When you hear the term “The Right Stuff” it brings to mind astronauts. Those brave men & women had qualities about themselves that made them do what needed to be done which most people would find difficult to do. Venturing into space where no one has been before. In my mind, the same would hold true for the pioneer who moved west through the United States. Not knowing what laid in store for them but searching for something better for themselves and the common good.

That’s not what caused me to write this morning. My dilemma, as I approached the bathroom sink, was to choose “The Right Stuff”. You see, our counter was cluttered with a number of white tubes of paste, and my decision was to choose the right stuff that would make brushing my teeth a little more pleasant. But that decision led me here.

We make decisions every day, some are important, some not so much. Which shampoo to use, what to eat for supper, how to discipline our children, who to vote for, whether to obey traffic laws and if you put your faith in God. Some of these decisions don’t require much courage on our part. But often, we are all faced with decisions that require some kind of ‘stuff’, maybe even “The Right Stuff”.

In the past few days, I have come to the realization that “The Right Stuff” also applies to individuals who are willing to risk their well-being for the common good. People who choose to take the risk, trying to improve their health with no guarantees in the hope that something will be learned for future generations. I have no idea how many people in the course of modern medicine have chosen to enter a medical trial, how many husbands and wives have given everything humanly possible in search of a cure for some disease, how many individuals have chosen the good of the many over the betterment of the individual.

My wife has made that decision. She has decided to enter the Cancer Trial at Rush University to help determine if a specific drug will reduce the re-occurance of her particular cancer. She has chosen to put her individual well-being behind that of humanity as a whole. She is my favorite astronaut!

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
James 4:17