In every church, in every family, in every workplace and in every classroom there are skeptics-those who say it can’t be done, or those who lack faith and pour cold water on the ideas of the visionaries.
In the mid 1800s, an eloquent authority declared that the introduction of the railroad would require the building of many insane asylums, since people would be driven mad with terror at the sight of locomotives rushing across the country.
Those who lent Robert Fulton money for his steamboat project stipulated that their names be withheld for fear of ridicule were it known they were supporting anything so foolhardy.
In Germany, it was proved by “experts” that if trains went at the frightful speed of fifteen miles an hour, blood would spurt from the travelers’ noses and passengers would suffocate when going through tunnels.
A man by the name of Joshua Coppersmith was arrested in Boston for trying to sell stock for a new invention called the telephone. Part of his police deposition stated that, “All well-informed people know that it is impossible to transmit the human voice over a wire.”
In 1881, when the New York YWCA announced typing lessons for women, vigorous protests were made on the grounds that the female constitution would break down under the strain,
The first successful cast iron plow, invented in the United States in 1797, was rejected by New Jersey farmers under the theory that cast iron poisoned the land and stimulated the growth of weeds.
The life of faith, according to the Bible, keeps unbelief, skepticism and doubt at bay. To the skeptic Thomas, Jesus said, “Stop doubting and believe” (John 20:27). He also declared to His disciples, “Nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:21). So look ahead! Dream dreams! Increase your faith! Expand your vision. And when someone says it can’t be done, determine with God’s help that it can!
July/August 2002