Just Breathe

"The Lord said, 

'Peace be with you; do not fear' "

Judges 6:23

The kids and I watched Apollo 13 the other night.  It was the 50th anniversary of John Glenn orbiting the earth, but since we don't own The Right Stuff, watching Apollo 13 was our way of honoring NASA and the amazing men and women who have made space travel possible for the last 50+ years.

Apollo 13 is one of my favorite movies.  It's a great plot ~ can't do better than a true story, right?  It's well acted and directed ~ I still get tears in my eyes when the spacecraft lifts off, and I still get anxious during the four minutes of blackout, during which no one was sure if the astronauts would survive re-entry.

We own the movie, so I've watched it several times in my life, and some of the lines of dialogue have worked their way into our family's lingo.  Sometimes they just pop into my head during appropriate circumstances.  For instance, if I have a lot going on, and I'm feeling overwhelmed, I remember when Tom Hanks, as Jim Lovell, said to his crew:  "There are a thousand things that have to happen, in order.  We are on number eight.  You're talking about number six-hundred and seventy-nine."   It's a great reminder to me to just do the thing in front of me, and let God worry about what happens down the line. 

But I think my favorite "spiritual" line from Apollo 13 is when they are having trouble with the carbon dioxide levels.  The astronauts were living in the Lunar Excursion Module, or LEM, as the Service Module (the SM) had been damaged in an explosion.  Because this was not where they were expected to spend so much of their time, the carbon dioxide they were breathing out was starting to build up. There were canisters of lithium hydroxide to remove the carbon dioxide from the air, but not enough.  So the ground crew had to teach the astronauts to jury-rig a device that work with what they had on board.  It's an intense scene, as the astronauts build this device (which they nicknamed "the mailbox") knowing they have to hurry, as the CO2 was building up every time they breathed out.  But because they were hurrying, they were panting a little, and their anxiety was causing them to expel even more CO2. 

The astronauts get the device hooked up, and they are waiting for it to start to take effect on the air around them.  Two of them look anxious as they wait and watch the CO2 indicator, and without realizing it, they are holding their breath.  And the commander, Jim Lovell, looks at both of them, with a slightly wry smile and says, "Just breath normal, fellas." 

Sometimes, I think I hear God saying that to me.  Well, He doesn't call me "fella" but He's gentle and soothing and compassionate.  I got this.  I'm taking care of it.  Trust me, and just breathe normal. 

And I do.  Because in His command is the power to obey. 

~ "God is not the author of confusion, 

     but of peace" ~

1 Corinthians 14:33