Truth or Lies…It’s All In The O-Rings… Hello weekend readers. I’m sure many of us have some kind of musings on the upcoming election. Truth or lies? O gosh, I do enjoy fact-checking, but after a while it just hurts my heart because people buy into lies over and over again. Whether it’s an election for the country, the new pastor, the latest movie, NFL squabbles…OK, that’s enough of all that. No doubt we could have reams of paper about truth and lies, including our own lives.

Since this musing about truth and lies has kept me from sleeping, I decided to dive into some of the historical stuff I keep and there it was: the problem with the Challenger—the hope of NASA that we all know failed horribly. Below is a very fact-checked story about this and what happens with skirting the truth and embracing little lies and cover-ups. (This story was from NASA, reported in the Atlantic.)

On the fateful winter morning of January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger stood poised for launch. Overnight, the temperature had plummeted into the twenties. At lift-off, it was a crisp 36 degrees Fahrenheit. Huge icicles clung ominously to the launch tower. This didn’t look good. Allan McDonald, an engineer employed by the manufacturer of the solid rocket boosters that straddled the shuttle, shuddered—but not because of the cold. Research had shown that the O-rings sealing the sections of each booster might be more likely to leak when temperatures would drop. He said, “The rings had never been tested during an actual launch below 51 degrees, that bothers me.” The sad part? No one listened to him. During a teleconference some 12 hours before launch, the Thiokol engineers told the NASA management about their concerns over the O-rings. They knew overnight temperatures were set to drop to 20 degrees, which raised an additional ice concern but…in the early morning inspection they confirmed that the launch structure was covered in foot-long icicles, and no one knew what would really happen if they broke off and became sharp debris. So, they decided that the risks were deemed appropriate for launch. McDonald stood virtually alone as he steadfastly opposed the launch; he even tried several times to stop it, talking to the Thiokol engineers, but they laughed him off. In the end, NASA said no, the launch went ahead as scheduled, and we know the outcome: 73 seconds later, six brave astronauts and one enthusiastic schoolteacher lost their lives when the O-rings failed.

Question is, “Was Allan McDonald arrogant when he challenged the decision to launch? Was he intolerant?” No, he was concerned because he knew the data. Any thinking person would be the same way. He just was unwilling to see innocent people die because others had ignored, distorted, or tried to change the facts to make them look good. However, Allan McDonald knew the truth, and he stood up for it. It took quite a while to get through every part of this debacle, but in the end, those who knew better admitted their fault and thankfully they are no longer with NASA! That doesn’t bring back those who died though.

But here’s the deeper problem—we all have skirted the truth. The folks at Barna have statistics that show both those of faith and no faith skirt the truth just as often! Yet, God has called us to be salt and light, to be honest, to care for one another. Think about the O-rings, seven people knew about the problem, yet not one tried to stop the launch except Allan McDonald. How would you feel about that? What if those who died were part of your family?

In 2 Thessalonians 2:15-17 [GNT], the Apostle Paul had strong words for us in situations of truth being scrabbled: “So then, our friends, stand firm and hold on to those truths which we taught you, both in our preaching and in our letter. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and in his grace gave us unfailing courage and a firm hope, encourage you and strengthen you to always do and say what is good and true.”

Far too often we Christ followers know the truth but neglect to stand up for it. Friends, let’s remember that there are millions of people heading into a ‘Challenger tragedy’ because they are apart from God—faith is not in their scope of living. God calls us to stand up for the truth, stand up for faith in Christ, and stand firm in our faith—whatever it takes. Then we can help those struggling and give them the only hope they need and that is Jesus! AMEN.