{"id":703,"date":"2021-05-10T08:15:16","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T12:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=703"},"modified":"2021-05-10T08:15:16","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T12:15:16","slug":"something-that-doesnt-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/10\/something-that-doesnt-move\/","title":{"rendered":"Something that Doesn’t Move"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Observers agree that Hollywood depictions of the NASA space program are frequently off the mark when it comes to historical accuracy.    

Apollo 13<\/em> is an exception.  Director Ron Howard\u2019s 1995 account of America\u2019s ill-fated third attempt to reach the moon not only received a Best Picture nomination, but is generally praised for getting things right.

Approximately 56 hours into the April 1970 flight, an electrical malfunction caused the explosion of a Command Module oxygen tank.  That signaled the beginning of the most extraordinary rescue mission in the history of human exploration.  Would astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert be able to nurse their compromised spacecraft back to Earth? 

The movie documents the dangers, tense moments, and entrepreneurial creativity that marked the next four days.  The crew members and their NASA support team in Houston were forced to come up with answers to questions no one had ever thought to ask, and to invent novel solutions to life-and-death problems \u2013 sometimes with mere minutes to spare.

After a slingshot orbit around the moon \u2013 designed to accelerate the craft back towards Earth \u2013 technicians discovered that Apollo 13\u2019s trajectory was too shallow.  The crew would have to make a mid-course correction. 

That would require something never before attempted: a \u201cmanual burn\u201d from the Lunar Module (the part of the spacecraft designed to descend to the surface of the moon, which was now serving as a lifeboat for the crew). 

But there was a problem.  The guidance computers were in the crippled Command Module.  How would the astronauts know where to point their spacecraft?

In the movie, while some of the smartest people in the world are trying to figure that out, Commander Jim Lovell asks:  \u201cAll we need to hold attitude is one fixed point in space, is that not correct?\u201d

Then, as he looks out the LM window toward the Earth, he says, \u201cWell, Houston, we\u2019ve got one.\u201d  Their home planet – everything they had ever known – was their fixed point.

Ron Howard chose not to depict the fact that Apollo 13 actually executed three manual burns.  Two were oriented toward the sun and one toward the Earth.  All of them, to say the least, were exciting.  Here\u2019s the movie version<\/a>, which includes some salty language reflecting the pressure of the moment. 
                                                                                                                                    The mission had a happy ending.  Apollo 13 returned safely to Earth. 

It\u2019s worth noting, however, that the fixed point outside their window was hardly \u201cfixed\u201d in an absolute sense.  The Earth travels at 67,000 mph, or 18.5 miles per second, as it revolves around the sun \u2013 an extraordinary speed that NASA had to take into account.  Does that mean the sun is firmly planted in the cosmos?  Hardly.  The sun, along with our entire solar system, is hurtling through space at 448,000 mph as it pinwheels around the center of our Milky Way galaxy. 

Astrophysicists were startled to learn a few decades ago that nothing in the cosmos is \u201cpinned down.\u201d  Everything is in motion.

For that matter, nothing is pinned down in your day-to-day life, either.

Your job is not a fixed point.  Corporations don\u2019t last, and entire industries will come and go during your lifetime.  Fashions change in a matter of months.  Mountains are currently rising and falling, and the continents are interacting with each other in a kind of extreme slow-motion dance.    

Pop songs may promise, \u201cI will love you \u2018til the end of time,\u201d but even seemingly stable relationships are subject to ongoing change.  Author Lew Smedes famously wrote that he had been married to three different women \u2013 and all of them were the same person, his wife. 

Is there actually anything that doesn\u2019t move?

Jesus thought so.  He said, \u201cHeaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.\u201d  (Matthew 24:35) 

In a world of perpetual transition, Jesus\u2019 teaching \u2013 his words about forgiveness, spiritual accountability, God\u2019s availability, prayer, worry, care for the poor, love of enemies \u2013 his words about everything<\/em> will stand the test of time. 

All we need to stay on course is one fixed point \u2013 something that won\u2019t change overnight or let us down at the end of life. 

Well, Houston, we\u2019ve got one.

We can build our lives on the words of Jesus. <\/em>
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Observers agree that Hollywood depictions of the NASA space program are frequently off the mark when it comes to historical accuracy.     Apollo 13 is an exception.  Director Ron Howard\u2019s 1995 account of America\u2019s ill-fated third attempt to reach the moon not only received a Best Picture nomination, but is generally praised for getting things right. Approximately 56 hours into… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[234],"class_list":["post-703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-jesus-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":705,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions\/705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}