I love ‘The Book of Heroic Failures’… it’s a hilarious compilation of people attempting things that resulted in spectacular failure.
One standout from 1983 was a Californian sunbather seeking a perfect tan. Going for better quality rays above the urban smog, he attached 42 helium balloons to his deckchair.
Tethered to earth by a long rope, he intended rising 6000 feet to bask in ultra violet bliss. But the rope broke. He rose to 15,000 feet and was reported by an airline pilot as a UFO sighting. Well prepared, the sunbather used an air pistol to shoot out some balloons… he shot too many evidently. Descending back to earth, much paler than when he left, his deckchair demolished power cables causing a major outage.
In one section of this book, some bold predictors are funny for how far off the mark they were…
One visionary, Lord Kelvin- President of the Royal Society,1890-95 declared, radio has no future, X-rays will prove to be a hoax and heavier than air flying machines are impossible.
The US Patent Office Director in 1899 claimed “everything that can be invented has been invented”.
Murray Smith
The International Monetary Fund Director, in 1959 stated, “In all likelihood world inflation is over.”
In 1965, The Duke of Edinburgh opined, “The Beatles? They’re on the wane.”
Getting things wrong in life, isn’t just possible – it’s inevitable. We’re prone to make wrong judgments and mistakes in all manner of situations. Mistakes can be our teacher, if we’re humble enough to acknowledge our incomplete understanding and to accept that we don’t know, what we don’t know.
One area in life we can ill-afford to get wrong relates to what we believe about God. If we’re open to carefully and thoughtfully investigating compelling evidence available, listening to the voice of reason, as well as considering the tug in our heart, we will be confronted with an inevitable conclusion… a personal relationship with God (not to be confused with just getting ‘religious’), not only makes sense – it is essential.
It was CS Lewis who said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else”. He saw arriving at right conclusions as crucial… this is the wrong thing to get wrong, or to be passively indifferent about, because the consequences of taking that path, carry enormous impact.
The truth is we’re purposefully designed and equipped by God to share friendship and relationship with Him. Unlike a trivial ‘take it or leave it’ optional choice on a restaurant menu, fundamentally we need God. Rejecting that truth constitutes a decision to live independently of Him- there’s no more serious mistake to make.
Making the right choice, means humbly turning our lives wholeheartedly over to God, receiving forgiveness for wilful disobedience and every wrong deed. Everyone accepting the gift of salvation offered to us by Jesus embarks on a brand new beginning.
Don’t be mistaken. We’ve got one shot at this life… ‘getting it right’ now, means getting it right for all that lies ahead in the life to come.
