It's Good Friday, April 3, 2006, and this is Denison Forum's Daily Article Podcast.

I'm Chris Elkins, narrator. Today's daily article is authored by our chief vision officer, Dr. Jim Denison.

Delta Flight 104, with 272 passengers and 14 crew, had just departed Sao Paulo's Guerroulos,

International Airport on Sunday, when flames shot out from its left engine.

Passengers screamed for the pilots to turn around the jet.

They immediately declared an emergency, shut down the affected engine, and

circled back to the airport, landing safely shortly after their departure. Video from inside the

cabin shows passengers erupting into applause and cheers when the aircraft came to a stop. No

injuries were reported. Imagine yourself inside that airplane. If you could speak to the pilots,

what would you say to them today? Or a year from today? Let's come back to that thought,

and it's Good Friday relevance in a moment. I was once given a ticket for what the officer

claimed was an illegal left turn. I disagreed, but an attorney convinced me that the chances of winning my argument in court were

ill.

So I paid a fine and received deferred adjudication.

By avoiding another ticket for six months, I also avoided what is known as a final conviction. This was by the

grace of my attorney friend. He advised me prior to my hearing, drove me to the courthouse,

fled my case before the judge, and negotiated the mercy I received. He would not let me pay him

for his time. What he did not do was die for me. Imagine that I had

committed a capital offense and had been sentenced to death and that the court somehow allowed my

friend to die in my place. In that case, his sacrifice makes logical sense. My penalty was death,

so he died to pay it. However, I was accused of

committing an illegal left turn. For my friend to die to pay for my crime would make no logical

...