Parallels with an Astronaut

A friend of ours, Jim Wick, suggested we invite Jack Lousma on Chris Fabry Live. Jack is an astronaut, a fighter pilot, and a committed believer. Since the 40th anniversary of man walking on the moon is in July, I suggested we do a pre-recorded interview for July 3rd.

I spoke with Jack yesterday from his home in Michigan. I knew I liked him from the minute we began to talk because the memories of the Apollo space program were right there for him. With ease he talked about his career, the ups and downs, trusting God for his career and his sense that God was in control.

Jack Lousma was on capcom the night when the Apollo 13 astronauts made the transmission, “Houston, we have a problem.”

Jack Lousma took me through what happened when they discovered the explosion, how the astronauts had to convey the information because transmission of data was nil. It was a great crisis.

And then Lousma said something that clicked with me. He said a lot of people think that Apollo 13 was a failure. The mission was to go to the moon, do experiments, keep the space program running smoothly, etc. Jack said it was far from failure. It was NASA at its best. With the accident the mission changed. It was less about things and more about people. Saving their lives. Helping them return home. And there was no acceptance of failure as an option. Those on the ground would not stop in their dogged determination to save their friends.

And so it is with us. In our life flight, there is invariably some explosion that sends us drifting off course. There is every reason to give up. Every reason to keep drifting. We're powerless in some ways to right ourselves.

But there is someone who knows the bigger picture of our story and will stop at nothing to bring us back home. Even facing death himself.

I don't know where you are with the pain and suffering of some explosion in your life. Admit the problem. Ask for help. There's someone who wants you to come safely home.