This past week, the Canadian Space Agency hosted the first ever “Orbital Debris Workshop”. The purpose of the conference was to talk about “space junk” and what to do about it. Apparently, there are more than 16 000 pieces of debris, such as defunct satellites and spent rockets, which are being tracked and monitored. Beyond that, there are another 6 000 pieces that scientists are aware of but have not catalogued. There are also believed to be more than 100 000 pieces of space junk smaller than 5 centimetres in diameter that are currently orbiting their way around the earth.
All this junk is a big problem for those who operate satellites or send people into space. For example, in 1983 the Space Shuttle Challenger came back to earth with a huge crack in one of its windows after it was struck by a paint chip that was floating around. The “International Space Station” has had to change course and the astronauts have been on “evacuation alert” several times because of incoming hazards. To paraphrase one scientist: “If we could get rid of all the junk, we could get back to launching rockets and doing science. As it is, we end up wasting a lot of time on things that are not directly related to our real mission”.
Sadly, I can relate to that. I spend a lot of time worrying about “junk”, rather than focusing on what I am actually here to do. Often my real purpose gets pushed to the side.
This is not new. In fact, the apostle Paul struggled hard to remain on task and encouraged his readers to do the same. “Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
The simple message of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ was of “first importance” to Paul and it ought to be to us as well.
It is easy to get distracted by the junk. Maybe it is time to back to the real mission.
All this junk is a big problem for those who operate satellites or send people into space. For example, in 1983 the Space Shuttle Challenger came back to earth with a huge crack in one of its windows after it was struck by a paint chip that was floating around. The “International Space Station” has had to change course and the astronauts have been on “evacuation alert” several times because of incoming hazards. To paraphrase one scientist: “If we could get rid of all the junk, we could get back to launching rockets and doing science. As it is, we end up wasting a lot of time on things that are not directly related to our real mission”.
Sadly, I can relate to that. I spend a lot of time worrying about “junk”, rather than focusing on what I am actually here to do. Often my real purpose gets pushed to the side.
This is not new. In fact, the apostle Paul struggled hard to remain on task and encouraged his readers to do the same. “Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
The simple message of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ was of “first importance” to Paul and it ought to be to us as well.
It is easy to get distracted by the junk. Maybe it is time to back to the real mission.
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