NORMALLY, WITH NO phone or e-mail interruptions, I look forward to redeeming the time on a plane by writing, reading, or doing correspondence…

But after the battery on my computer ran out, and sitting next to someone for what seemed like forever, I finally struck up a conversation with my next-door neighbor.  He was an engineer from the Houston area.

“Petroleum engineer?” I asked.

“No, I work for NASA,” he admitted.

And of course, for the next hour I’m sure that’s something he wished he hadn’t confessed.  Like most people my age who grew up watching the build-up of manned space flight to Neil Armstrong leaving his footprints on the moon, I was an astronaut “wannabe” as a kid.

Here at last was my chance to talk to a genuine missle scientist and ask all my questions about space flight!  He was patient and shared some incredible behind-the-scenes stories, including his role in the last Apollo space flight.  But at one point I hit a nerve when I brought up what I thought was a simple “margin of error” question.

“What are the tolerances you build into the tragectory when you blast off and head to the moon?” I asked him.  “For example, after you blast off, could you be just a little off, say like a couple of degrees off on your flight path, without it being such a huge problem?”

Out came his briefcase and his hybrid handheld calculator that would make a Texas Instruments T3000 blush and feel like a slide rule.  In went the “very approximate” distance of 217,614 miles from earth to the moon (depending on the time of year and apoge of the moon’s orbit around the earth, of course). Fingers flew furiously for a few moments as some Einsteinian calculation continued.

“Be just two degrees off from when you blast off, and roughly talking into account the time and distance traveled,” he said as he turned his calculator toward me, “and you’ll miss not only your point of orbital entry, but you’ll miss the moon by a measly 11,121 miles.”

I wrote down that number on a torn off page of a USA Today that served as an impromptu notepad.  “11,121.”  I finally left my new NASA friend in peace, but I’ve never forgotten his conclusion or what it can tell us about the most important relationships and areas of our lives.

Add in enough time and distance, and be just two degrees off and you’ll miss your target by miles.  I think that thought impacted me so much because it seemed to answer why and how the church of Ephesus had lost her first love.  Just be two degrees off from a right heart attitude, add in enough time and distance, and an entire church can end up miles from God’s heart.  John Trent, “How a 2 Degree Change Can Ruin or Renew Your Life,” HeartShift, 16-17

“Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.  Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place–unless you repent.”  Revelation 2.4-5

Mike Benson