Psalm 46:1-3 – Crash and Burn
Yesterday was a sad day for the world. It was not a tragedy to the same scale as September 11, 2001. In fact, even normal plane crashes take more lives than the disaster yesterday. Yet there is something very sad of the explosion of the Space Shuttle Columbia yesterday morning at about 10AM our time. Seven astronauts – 6 from the States, and one from Israel – lost their lives when they were returning to earth from a two-week science trip in outer space.
The shuttle lost contact with the ground at about 10AM, an expected happening because of the turbulence that comes when you’re entering the atmosphere again from outer space. At the time, the shuttle was traveling at about 12,500 miles an hour, or Mach 18, 18 times the speed of sound. However, the control center on the ground was not able to re-establish contact with the shuttle after this expected communication blackout. As yet, we don’t know what happened during that blackout. We just know that the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded, 200,000 feet above the ground, about 39 miles, killing all seven on board.
Where do you go when life takes unexpected turns? Do you wander around aimlessly, lost in yourself and your problems? Do you immerse yourself in a hobby, attempting to shut out the world around you? Where do you turn when the world would crash and burn? Psalm 46 tells us what God is like even when our trials surround us.
PS 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
Let’s be honest. Even as people who love the Lord and want to please Him in all we do, don’t we sometimes feel that the mountains are crashing? Don’t we feel that the ocean waters would seek to drown us? Don’t we occasionally feel that all our security around us is shaken because of the hard times in life? It’s OK to feel this way sometimes. God said that hard times would come. Persecution, betrayal, loneliness, rejection, sickness, even death… these are normal and a part of life. I encourage you: turn to God.
Psalm 46 tells us that God is a refuge. It means that He is a place of rest. A place of trust. A place of hope. In the OT, there were several cities called cities of refuge. These were places that if you had accidentally killed someone, you could go there and be safe from vengeful family members until a fair trial could happen. You were safe from those who would seek to harm you. This is what God is. The very enemy of our souls seeks to devour, and he’ll use any method that works: discouragement, depression, bitterness, anger, hatred, bigotry, pride… All based on lies and fear, which are just the opposite of who God is: truth and love. If the enemy can get us to think that God doesn’t care, or He isn’t listening, or this sin is OK, then we pull away from our refuge. And we become prey for the predator of our hearts. I encourage you again: turn to God. Trust in Him. Lean on Him when times get tough. Lay your burdens at His feet.
Yes, people who are even Christians will fail you. You weren’t the first; you won’t be the last. Take a number and have a seat, please. But just because people fail us sometimes doesn’t mean that God fails us, and it doesn’t mean that every person in the world will fail you either. It does mean that when tough things happen in life, you can either turn to God for refuge, or turn away from Him. And 100% of the time, the choice is yours.
But, stepping aside from this passage, as I watched the TV yesterday, I thought of how the Columbia disaster is very similar to what happens sometimes in Christians. How many believers have you ever seen crash and burn? Wipe themselves out? Give up and go home? Quit trying, trusting, hoping, praying?
Well, without being disrespectful or shallow over what happened yesterday, I’d like us to compare the Columbia disaster to a shipwreck of the soul, what happens when believers crash and burn.
1) I remember making a plastic model of the Space Shuttle Columbia, hanging it in my room as a young kid. The Columbia was the very first Space Shuttle, first launched in 1981. NASA has made 113 trips into space with different shuttles, and this was the 28th trip to space for the Columbia, designed to make 100 trips. In order to have a 23-year-old spaceship still running, it needed regular maintenance. Crash-and-burn believers ignore regular maintenance. They say, “I don’t need to go to church”, ”I don’t need to pray”, ”I don’t need… whatever… to be saved.”
While it may be true that you don’t need those things to be saved, extended periods without the things of God will dull your desire for God Himself. Don’t neglect the regular maintenance of your soul, no matter what has happened to you.
2) As I wrote this sermon, the cause of the disaster was still unknown. They were thinking that perhaps some debris had attached to the hull, and that had caused the problems. As I heard this, I thought of Hebrews 12:1, which says: Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Sin has a way of clinging to us, and tying us up and slowing us down. Sin is the debris that if we let it go unchecked, it could spell disaster for our souls.
