What happens in 70 seconds? What can you do in 70 seconds? Watch a TikTok video? Make a phone call? Heat up some food in the microwave? Send a text? Watch the sunset? Eat a cookie?
There are a lot of things that can actually be done in 70 seconds. What about change the world? Change a life?
The Challenger Space Shuttle disaster occurred on Jan. 28, 1986. The space shuttle broke apart 73 seconds after launch. And for the first time, a teacher was aboard, Christa McAuliffe. So students were watching on their TV screens the world over as the shuttle fell to Earth and all seven astronauts were killed. The space shuttle program came to a screeching halt while the tragedy was investigated.
Seventy-three seconds. And people went from anticipation and excitement to horror and grief. So many lives impacted in just 73 seconds. And for some, the result was a greater interest in space and the desire to become an astronaut in spite of the risk involved. Or maybe because of it?
Nell, one of the astronauts on the spaceship in Samantha Harvey’s novel, Orbital, talks about how the Challenger disaster influenced her. She was seven when the Challenger fell to earth in real time. “I think, Nell says, when I watched the Challenger launch as a child, that was it for me. It wasn’t the moon landings, it was Challenger. I realised space is real, space flight is real, a thing real people do, die doing. Real people, like me, could actually do it, and if I died doing it that would be OK, I could die that way. And then it stopped being a dream and became a –a target. A goal. I became obsessively interested in the astronauts who had died. And so I guess that’s when it started.” [p. 69]
Seventy three seconds when she was 7 years old propelled the trajectory of Nell’s life. Can we point to something that has created the arc of our lives? What has shaped and influenced who we are; who we have become? Maybe it was an experience as brief as 70 seconds. Maybe an occurrence of 70 seconds that will change our lives completely awaits us.
Who is to say how the power of Divine Love might impact our lives. Our world. Perhaps – in just 10 seconds.
Prayer: In these days of Lent, may we be open to the impact of the Spirit. May we reflect upon the movement of the Spirit in our lives and be open to its transforming power today and all of our tomorrows. Amen.
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Devotion prepared by Rev. Kim P. Wells, pastor of Lakewood United Church of Christ in St. Petersburg, FL
The devotions this Lenten season will be based on the novel Orbital by Samantha Harvey. Orbital won the Booker Prize in 2024. It is a beautifully written story about the experience of a group of people orbiting the Earth in a spaceship. They see 16 sunrises and sunsets in a 24 hour period. The book is a reflection on the experience of living together and appreciating planet Earth in a new way.
Lakewood United Church of Christ 