Change Your Standard
One day E. H. Harriman, the railroad magnate, was walking along the tracks with an assistant. Looking at a track bolt, he turned to the other man and asked, “Why does so much of the bolt protrude beyond the nut?” “I don’t really know,” said the assistant. “Except that it is the size we’ve always used.” “Why should we use a bolt of such length that a part of it is utterly useless?” asked Harriman. “Well, when you come right down to it, there is no reason.”
The two continued walking along the track for a moment, then Harriman asked how many track bolts there were in a mile of track. He was told. “Well,” said Harriman, “we have thousands of miles of track, and there must be some fifty million track bolts in our system. If you can cut an ounce from every bolt, you will have fifty million ounces of iron, and that is something worthwhile. Change your bolt standard!”
Great Events Turn on Small Hinges
1. The Gospel was first introduced to Japan through a portion of the Scriptures that floated ashore and was picked up by a Japanese gentleman. Afterwards he sent for a whole Bible and was instructed by the missionaries. When the Queen of Korea lost her little child by death, a slave girl in the palace told her of heaven where the child had gone, and the Savior who would take her there. Thus the Gospel was first introduced to Korea by a little captive maid.
2. The success of the mission in Telugu in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India depended on the fact that John Cloud had studied engineering when he was at college. Therefore he was able to take the contract for the building of the canal during the famine and provide the employment of thousands of laborers to whom he preached everyday on the text, John 3:16. The result of this work was the baptism of 10,000 converts in one year.
3. The battle of Bennington was gained, it is said, because a little lame boy in Vermont set a shoe on Col. Warren’s tender-footed horse, and thus enabled the Colonel to lead up his regiment just in time to save the day. The victory of Bennington decided the Battle of Saratoga, which decided the Revolutionary War.
4. The hunger of the son of Columbus led him to stop at the monastery in Andalusia and ask for bread. The Prior of the monastery, who had been the confessor of Queen Isabella, heard the story of the adventurous navigator, and brought about an interview with the Queen, which resulted in the sailing of Columbus for the discovery of America. It all hinged upon the hunger of the boy.
5. Robert Bruce took refuge in a cave from the pursuer who was seeking his life. A spider at once wove a web across the mouth of the cave, and when the pursuer came by, he saw the web and took it for granted that no one had entered. The destiny of millions of people hinged upon that little spider’s web.
Each one of us may be that little hinge upon which rests the destiny of a nation, or of an age, or of a church, or of someone’s life whom God may greatly use.
Stirrups
In 1066 one of the most decisive battles in the history of the world was fought. William, Duke or Normandy, ventured an invasion of England in the face of a formidable opponent. But one of the reasons that gave him the confidence to try such a risky undertaking was that he had a recently invented technological edge that the English did not. That edge was the stirrup.
While the English rode to the battlefield, they fought on foot; conventional wisdom being that the horse was too unstable a platform from which to fight. But the Norman cavalry, standing secure in their stirrups, were able to ride down the English, letting the weight of their charging horses punch their lances home. This technological edge led to the conquest of Britain. Without it, William might never have attempted such a perilous war.
Wasted Time
Experience proves that most time is wasted, not in hours, but in minutes. A bucket with a small hole in the bottom gets just as empty as a bucket that is deliberately kicked over.
Small Things Cause Big Problems
The U.S. News and World Report, commenting on a delay in the space shuttle Columbia’s second flight, pointed out that little things have often been the cause of big difficulties in the space program. The reason for the postponement was a clogged hydraulic-system filter. Officials reported that the 5 quarts of oil needed for a change was worth only about $25. Yet the setback cost American taxpayers approximately $3 million a day. On another occasion, a costly satellite was lost because a punctuation mark was omitted from its computer program. And the cause for aborting an Apollo 13 moon landing in 1970 was a short circuit caused by a piece of wire worth about 50 cents.
One Vote
1. In 1645, one vote gave Oliver Cromwell control of England.
2. In 1649, one vote caused Charles I of England to be executed.
3. In 1776 one vote determined that English, not German, would be the American language.
4. In 1845, One vote brought Texas into the Union.
5. In 1868, one vote saved President Andrew Johnson from impeachment.
6. In 1875, one vote changed France from a monarchy to a republic.
7. In 1923, one vote gave Hitler control of the Nazi party.
8. In 1941, 12 weeks before Pearl Harbor, one vote saved the Selective Service.
9. In 1960, Richard Nixon lost the Presidential election and John F. Kennedy won it by less than one vote per precinct in the United States.
Empty Shells
In Elmer Bendiner’s book, The Fall of Fortresses, he describes one bombing run over the German city of Kassel:
Our B-17 (THE TONDELAYO) was barraged by flak from Nazi antiaircraft guns. That was not unusual, but on this particular occasion our gas tanks were hit. Later, as I reflected on the miracle of a twenty-millimeter shell piercing the fuel tank without touching off an explosion, our pilot, Bohn Fawkes, told me it was not quite that simple.
On the morning following the raid, Bohn had gone down to ask our crew chief for that shell as a souvenir of unbelievable luck. The crew chief told Bohn that not just one shell but eleven had been found in the gas tanks—eleven unexploded shells where only one was sufficient to blast us out of the sky. It was as if the sea had been parted for us. Even after thirty-five years, so awesome an event leaves me shaken, especially after I heard the rest of the story from Bohn.
He was told that the shells had been sent to the armorers to be defused. The armorers told him that Intelligence had picked them up. They could not say why at the time, but Bohn eventually sought out the answer.
Apparently when the armorers opened each of those shells, they found no explosive charge. They were clean as a whistle and just as harmless. Empty? Not all of them.
One contained a carefully rolled piece of paper. On it was a scrawl in Czech. The Intelligence people scoured our base for a man who could read Czech. Eventually, they found one to decipher the note. It set us marveling. Translated, the note read: “This is all we can do for you now.”
Makes A Difference
I recently read about an old man, walking the beach at dawn, who noticed a young man ahead of him picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Catching up with the youth, he asked what he was doing. The answer was that the stranded starfish would die if left in the morning sun. “But the beach goes on for miles and miles, and there are millions of starfish,” countered the man. “How can your effort make any difference?”
The young man looked at the starfish in his hand and then threw it to safety in the waves. “It makes a difference to this one,” he said.
Organization
No organization can depend on genius; the supply is always scarce and unreliable. It is the test of an organization to make ordinary human beings perform better than they seem capable of, to bring out whatever strength there is in its members, and to use each man’s strength to help all the others perform. The purpose of an organization is to enable common men to do uncommon things. - Peter F. Drucker
Resosurce
- Studies in Theology, L. Boettner, Eerdmans, 1947, pp. 9-43