Course Corrections

Jim Irwin was a lunar module pilot on the 4th manned Lunar Landing Mission on the moon. His mission ran from July 26,1971 to August 7, 1971.  When Jim returned from his mission and was asked some probing questions about space travel, he gave some answers one would probably not expect.

Jim was asked about taking off in a rocket toward the moon. Many folks believed the rocket just blasted off and charted a straight course to the moon, similar to the way an airplane flight takes off and is programmed to arrive exactly at its destination today. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Jim’s description of his journey was very interesting. He said what really happened was they blasted off and just flung the rocket towards space. From that point forward, it was not like an airplane ride at all. There was no sitting back and sipping drinks while checking in with the tower every once in a while.

Irwin said once they blasted off, they had to make a course correction about every 10 minutes for the next 4 days. Sometimes, they found themselves 180 degrees off course!! Other times, they were only slightly off course. They had to stay on top of what they were doing and where they were going- constantly. Irwin also stated they were given an approximate 500 mile landing strip on the moon, and when they got out of the spaceship and touched their feet on the moon’s surface, they had come within 5 feet of missing the landing strip altogether.

What an amazing story. I think our Christian lives are much like this. We think we know exactly what we’re doing, where we’re going, and how we’re going to get there. Then the “variables” we didn’t account for kick in, and everything changes. Let’s face it, things we don’t plan for sometimes happen.  Other times we just plain make mistakes. What we can’t afford to do is get discouraged over things we have no control over or get condemned over our mistakes and then just shut down and quit. If Jim Irwin and his crew would have shut off the rocket because they were off course, they would have had a much bigger mess on their hands.

We’ve got to keep going. Make whatever course correction you need to stay on target with God. It’s no time to shut down your engines! Reach for the moon!  God is calling you onward…and upward.

Blessings!

Dan Owczarzak