I just read about a fascinating concept called “the slingshot effect.” Someone mentioned it to me yesterday and I did a little research.

One key to interplanetary journeys is “gravity assist” maneuvers. Spacecrafts use the gravity of different planets to get them where they want to go. The orbit of different planets are used to change trajectories.

The first spacecraft to experience a gravity assist was NASA’s Pioneer 10. In December 1973, it approached a rendezvous with Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System. It was traveling at 9.8 kilometers per second, but following it’s passage through Jupiter’s gravitational field, it sped off into deep space at a speed of 22.4 kilometers per second.

It’s almost like those merry-go-rounds on playgrounds where you spin around and if you let go you’ll “fly off” in a particular direction. That kind of acceleration is called the slingshot effect.

So here’s my point. This friend I met with yesterday likened relationships to “gravity assists” and it made so much sense to me. I can think of a half dozen people–mentors and pastors and professors and friends–who have pulled me into their orbit and used gravity assists to slingshot me to where I am in my interplanetary journey. Was that a run on sentence? You get the point. We’re called to “spur one another on to good deeds.” It’s the slingshot effect. I just think it’s a cool way of thinking about relationships!