About this time last year I wrote about what a moving experience it was to visit the Wright Brothers Memorial and see where the first flight took place, December 17, 1903. It still moves me to think about “ordinary men with no special training:”

With courage and perseverance, these self-taught engineers relied on teamwork and application of the scientific process. What they achieved changed our world forever. – From a brochure at the Memorial

The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. (Acts 4.13, emphasis mine)

I shocked last week to learn that a mere nine weeks before the Wright Brothers flew, an editorial in the esteemed (I don’t know why!) New York Times opined in an article entitled “Flying Machines Which Do Not Fly”:

[It] might be assumed that the flying machine which will really fly might be evolved by the combined and continuous efforts of mathematicians and mechanicians in from one million to ten million years… No doubt the problem has attractions for those it interests, but to the ordinary man it would seem as if effort might be employed more profitably.

Where to start? The same day the editorial was published, Orville Wright wrote in his diary, “We started assembly today.”

• Just because it’s never been done doesn’t mean it can’t be done.
• Just because “experts” have tried and failed doesn’t mean it can’t be done.
• Sahil Bloom, who put me on to this story, uses it as a metaphor for self-limiting beliefs.

Within 40 years of when the Wright brothers first flew, aircraft from both sides were a major factor in World War 2. A mere 66 years after the Wright brothers flew, we landed a man on the moon. The Wright brothers first flight was 112 feet; their fourth of the day was 852 feet. In 1986 Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager flew an aircraft NONSTOP around the world (“they” probably said that couldn’t be done either).

Not one promise from God is empty of power, for nothing is impossible with God! (The Angel Gabriel to Mary as recorded in Luke 1.37, Passion Translation)

A little one shall become a thousand, And a small one a strong nation. I, the LORD, will hasten it in its time. (Isaiah 60.22, NKJV)