Chaplain Bill Wolfe
Llano County Sheriff’s Department
“T minus 3 minutes and holding.” Wow…that brings back memories: John Glenn, Alan Sheppard; Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo; watching with bated breath as heroes rode “fireballs” into the heavens on live TV. Then watching again as they returned to earth no-one-knew-exactly-where; watching the broadcast from the deck of the aircraft carrier as they scanned the sky for parachutes. <sigh> Space exploration just won’t be the same again.
Hey, welcome once again to The Chaplain’s Corner. I bet there are many of you of my generation who remember what I might call “the Glory Days” of the space program – back when everyone in the country was glued to their TV to watch the launches and returns. “Space -- the final frontier.” You youngsters who grew up with the Space Shuttle and Star Trek – The Next Generation missed it. But NASA isn’t exactly the rabbit trail I wanted to chase this month, though it makes a good starting place. J
If I stop and “listen” I can still hear Walter Cronkite saying: “T minus 4 minutes and counting” – the proverbial countdown to launch. The closer it got to 1 minute the more suspenseful. And then Chris Kraft of Mission Control: “T minus 3 minutes and holding.” HOLDING?!?! It was said so calmly. The countdown wasn’t the only thing being held…we held our breath, too. “Holding” meant something wasn’t quite right and we had no way of knowing how long that “hold” would last.
Changing focus now, there’s a “voice” of a different kind of Mission Control that’s saying: “T minus 3½ years and holding.” It’s nigh on to impossible to view the events in the Middle East without Biblical prophecy coming to mind. In fact, the news commentators often use Biblical terminology to describe things over there.
Daniel in the Old Testament, the book of Revelation in the New, and the Gospels all talk about end-time events. For years people have ridiculed those who have proclaimed that we’re in the “last days,” but now as events and political alliances begin to align ever closer to those spelled out in the Bible, as increasing hatred of the radical Muslim world is directed more blatantly towards the U.S. and Israel, I have to wonder how much time is left us.
The Bible speaks of wars and rumors of wars, and we are certainly seeing that played out each day. It says that these are just the beginning of the end. I think that the U.S. action in Afghanistan and Iraq may have delayed the inevitable, but for a short time only. The rallying of the Arab world to Hezbollah in the fighting against Israel shows it “ain’t gettin’ any better” in terms of Arab/Israeli relations.
Every time fighting breaks out in the Middle East, political figures the world over all chase their tails trying to be the one that comes up with a solution to the problem and bring peace to both sides. But it hasn’t happened yet. We’re in a “hold” in the “countdown.” I don’t know how long that hold will last. I can’t predict it any more than I could predict a hold in a NASA launch. But one day – and I think it’ll be soon – someone will come up with the plan for peace. And it will work. The Bible says so. But it also says it won’t be a lasting peace. “T minus 3½ years and holding.” Once peace appears to be truly established in the Middle East the “countdown” will resume. Folks, it ain’t gonna be pretty when the clock runs out.
So…what do we do? Jesus said “when you see these things come to pass, look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.” He also said we were to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” What we do now is start taking spiritual inventory of our lives. We start paying attention to what “the Good Book” says and start building a solid personal relationship with God while the building’s good.
Let me finish out our time here with this: remember what I said about riding “fireballs” before? Five years ago (short for most of us – eons for others), we all sat glued to the TV to watch a completely different and unimagined kind of “fireball.” It happened that fast. The world changed in minutes.
We watched heroes make “The Ultimate Sacrifice” and then we watched other heroes go beyond human endurance. 9/11 plus 5. Five years since New York’s Finest, both police and fire, proved that they deserved the title. We must never forget that although they deserved the title, they didn’t deserve their fate. The terrorist attacks that terrible day show that the world as we know it, life as we know it, can change that fast.
Not to despair. I’ve read to the end of The Book and I know how it ends. J There are very hard times coming, yes, but at the end of it all God’s going to rebuild it all and for those of us who have built a relationship with Him, life will be better than we could ever imagine.
Until next time: Blessings to you and yours.
Chaplain Bill
llanochaps@moment.net
