Discovery, Awe, and Humility

Today was the final liftoff of the Space Shuttle Discovery, STS 133. It was an extraordinary and profound event for me in a couple of ways. First, it was truly awesome to witness so much power under complete control, doing exactly what was expected. It was amazing to have a human made device that went from sitting completely still in Florida to being over 100 miles up and over the Indian Ocean less than an hour later. Watching such a complicated machine with so much demonstrated explosive capability safely carry fellow humans completely off of our planet so quickly…there just aren’t words for it. We have so overused superlatives in daily language that we now have no way to express a superlative experience. C.S. Lewis commented on this 50 years ago when he said, “Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.”

The second profound aspect of watching this launch was doing so

live

     on my laptop

sitting at my desk

at work

500 miles away

with a Dr Pepper in my hand,

seeing the camera’s perspective as it sat on the external tank between it and the shuttle,

looking back at the receding Florida coastline,

then the curvature of the planet,

then the blackness of space

with the unfiltered brightness of the star fueling our solar system,

watching from less than 20 feet away as the solid rocket boosters fell off,

and finally as the shuttle itself disengaged and proceeded on to its mission.

As I watched and marveled, I wondered in prayer what God feels when He watches us do these things. Does He share in our joy, in our healthy pride? Does He feel like a proud parent watching His children taking such a big step in exploring a new part of His Creation?

I believe to some extent He does. Yet, He who sees the end from the beginning also sees more. I felt in the place of the disciples, and for the first time, truly understood where they were coming from in the following passage from Mark 13:1-2 (and repeated in Matthew 24 and Luke 21):

As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”

 “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

Why am I trying to be a downer? I’m not. There are definitely thoughts generated that leave me to grieve that our greatest achievements are so ephemeral. I balk at Solomon’s declaration that ‘all is vanity,’ when applied to this context. But it simply is the truth.

I believe we can be proud of our accomplishments and simultaneously believe that we should be humble about them. As much as Jesus was giving a message about the upcoming Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the larger picture of end times, I think He was also reminding us that our greatest achievements (and He does call the Temple great) are like a toddler’s first painting posted on the refrigerator—significant for what it symbolizes, but frankly unimpressive.

What encourages and excites me is, if this is one of our first scribblings, what does God have in store for us later to achieve in Glory?

SDG

The Power of Passion

I live on the outskirts of a small town near Austin. About a mile and a half away as the crow flies is a driving range on the highway. Tonight, they had a fireworks show that just floored me. It was virtually non-stop with many going off simultaneously for 30-40 minutes, which I learned was shorter than the last couple of years. It was one of the most spectacular I’ve ever seen, and we were right at the scene of the action—I have ash and bits of unburned cardboard all over my hair and clothes. About half of the driving range was literally covered with the tubes and an army of about 15 people were down there setting things off, rushing from one stash to the next. They had patriotic music going, closing with Kate Smith belting out God Bless America. The finale tubes were maybe 50 feet away and consisted of a line of tubes producing about 3 minutes of non-stop streams of purple and yellow that formed a sheet of fire 50 feet tall with the sound of Niagara Falls magnified. I had to cover my ears.

It was a dollar donation to park, and that earned you a raffle ticket with dozens and dozens of prizes. There was a silent auction, and booths sponsored by groups within a local 7^th Day Adventist church. There were a number of small business sponsors.

But the heart and soul of the show was two brothers (I think from that church), who have been doing this for the community for about 20 years. It used to be three brothers until one passed away. They just love pyrotechnics and so said, “why not?” I can’t imagine the expense of the event—not only were there probably $20,000 worth of fireworks, but they had several of those solar powered highway information signs advertising it along the highway, and local law enforcement for traffic control. They admitted the sponsorships hadn’t covered the full cost and asked for donations. This wasn’t some government sponsored event, just two locals turning their passion into a gift to the community. It was people taking charge and doing for themselves, not waiting nor wanting government to step in and take care of it for them.

As I reflect over the amazing evening, it is encouraging to see people like these brothers having a passion for something grand and making it happen annually for 20 years and counting.

Some may think of this as a waste of tons of money. I don’t know. I didn’t talk with the brothers long enough to find out what their true motivations are, but I have a hard time, on the surface, thinking God is displeased with them for bringing such joy to hundreds if not thousands of people, with simple, clean entertainment for their neighbors. Yes, it is an act of passion. It is also an act of agape, the unconditional love for others. No one is turned away, no one asked for qualifications, just “Come. Enjoy. Relax. Encounter Awe.”

What is our passion? What are we willing to make happen because we simply love it?

PS-the email functionality has been down for about a week. I apologize if you are an email subscriber. I think the problem is fixed. If you aren’t reading this, let me know. ;)

SDG