HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM

My favorite historical movie is Apollo 13, the successful failure. In their attempt to land on the moon, an explosion onboard kept them from their mission, but not from returning home. The three astronauts in their ship “out there” were brought home by the tireless ingenuity back home at “mission control”. Among all the many lessons of teamwork and leadership that I love about this story, this is the picture the most often comes to mind when I think of the “heart of man”. Why is this you ask? Because the Bible describes the heart as the mission control center of man. We can only solve the “out there” of life by the “in here” of the heart. Time and time again the Scriptures point to the heart as the real problem, and the real source of life and love. When mission control is on point, the orbit of our life reflects that. When mission control is out of sorts, we lose the power and proper trajectory of the Gospel for living well. “Houston, we have a problem.” I grieve for “Christians” who try to course correct the behavior of life without a spiritually healthy mission control center. It just doesn’t work. Eventually the mission to get home fails and all is lost. So, my friend, “Guard your heart” (Proverbs 4:23) for from it flows all of life (Matthew 12:34).