Killing the Lights (Pastor Dave's Blog)

�recently re-ran across this story about James Lovell, the commander of the Apollo 13 mission.� If you remember, Apollo 13 was on it’s way to the moon when an explosion crippled the space craft.� For the next several days hundreds of people worked day and night to bring the three astronauts home.� The following is evidently a true story that Lovell tells of his days before the space program, when he was an aircraft carrier pilot. I remember this one time - I'm in a Banshee at night in combat conditions, so there's no running lights on the carrier. It was the Shrangri-La, and we were in the Sea of Japan and my radar had jammed, and my homing signal was gone... because somebody in Japan was actually using the same frequency.� And so the signal was - it was leading me away from where I was supposed to be. And I'm looking down at a big, black ocean, so I flip on my map light, and then suddenly: zap. Everything shorts out right there in my cockpit. All my instruments are gone. My lights are gone. And I can't even tell now what my altitude is. I know I'm running out of fuel, so I'm thinking about ditching in the ocean. And I, I look down there, and then in the darkness there's this uh, there's this green trail. It's like a long carpet that's just laid out right beneath me. And it was the algae, right? It was that phosphorescent stuff that gets churned up in the wake of a big ship. And it was - it was glowing- it was leading me home. You know? If my cockpit lights hadn't shorted out, there's no way I'd ever been able to see that dim glow. So uh, you, uh, never know... what... what events are to transpire to get you home...

And The Lord said, My grace is sufficient for you.� My power is made perfect in weakness. �

Isn’t this how our faith works best, not in the light of day, but in the darkness, in the black ocean of trouble?� It’s here, in the place where everything fails, that direction appears.� For ours is a God so loving, that no matter what might happen he extends his carpet of grace, lays out His glowing love right beneath our feet.

dag