People sometimes say and do stupid things. Larry Walters was a truck driver who wanted to be a pilot, but he couldn’t pass the eye exam. So one day he went down to the local army navy surplus store and bought 45 weather balloons and a tank of helium. When he got home, he attached those balloons to a lawn chair, anchored the chair to the bumper of his jeep, and inflated all the balloons with helium. Then he packed some sandwiches and drinks, placed his BB gun rifle in his lap to pop a few balloons to help him return to earth, and cut the anchor cord to his chair.

Larry’s plan was to lazily float upward a few hundred feet while sitting in his chair, but it didn’t work out that way. When Larry cut the cord, he shot upward as if shot out of a cannon! Nor did he just go up a couple of hundred feet. He kept climbing until he reached an altitude of 11,000 feet. At that height, he didn’t dare pop any balloons, so instead he floated for about 14 hours until he eventually drifted into the approach corridor for Los Angelos International Airport. At one point, a Pan Am pilot radioed the tower about passing a guy in a lawn chair, drinking beer with a gun on his lap.

By late in the evening, Larry began to drift out over the Pacific Ocean, so the Navy sent a rescue helicopter out to get him. Unfortunately, the wind from their propellers kept sending him further out to sea. Eventually, they were able to get a rescue line down to him from above. The moment the helicopter landed, Larry was immediately arrested. As he was being led away in handcuffs, a television reporter asked him, “Why did you do it?” Larry replied nonchalantly, “A man can’t just sit around.” This is where something called self-control comes in.

Join us this weekend as we discuss the fruit of the Spirit known as self-control. You may not have ever floated in a lawn chair for 14 hours at 11,000 feet, but I’ll bet you’ve said or done some things you regret.