Yesterday we were in awe of NASA’s JPL landing a rover on Mars. It’s incredible.

In the linked “landing a rover” video above, an engineer said something like,

This is what we do. We band together to make things happen. If we could do this as a country with our other challenges, think what we could do! – JPL Engineer

He’s right. Smart people, working together toward a goal can often reach that goal or make significant progress. I wrote a while back about how the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have helped make significant progress on sanitation.

So we can “dare mighty things” and succeed. God said as much in Genesis 11.6 when the people were building the Tower of Babel.

And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. (Genesis 11.6, ESV)

The problem is that sometimes the mighty things turn out badly. The Internet, for example, has been a great force for good…and also evil with readily available pornography and gambling, not to speak of the social media platforms for outrage and fake news.

For a humorous look at the potential evil in social media on the Internet, check out this insightful Pearls before Swine comic from February 7.

Sometimes it’s difficult to tell what the net impact of a new technology will be. For example, the 2017 Dare Mighty Things Conference contained talks on potentially positive things like Mars exploration and mobile devices. But a program director for CRISPR, the gene-editing technology was there, too. And many medical ethicists are really concerned about the unintended consequences of that.

I’m quickly getting beyond the scope of a hastily written daily blog. So let’s just call it a caution. Dare Mighty Things? Yes, absolutely. A lot of good for the Kingdom and for people has been done by those who did. But let’s be careful what we dare…we might succeed!

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2.10, ESV)

7 Like warriors they charge;
like soldiers they scale the wall.
They march each on his way;
they do not swerve from their paths.
8 They do not jostle one another;
each marches in his path;
they burst through the weapons
and are not halted. (Joel 2.7, 8, ESV) – from my blog, Life Lessons from Locusts, February 14, 2019

After this Absalom got himself a chariot and horses, and fifty men to run before him. And Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way of the gate. And when any man had a dispute to come before the king for judgment, Absalom would call to him and say, “From what city are you?” And when he said, “Your servant is of such and such a tribe in Israel,” Absalom would say to him, “See, your claims are good and right, but there is no man designated by the king to hear you.” Then Absalom would say, “Oh that I were judge in the land! Then every man with a dispute or cause might come to me, and I would give him justice.” And whenever a man came near to pay homage to him, he would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him. Thus Absalom did to all of Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. (2 Samuel 15.1 – 6, ESV)