In August 2011 NASA launched Juno, a spacecraft on a mission to explore Jupiter. On July 4 of this year, nearly five years later, Juno entered orbit around Jupiter and began sending back pictures of the gas giant. I don’t even know how to add fractions, but there are people who can do math that allows us to launch spacecraft at planets 365 million miles away. Not only do these spacecraft arrive in the general vicinity of their intended targets, but they actually fall into orbit around the planets. The intelligence and ingenuity required to do that are a testament to the creativity of God reflected in humanity.
Even if the scientists’ calculations had been off by something as small as one degree on Juno’s launch angle, there’s a good chance it could have missed Jupiter all together. One degree doesn’t seem like that much staring at a launch pad, but after a journey of 365 million miles it would make a big difference.
We may not be going to Jupiter but all of our lives have a path and trajectory. There is a person that God created us to be and we are always moving closer or further away from that reality.
Sometimes we run away from that reality. We see where God wants us to go and, like Jonah, we go in the other direction. We can do this by simply ignoring God’s call on our lives or by wholeheartedly embracing sin. We all have these seasons of running from God, but hopefully they’re infrequent and short lived.
Just as dangerous as seasons of open rebellion, though, are those seasons when we’re just a little off. Like the Juno’s mission would have failed if it had been one degree off, God’s plans for our lives can meet a similar end if we’re just a little off. When we’re running from God we usually do that willingly and know what we’re doing. When we’re just a little off, though, we may not be aware that we’re actually drifting further and further away from God. We start really close to God, separated by only one degree, but once some time passes we end up far from God without ever seeing it happen.
I hate that feeling so much, of getting to a point, looking at my life and wondering how I ended up so far from God. There was a time when I really thought God wanted me to date this girl at church. I wanted it so badly that I convinced myself it was also what God wanted. When it didn’t happen, though, I got angry with God. He obviously wanted it to happen so when it didn’t he was clearly to blame. Unfortunately it took me longer than it should have to realize how wrong I was and how far from God I had wandered.
My problem was that I started only a few degrees off. Wanting to date a nice girl from church with whom I could do ministry was a good thing; no part of that was wrong. However, confusing my wishes and desires for God’s will was wrong, so very wrong. And the further I pursued that relationship, the further I got away from God. Not because I was in open rebellion, but because being a little off, over a long period of time, gets us in trouble.
The journey to become the person that God created us to be doesn’t just have a beginning and an end. It’s a process, one with which we need to be fully engaged. Even if we start that journey a little off, if we’re engaged in the process and regularly spending time with God, then we’ll be able to correct our course. Instead of wandering further and further away from God, we can make the necessary adjustments and fall back in line.
Our journey isn’t going to take us to Jupiter, but it will hopefully take us to our intended life. God created us for more than open rebellion and slowly wandering away from him. If we get started on the right course and keep making the necessary corrections, then eventually God’s intention for our lives will also be our reality.
What helps you make course corrections?
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