When the Signal Goes Silent

NASA's Mars rover Perseverance cannot call home when it gets into trouble. The radio signal between Earth and Mars takes anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes to travel one way. If Perseverance encounters an unexpected boulder or a steep drop while rolling across Jezero Crater, mission controllers cannot simply radio back instructions — by the time the warning arrives and a reply returns, 40 minutes have passed. So engineers spent years loading the rover with onboard navigation algorithms before anyone dared launch it into space. When danger comes, Perseverance acts on what it already knows. It trusts the programming built into it long before the crisis arrived.

There are moments in every believer's life when the heavens feel silent. You have prayed, you have waited, you have searched — and still you must act. The diagnosis is real. The confrontation cannot be postponed. The decision must be made today. Courage is not the absence of fear or doubt; it is moving forward on the truth already written into your heart. Before the crisis arrived, God wrote His Word there. The Holy Spirit sealed it. The promises were loaded before launch.

"Have I not commanded you?" the Lord told Joshua. "Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

You were not sent into the unknown unprepared. The signal is never truly gone. You were launched with everything you need.