivial?

Howard Rutledge was a United States Navy pilot, was shot down over North Vietnam during the early stages of the Vietnamese War. He spent several miserable, terrible years in the hands of the Vietnamese before being released when the war ended. What he learned in captivity is amazing!

After his release from the Prisoner of War camp, U.S. Navy Pilot Howard Rutledge said: "During those longer periods of enforced reflection, it became so much easier to separate the important from the trivial, the worthwhile from the waste.

In the past, I usually worked or played hard on Sundays and had no time for church. For years my wife, Phyllis, had encouraged me to join the family at church. She never nagged or scolded. She just kept hoping and praying, but I was too busy, too preoccupied to spend one or two short hours a week thinking about the really important things.

Now the sights and sounds and smells of death were all around me. My hunger for spiritual food soon outdid my hunger for a steak. Now I wanted to know about that part of me that will never die. Now I wanted to talk about God and Christ and the church, but in Heartbreak Hotel, (which was the name POW's gave their prison camp) solitary confinement, there was no pastor, no Sunday school teacher, no Bible, no hymn book and particularly no community of believers to guide and sustain me. I had completely neglected the spiritual dimension of my life. It took prison to show me how empty life is without God."

It took a prison for Howard Rutledge to learn how he had missed out on the most important thing in life – knowing God. If you are still searching for meaning and for purpose in your life, God has the answers. If we can help you, please write me, Willie Jordan, PO BOX 12345, Covina, ca 91722, BOX 12345, Covina 91722. Or go to our website, fjm.org.