Astronaut Jeff Williams, (Colonel, US Army, Retired), blasted off today into space from Russia, on another mission of discovery aboard the International Space Station. You can follow him on Twitter. I was struck today by his post, note the “sdg” at the end, which stands for “Soli Deo Gloria” — to God alone be glory. Jeff is a devout Christian, a fellow LCMS Lutheran, in fact. Here’s a great summary of Jeff and the mission he is going on today.

Concordia Publishing House is publishing his book documenting his last mission drawing from thousands of beautiful photos Jeff took. Jeff is also a devotional author for us, contributing to a new resource for men soon to be published: Blessed Is the Man: A Man’s Journey through the Psalms, Psalms of Praise. Here’s a sample from Jeff’s devotion:

Psalm 148:1–3 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise Him in the heights! Praise Him, all His angels; praise Him, all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon, praise Him, all you shining stars! Psalm 148 is a psalm of worship. It begins and ends with praise. The imagery invoked is sublime and exalted. In the psalm, all that is celestial and terrestrial, inanimate and animate is called to praise. The psalm is an invitation to all of God’s creation—His angels and hosts, the sun and the moon, the heavens, the waters, the beasts and the trees, and the people of the earth—to praise Him. Obviously, lacking vocal chords inanimate objects cannot praise Him, and animals and plants cannot praise Him like we do. Even the angels and hosts of heaven do not need a command to praise. They inherently manifest praise to the Holy One. The psalm is not primarily a list of commands directed to the elements of creation. It is rather an invitation, and for we who have been brought to faith, it is an outpouring from the heart of one redeemed, of a recipient of God’s gracious provision, in worship to the holy and almighty God.

You can follow his Twitter feed at: twitter.com/astro_jeff

Breakfast done. Off we go. See you after docking. Thank you for prayers and support. Enjoy the journey! sdg

Here is video of Jeff’s launch. And you think you have a challenging commute to work! You will see Jeff in the capsule at around 6 minutes into the video.