Remembering the Challenger

While I was on the exercise bike at the YMCA, I saw on the nightly news that today is the 25th Anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster that killed all seven astronauts including Christa McAuliffe, a school teacher who had won a national competition to become the first teacher in space. It was an attempt by NASA to increase the public awareness and interest of our countries space program.

As I heard the news that this was the anniversary of that terrible accident in space, it brought back powerful memories for me. On January 28, 1986, I was teaching Mathematics at Tates Creek High School in Lexington, Kentucky. At the time of the Challenger Explosion, I was sitting in the teachers’ lounge eating lunch with my fellow teachers. I will never forget the shocking news over the intercom from the principal that the Challenger had exploded. My fellow teachers and I looked at each other in shock and dismay. The rest of the day, we rolled portable televisions into the classrooms and tried to help the students make sense of this terrible turn of events. This was especially tough for public school students since posters of Christa McAuliffe were displayed throughout the school building and they wrestled with the reality of a disaster that led to death.

One of the toughest challenges to many people’s faith is trying to understand why bad things happen to “good” people. This was the same challenge that a guy named Job, struggled with thousands of years ago. Job had lived a righteous life, but he suffered great loss and pain in his life. Through his pain Job searched for answers from the LORD and made the following observation: “How frail is humanity! How short is life, how full of trouble! We blossom like a flower and then wither. Like a passing shadow, we quickly disappear” (Job 14:1-2 NLT).

We might not ever be able to understand why tragedies and disasters happen to “good” people, but we can be certain that life is short. This realization reminds us of the importance of being prepared for eternity by having a personal relationship with God.