The Famous Astronaut Buzz Aldrin Faced A Conflict ...

The famous astronaut Buzz Aldrin faced a conflict after returning from the moon. He spiraled into a deep depression that ultimately resulted in him being hospitalized, medicated and put through a battery of psychiatric treatments. Ignorant of the depth of his own disability, once the medicine kicked in, he felt so much better that he immediately began making plans for a new start:

• He would divorce his wife and marry his lover

• First, he would spend Thanksgiving with his wife and children so everything could be like old times

• He would then take his wife to Acapulco for their 17th anniversary and break the news to her

Of course, his counselor was aghast and tried to talk him out of it. He was in far too fragile a state to make such life-changing decisions. He was also reaching for two very different senses of fulfillment. Aldrin admits that he did not see the contradiction in this plan. His medicine made him feel better, but his mind was still not reasoning clearly. He wanted so badly to have a new start that he was grasping at everything that seemed to hold out that hope

(SOURCE: Return to Earth by Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin).

That kind of contradiction is what the Colossians were facing. They were traveling a new spiritual road, rushing forward with power and speed. Along side that spirituality, in their town of great philosophical and religious industry, were a couple of other groups that wanted to lead them along their own paths. Paul, like Aldrin's counselor was working hard to help them see the incompatibility of these two other influences with the path they had chosen.