I also thought of one statement they made, also. Perhaps something happened in the science lab, and it spilled over into some oher area, and there was a “cascade of disasters.” You know, that’s how sin is too. I think of King David, 2 Samuel 11. In the springtime of the year when kings go to war, David was home in his palace. Mistake #1. Then he saw Bathsheba bathing naked, and he didn’t turn from it. Mistake #2. Then he invited her over to sleep with her. Mistake #3. Then when she was found pregnant, David tried lying, cheating, manipulating. Mistake #4. Then, when all that failed, he had Bathsheba’s husband killed. Mistake #5. All because he compromised in an area of being a king. A cascade of disasters.
3) Well, perhaps it was an internal problem. Perhaps it was debris. But perhaps there was something wrong with the heat tiles, which keep the ship safe even in the heat of re-entry, re-entering the earth’s atmosphere at 12500 miles an hour. Perhaps these tiles were cracked, and the ship couldn’t withstand the heat, so it erupted into flames. Folks, many Christians can’t stand the heat. They blame God for problems they made. They blame God for any difficulty or hard time they face. They blame God for not enough talents, not enough good looks, not enough money, not enough friends, not enough whatever. They can’t stand the problems they face in life. They can’t take the heat. They think about what others have, without being thankful for what they have. They crash and burn because living in the real world dealt them an unfair hand. Folks, don’t expect life to bend over backwards for you. Trust in God, and leave the results up to Him.
4) One of the scariest things of returning to earth is a blackout. It happens occasionally, when the ship loses contact for a few minutes with control on the ground, due to extreme temperatures. Friends, sometimes in life we have blackout periods – those times when God doesn’t seem to hear or care about our prayers. We lose contact with Him because He seems so far away. And it often happens when the turbulence in life is at its toughest. I encourage you, keep in contact. Keep praying, keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. In His timing He will break through. When you’re ready to hear what He has to say, He’ll say it. Sometimes He calls us to walk without any directions except towards Him. No feelings or anything. Keep at it, though. Control will resume contact soon.
5) The Columbia disaster was well-publicized. TV cameras covered it well. The world was watching. Don’t think the world isn’t watching when a believer crashes and burns. Like it or not, other people don’t show the same grace that God shows. Your family is watching. Your friends are watching. Your neighbors are watching. Your co-workers are watching. They may be waiting for you to slip up. Now, having said that, if someone watches long enough, they will find someone who messes up. Understand that that doesn’t let them off God’s hook. But also understand: you will give an account for how you lived on earth.
6) Even though the Space Shuttle Columbia started off with fanfare and fame, it ended rather unpleasantly. Folks, you need to know today, how you end is as important as how you begin. You may have been saved from all kinds of stuff, God may have done some neat things in your life, prayers may have been answered, and you may have been a strong Christian. But people will always remember your failure. They will remember you more for how you ended than how you started. Right or wrong, I don’t know. But it’s true anyway. Your legacy will be a crash-and-burn if you don’t stay, um, “on fire.”
7) The last lesson to learn from yesterday’s disaster: be ready to perish. Daniel 3, starting at verse 16: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."
Death could happen at any time for us. Are you ready? What credentials could you offer to God, what reasons could you give that would sway His mind to let you into heaven. Trust in Christ, faith in what He has done, not trying to be good enough or to earn heaven, but allowing His undeserved grace to change you and clean you up.
I think of Keith Simms, as I heard him interviewed yesterday on CBC radio. He was going to work and he stopped to get a coffee. He saw a piece of the Space Shuttle fall out of the sky and land on the road. He went over to it, examined it, picked it up and took it with him in his truck. He heard later about the Columbia, and heard not to touch any piece of debris, because it may be poisonous, due to the fuel it used. In fact, he heard on the radio that he could die in 2-3 hours because of this fuel. He went to the hospital, and he cleaned him up and sent him out. Then, of all things, Keith went to a barber. These are his exact words: “If I’m gonna die, I might as well have a nice haircut.”
To be ready to die. To not be afraid when it’s your time. To not crash and burn at the end of your life, or at the end of your spiritual walk. Friends, as sad as the physical loss of seven lives, how much more sad is it for someone to die spiritually. It can happen to any of us, to the best of us. May our faith in God sustain us when times get turbulent. May we not crash and burn, fizzle out, wither away, dry up, or run down. Don’t lose hope. Turn to God for refuge in those times of extreme heat. Run to Him. Lose yourself in Him. Rely on Him.
