
A Daily Thunder Series with Eric Ludy
Spiritual Lessons from the Wright Brothers
Part 1: 7 Hawthorn Street
Very few men in history have impacted the course of history as did Wilbur and Orville Wright from Dayton, Ohio. They were every day men—simple men—but men with a childlike confidence that they could pull off an impossible task. There is a spark in every child—a spark that shouts, “Do something amazing!” But in 99.9% of children, that spark is dowsed by the cynical adults surrounding them. This is a message that invites each and every one of us to return to the age of six and start dreaming big again.
Part 2: Staring Down the Impossible
At the conclusion of the 19th century it was determined by the intellectual elite that human controlled flight would NEVER happen. In fact, it was officially declared to be “impossible.” Such was the challenging soil in which the Wright Brother’s miracle discovery of “human controlled flight” was fostered. Whereas, most human’s dream, dream, and dream only to ultimately succumb, and forsake their dreams, due to the counsel of the wise teachers of their age that declare their dreams to be inconceivable—there are a few men and women in history that haven’t stopped dreaming, even when the pressure to forsake their dream was laid on thick. The Wright Brothers are one of the rare ones in history that wouldn’t succumb, and instead, stared down The Impossible.
Part 3: The End of Orville Wright
In 1886 Orville Wright died . . . sort of. We don’t want to give away any spoilers, but the simple fact that Orville invented (with his brother, Wilbur) the first operational airplane in 1903, it maybe goes without saying that his death in 1886 must have been short lived. But so are all the deaths that we have along the way in our Christian life. Like Orville’s death in 1886, God will bring us to our end so that He can work a wonderful new beginning in us. This is what happened in Orville’s life. And this is what will certainly happen in our lives, too, if we will start appreciating the key role that death plays in the cultivation of abundant Life.