First Man

When God gets ready to act, all He has to do is say the word.

My soul often feels like the mission control room in Houston, TX during a space exploration. My prayers resemble communicating “down here” with God to make sure He hears and knows what is going on so He can act accordingly.

I was not born until 1977, so I had only heard about this historic event in history classes, from parents, and grandparents. I had never processed all the time, energy, stress, manpower, money, and controversies surrounding the mission to the moon. First Man, however, does a phenomenal job giving the viewer an understanding of the tension surrounding the massive feat.

The race to beat the Russians to the moon.

The calculations involved in having minute details perfectly timed.

The men whose lives were lost in trial launches.

The government dollars spent.

The protests around the country from those who believed “enough was enough” (money spent and men dying).

The wives and children of the astronauts haunted by not ever seeing their husbands again.

The hundreds of workers in Houston laboring on the ground to make it happen.

The glitches in machinery before and during the different explorations.

First Man was a continual stress fest that portrayed all the effort and energy and hard labor and tension involved in getting a man to the moon. It made me, yet again, grateful to be from America. And it mentally wore me out.

The next morning I went for a walk outside. It was early and not many people were stirring around. It was quiet. Serene. Calm. Off in the distance I saw the moon making the move to pass the baton to the sun for another day. I was struck by the fact that all God did to put the moon in place was speak. He gave the word and the moon appeared. He said, “Let there be,” and it was.

I thought about the movie I watched the night before. Stress. Tension. Energy. Work. Controversy. Fear. Anxiety. Trial and error. I thought of all that went into getting a man to step on the moon. And then I thought about all God did to make the moon. He spoke.

Constant energy and work and anxiety and tension from mankind.

A calm word from God.

Exorbitant effort from us, and then just a step.

A voice from the Creator, and it came to be.

I thought about that as a parable to my life. I work. I worry. I fear. I protest. I get anxious. I try harder. I doubt. I exert. I act is if God needs my help. I act as if God isn’t aware and if I send up enough warning flares, He will act.

I forget that when God gets ready to act, all He has to do is say the word. My soul doesn’t have to be like mission control in Houston, Texas. My soul can rest. All the effort and work and energy spent getting man to the moon, and that just for a brief walk. What put the moon there in the first place? A word. When God gets ready to act, all He has to do is say the word.

Please pray. Seek. Work. Walk. Go after.

But be quick to rest. God doesn’t need your help and is not dependent on your stress level to get the job done. Relax. When He gets ready, He can do more in a moment than we could imagine doing in a lifetime.

When it’s time, He’ll speak.