History shows, prayer works.
I recently watched the movie, “Apollo 13,” which by most accounts is a pretty accurate account of the actual events of the Apollo 13, space mission. It’s a fabulous movie and I had seen it before, but it had been a while.
Different aspects spoke to me this time.
The entire mission was the perfect storm. Everything that could go wrong did, from one of the astronauts being bumped twenty-four hours before the launch, to failure of one of the engines at lift off. The first two days went smoothly with a few minor glitches. Then there was an explosion and they lost one oxygen tank and the second began rapidly depleting. They also lost two fuel cells.
The American people at the time, were not interested in the launch. It had become old hat to them and the networks didn’t even broadcast it. No one was particularly interested until the explosion occurred and lives hung in the balance.
Does that sound like a familiar phenomenon? We are surrounded by wonder everyday, but we don’t pay much attention because it has become normal to us. If it’s not new and shiny, we tend to check out.
But, when disaster struck, the world was riveted. Everyone was glued to their televisions.
President Richard Nixon asked the Nation to observe a day of prayer. The Senate and House, jointly passed a resolution on April 14, 1970, asking all Americans to pray at 9:00 Eastern Standard Time for the safe return of their countrymen. They also urged businesses and communication media to pause for prayer at that hour.
Are you stunned? Can you imagine both houses in Congress passing anything through that quickly? Can you imagine our leaders urging us to pray? They didn’t seem to be overly concerned with the separation of church and state or offending anyone.
In Rome, in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope led 50,000 people in a prayer for the astronauts’ safe return.
In Jerusalem, there were prayers at the wailing wall.
There were thousands of church prayer services held all over the country, asking God for intervention.
We are a country who has always had God at our root and we turned to Him in droves.
The odds were terrible. If they had enough power to get home, they could very likely have burned up on re-entry and the sea they were set to land in was on the edge of a typhoon.
But, we serve a God who doesn’t care about odds or statistics. He cares about, faith, trust and obedience. He answered the prayers of the millions of people who prayed and delivered the astronauts safely.
President Nixon later spoke at a church, where he said, “This event reminds us in these days of growing materialism, deep down, there is still a great religious faith in this Nation….I think more people probably prayed last week than perhaps have prayed in many years.”
People prayed and God listened.
It’s been forty-six years since the Apollo 13 launch. A lot has happened. But, we still serve the same God.
The Bible tells us, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
Are we paying attention or have we become complacent? Are we praying like we should for our country and our leaders? We know there is power in prayer. We not only see it in the Bible; we have seen it throughout our history.
One of the astronauts famously said, “Houston we have a problem.” Perhaps we should say, “Heaven we have a problem,” and then ask God to fix it.
History shows us, if enough of us pray and turn to Him, He will.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