Last Mission: What We Can Learn About God From the Space Race
Since time began, man has searched the stars for answers. He has dreamed of exploring the vast unknown of space and wondered what he’d find out there.
On September 16, 1962, the young President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, challenged his country to put a man into space and onto the moon within the decade.
In case you don’t remember or are fuzzy on details, this was crazy talk. America was failing in its pursuit to beat Russia in the Space Race. The Russians, who America was on the brink of war with, put the first man in space over a year before JFK’s challenge.
Sure, America followed Russia into space, but to reach the moon? Within the decade? This sounded impossible.
NASA, the United States’ space agency, was struggling. They were blowing up more rockets than they were launching. To reach the moon, they’d need a miracle.
During the 1960s, NASA, and a group of brave astronauts answered the challenge of their president. They would string together hundreds of miracles to accomplish their mission of putting a man on the moon. Their story still inspires us today.
JFK’s challenge was not unlike the challenge issued by Jesus to His disciples.
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
- Matthew 28:18-20 NIV
This mission was just as impossible as NASA’s.
I’m sure the mission overwhelmed the disciples. The entire world? All the nations?
This was their impossible mission, and it is the mission that still challenges us today.
My book, God is Like a Rocket Launch, looks into what we, as Christians, can learn from NASA’s Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions. We’ll also look at NASA’s ongoing mission to put man onto Mars. We’ll ask how their story reflects our Creator and can help us accomplish our mission?
God has challenged us to reach the world with the gospel. He’s challenged us to make disciples and to baptize them. God wants our help lettig the world know that He is crazy about them and will never stop until He reaches them.
Just as man wouldn’t stop until they reached the moon and won’t stop until they reach Mars, so God is never stopping in His impossible mission of reaching the entire world with His love.
