Can you answer yes to these four questions?
- Are you a citizen of the United States?
- Do you have a Bachelor’s degree in engineering, science or math?
- Do you have at least 1,000 hours of seat time piloting a jet?
- Can you pass a NASA physical which also requires 20/20 vision?
If you replied in the affirmative to each of the four questions above, you are among the 3 million U.S. residents who meet the basic requirements that could qualify you to become an astronaut. Of these number, there were 18,300 people who applied to join NASA’s 2017 astronaut class.
A panel of 50 people reviewed each of the applications and narrowed the list to a few hundred. After more scrutiny, the applicant list shrunk to 120 candidates, and eventually the list was winnowed down to 50 who were called back for a week of interviews and more medical testing.
All in all, this 18-month process culminated with the selection of 12 individuals out of the 18,300 who applied. This means that only .00065574 of the people who applied were selected. I would be without hope, if God’s selection process were this stringent.
However, God does not extend an invitation to you on the basis of your IQ or physical condition; He invites you to join Him in spite of these: For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-8)!
Don’t worry about the odds or the percentages of being good enough to be part of the teams or to accomplish the mission ahead of you. When God calls you, he also equips you: God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us (Ephesians 3:20).
As you think about this, I also encourage you to think about John 15:16:
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
A word that elicits a wide range of emotions is NASCAR . Some people shake their head in bewilderment thinking it is a waste of time to watch grown men drive a car in circles. Then, there are those who froth at the mouth when they hear the rumble of a finely tuned engine that propels a driver down the straightaways in excess of 200 MPH.
Even though it sank on April 15, 1912, the Titanic is one of the most famous ships that ever sailed the sea, and of her 711 survivors, the unsinkable Molly Brown may be the most famous.
When I read the news from France early this morning, I was reminded of the words of Jesus: “a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering service to God (John 16:2).”
Fashion is not my forte, and I’m certainly not the model image of a fashion model from GQ. I do, however, know enough about fashion to know that Bill Cunningham, the legendary photojournalist for The New York Times, died on Saturday.
With the exception of Sunday, my morning routine includes a little java and journalism. On Sundays I still drink the coffee, but I skip the newspaper.
Tuesday morning, I was driving west towards Wichita and I was blessed with the beauty of a double rainbow. As the dazzling colors shone brightly against the distant backdrop of dark and menacing clouds, I was reminded that life is much like that storm.
Quintus Horatius Flaccus was a poet who lived during the reign of Caesar Augustus, and he’s credited with saying: Exegi monumentum aere perennius. This phrase is found after the final poem in Horaces third book, and it means: I have made a monument more lasting than bronze.
When I hear a puzzling story or a comment about someone or some event, I wonder about the specifics of the situation and ask:
Rogers Nelson, known to his fans as Prince, was 57 years old when he died yesterday. CNN reported that, “An outpouring of grief followed as fans paid tribute to the singer who masterfully blended rock, R&B, jazz, funk and pop.”
insightbyseymour 