One of my all-time favorite movies is Apollo 13. The strength and compassion of the human spirit that surfaces during the course of that struggle continues to astound me, no matter how many times I watch the film. Yes, they did take a little dramatic license here and there, but overall a great deal of effort went into making the story as accurate as possible. They studied the communication transcripts and recordings, and used those for a great deal of the dialogue. They did interviews, and wherever possible, spent time with the person being portrayed in order to learn more about their experiences, as well as who they are as people.

One thing people who know me can tell you, I am a bit of a space nerd. The Apollo space program was the one that ultimately carried us to the moon on Apollo 11. Apollo 13 was intended to be another moon landing, but during their first few days in space, there was an explosion that crippled the spacecraft. From that point on, their mission was not one of landing on the moon, but one of bringing three human beings home safe and sound. The amount of prayer and focus that circled the globe on behalf of those men, and all those working to bring them home, was absolutely staggering. The things that can be accomplished when human spirits join as one to face seemingly insurmountable obstacles is limitless.

In the end, the world collectively held their breath as the command module made its final plummet through earth’s atmosphere. Initially, there was fear that the craft wouldn’t survive reentry due to possible damage to the heat shield. Because of the reentry angle, it took them longer than expected to regain radio signal, and as the blackout period stretched out longer and longer, it seemed that fear was being realized. However, they did come through, and it will forever be known as one of the greatest triumphs in NASA’s history.

There is a point near the end of their journey, when the engineers on earth were still trying to come up with a plan for reentry that fit within the scarce energy availability that resulted from the explosion and need to close the fuel cells that would have allowed them to land on the moon. The closer they got to reentry without the plan of action, the more concerned the astronauts became about whether or not they’d actually be given a way home. At one point, Tom Hanks (in the role of Commander Jim Lovell) is yet again asking the folks on earth for the reentry plan. He tells them how tired they are up there, and that they just can’t throw things together at the last minute. He then says one line that has stuck with me more than any other, “I don’t have to tell you, the world’s getting awfully big in the window.” Basically, he’s saying that the bigger the earth looks to them from inside the ship, the closer they are to crunch time.

Have you ever noticed that life can feel just like that, even when we are unable to determine why? It can feel as though we are on a certain path, and we know we need to follow a plan, but we have no idea what that plan is or where we are headed. We are rarely comfortable with the unknowns of life. The difference for us is that, no matter how weary we are, no matter what needs to be done, God will provide what we need to do it. When the time came to start working through the reentry procedure, mission control was able to feed the astronauts one instruction at a time so they didn’t miss anything. They were too tired to carry the ball over the finish line themselves, but they had support and guidance and by trusting the people at home, they all made it home in one piece.

We are fortunate to have an even better support system at our backs. Each moment of the day, God is waiting to give us the next step, the next guidance, the next blessing. All we have to do is trust Him, and do our best to stay out of His way. That is something my sister and I have said to one another a number of times, “Get out of God’s way.” He will always be there working in our lives. We really need to do our best to go with His flow, and not impede His progress with our own selfishness. We can get so focused on what WE want, it becomes difficult to shift our mind and allow ourselves to understand what HE wants for us and of us.

When the world starts to get “awfully big” in your window, you need to reach out to God and ask Him for guidance. And when you feel too weary to take the next step, ask Him to help you, and He will ALWAYS make a way. He knows when we need help, but He also knows how important it is that we recognize that for ourselves, and then choose to seek out His help. He’s just waiting for us to get out of the way in order to help us reach the stars…