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We all have a picture in our minds of how life is supposed to turn out. We make plans for everything — our careers, our relationships, our health. We think, I'm going to do this job, get promoted, retire comfortably. Or, I'll meet the right person, date for a while, settle down, get married, and live happily ever after. There's nothing wrong with making plans; structuring our lives is simply part of being human.
Proverbs points this out clearly:
"Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." (Proverbs 19:21)
We can make plan after plan for our kids, our spouses, our friendships, our education, our careers — but plans fall apart. In fact, the only thing you can really plan on is that your plan will eventually fall apart. This proverb comforts us by reminding us that even when our plans fail, God's purpose for our lives never fails.
If we're honest, this is where we run into trouble. Somewhere along the way we bought into a lie: the proof of God's goodness is that He'll bless me by letting my plans work out flawlessly. We think that if our plan goes according to plan, it means God loves us and is blessing us.
So what happens when the diagnosis is bad, when we lose a loved one, when the career never pans out, when trauma catches up with us? Suddenly nothing is going to plan, and life feels like it's spinning out of control. We feel alone, unsure how to get things back on track.
Apollo 11 succeeded in landing on the moon. Apollo 12 succeeded too. By the time Apollo 13 launched five months later, NASA was confident — they thought they had space travel figured out. Commander Jim Lovell, the most experienced astronaut of his time with over 715 hours in space, was finally going to walk on the moon. It was his dream, and Apollo 13 was his ticket.
At first, everything went flawlessly. The launch was smooth, and for two days the crew cruised through space, filming home movies for the evening news. The plan was working — until suddenly, nothing worked. An explosion crippled the ship, and the mission became about survival, not the moon.
That's exactly how life feels when it breaks down. One minute we're cruising, inspired, on track. The next minute the dashboard of our lives goes nuclear — every light blinking red, every alarm blaring, everyone around us chiming in with advice, and we don't even know where to start fixing the mess.
Jesus prepared us for this. He didn't promise we could avoid trouble with a good enough plan or the right beliefs. He told us the truth plainly:
"In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)
That sounds nice on a coffee mug, but what does it actually mean? When everything is falling apart, how are we supposed to "take heart"? In those moments we think, I'm in too deep. I'm not equipped for this. I'm not the right person to handle this mess.
But what if we actually are equipped? What if we already have everything we need, and the only thing missing is clear instruction and clear direction?
In the film, the Apollo 13 crew faced a new crisis: too much carbon dioxide building up in the cabin. They needed a CO2 filter, but they couldn't just go buy one — they had to build one using only the materials already on board. They weren't expected to solve the problem alone; mission control back on Earth worked out the solution and simply gave them instructions to follow.
Our lives are no different. Peter writes:
"His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." (2 Peter 1:3)
We aren't given some of what we need — we're given everything we need. We already have the tools on board. We just need to follow the instructions for how to use them.
When life blows up, our problem usually isn't that we lack what we need to survive. It's that we're not following God's instructions for using the tools He's already given us.
The Apollo 13 crew, on their way home, faced another crisis: with no guidance systems left, they had to steer manually. They decided to keep Earth fixed in one specific window during a 39-second controlled burn. If they drifted even slightly off course, they would float aimlessly in space until they ran out of oxygen. Those 39 seconds would determine whether they lived or died — and their survival depended on one thing: keeping their eyes fixed on Earth.
This is not a bad metaphor for surviving hardship with Jesus. Hebrews tells us:
"Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith." (Hebrews 12:1-2)
No matter how bumpy the ride, how loud the chaos, or how scared and doubtful we feel, if we can fix our eyes on Jesus and aim our lives toward Him in spite of the chaos, we have a shot — a shot at finding peace, maybe even joy, in the midst of hardship.
When the plans for our lives blow up, we need two things to survive: clear instruction — following God's Word for how to use the tools He's given us — and clear direction — fixing our eyes on Jesus no matter how bumpy the ride gets.
Most people don't remember which Apollo mission first landed on the moon without pausing to think. But almost everyone immediately remembers Apollo 13 — the mission that nearly killed its crew, yet brought them home alive. NASA called it a "successful failure." They failed to reach the moon, but achieved an extraordinary success in bringing the crew safely back to Earth. It became, as flight director Gene Kranz predicted, NASA's finest hour — not because everything went right, but because of what was accomplished after everything went wrong.
Paul experienced something similar. He pleaded with the Lord to remove the "thorn" of suffering from his life:
"Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me, but he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'" (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
Jesus didn't turn back the clock for Paul. He didn't erase the hardship. But He promised that His power would be made perfect in Paul's weakness — that this mess could become a successful failure, even a finest hour. That's why Paul could say:
"Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me... for when I am weak, then I am strong."
Yes, our plans blew up. Yes, this isn't how we expected life to turn out. It's heartbreaking. But couldn't there be a chance that if we follow God's instructions, follow His direction, and fix our eyes on Jesus, His power might be made perfect through our weaknesses? Couldn't this mess become a successful failure? Couldn't what was once our darkest hour become, in time, our finest hour?
Jesus did not promise that your plans would always work out. But He did promise that His purpose will prevail even when our plans fail — and that His power is made perfect not in spite of our weakness, but inside of it.
So don't let go now. Fix your eyes on Jesus — the author of your faith, the perfecter of your imperfections, the strength in the middle of your weakness. Hold on tight until He helps you get safely back home.
