What’s the big idea?!

I chuckled a little when this title came to mind. It reminded me of a cartoon my brother watches…okay fine, I suppose I watched it too, but that’s beside the point. Let’s get straight into our topic.

About twenty years ago NASA set out on an expedition to build a telescope to be launched into space. The daring mission has since been faced with insurmountable predicaments considering it had been estimated to be accomplished by 2007. The James Webb telescope even so was launched into space on the 25th of December 2021. After covering hundreds of thousands of miles, it reached its final destination just yesterday, January the 24th where it is expected to stay for the rest of its useful life. Now, not merely as an economist but just as a reasoning human being, the cost of this telescope particularly caught my attention. The James Webb telescope cost around 10billion dollars with an initial goal of $3billion. Even more, this seemed unrealistic considering it having a useful life of 20years.

Now why would anyone, especially among the brightest minds in the world, shoot 10billion dollars to space? Now, I’m not the only one asking these questions. In an interview with space experts, a news anchor from aljazeera asked whether it was a reasonable move. He asked, what were the benefits of this telescope and would they balance this cost. To my surprise, one answered that among the reasons for such expeditions is trying to find meaning, origin and the reason for existence. In fact, in part of the NASA mission statement this is what it says,I quote “increase understanding of the universe and our place in it.“

Human beings are still searching for meaning. There seems to be a big question mark that is burning in our hearts. Where did I come from? Why I’m I here? Where I’m I headed?…

In the process, people have done many things to fill this gap, to find meaning in life. In a lecture series in Harvard 12 years ago on justice, the students were asked to respond on what they find most pleasure in, watching The Simpsons or Shakespeare. Most of them chose The Simpsons. Why? Because it was most entertaining, they answered. But when asked on which of the two, if stuck in a farm in the middle of no where, they would watch for the rest of their lives, most of them said Shakespeare. Why? Because Shakespeare seems to bring more meaning and development of the mind, said one of them. He would not like to be merely entertained for the rest of his life. These were university students!

With that being said, we then firmly reinforce that there is a search for meaning deep in us. Meaning, not merely to be momentarily thrilled but a deep driving force, something to wakeup to, something that makes us better people. We want to enter continually into a higher sense or state of existence. This writer puts it better; that:

It is claimed by some that the human race is in need, not of redemption, but of development—that it can refine, elevate, and regenerate itself. pp73.1

What we are trying to do is pretty cute. But my mind is confounded on the whole point. I mean, I do not want to scale the uttermost heights in the halls of academicians or end up in the most commendable section in Guinness record book then eventually die and vanish into nothingness. I suggest to you that at the very heart of every human being is life. We want to live. And I’m not talking about only a quantity of life but quality.

I confess that part of my suggestion is that we actually go for the things that fulfil us most and work for them. But I would be misguiding you if I first didn’t present to you the Provider and Sustainer of life. The above quote concludes thus:

As Cain thought to secure the divine favor by an offering that lacked the blood of a sacrifice, so do these expect to exalt humanity to the divine standard, independent of the atonement. The history of Cain shows what must be the results. It shows what man will become apart from Christ. Humanity has no power to regenerate itself. It does not tend upward, toward the divine, but downward, toward the satanic. Christ is our only hope.

You are first and fundamentally in need of Christ. Subsequently then does He refine our tastes and inclinations to lead us to the highest state of existence. He offers not only a quantity but a quality of life. Eternity is consistent of this, and it begins now, by believing and accepting Him to mold you.

God does not want us just to survive but to thrive. ~David Asscherick.