What does a venture, train, ship, plane, and the space shuttle have in common?
What do any type of venture, a train, a big ship, a large airplane, and a rocket ship have in common?
They all start slowly and eventually build up their momentum so that they are also hard to stop. A train, like one I saw last week with over 90 cars, might have four or five locomotives. Their powerful engines straining to get it started. As the slack between each car is taken up and the whole train is in tension, finally the whole train slowly starts rolling. The speed builds up, and eventually it only takes maybe two locomotives to maintain velocity. And when it is time to stop hundreds of brakes are applied gradually so that eventually the train is brought to a safe stop – but it may take 2 or 3 miles to wholly stop.
All those tons of cargo which the train carries are bound by two narrow steel rails. One is called vision, and the other passion. Without vision, the train (and your venture) crashes. Without passion, it also crashes. With both, nothing can derail you unless you go too fast around the curves of battle. Sometimes you must read the road ahead and slow down. Other times it is right to go fast and faster.
A big ship also takes a long time to get underway. While in port it is tied to the dock with many lines the thickness of your forearm. There is the line of doubt, the line of fear, the line of unbelief, the line of pride, the line of laziness, the line of lack of motivation etc. Each one of these lines must be cast off before the ship is free to move. However after the ship is free, it still must be maneuvered by a pilot until it gets to open seas. Great motors, sometimes over 50,000 horsepower, slowly churn the propellers until momentum is gained and the ship is able to move at its top speeds. The pilot is like a mentor or a daddy guiding the great ship through unknown and potentially treacherous channels. Once the ship reaches the safety of the open sea the pilot releases the ship. The great ship is guided by the small rudder. It only takes a tiny proportion of weight and size compared to the whole ship to steer it. James compares this to the tiny but powerful tongue. That in-proportionate muscle can control life or death and must be controlled by a master.
Have you ever seen a large heavily laden airplane take off? (Or been on one?) It slowly taxis down to the end of the runway. It looks like such a huge and heavy beast that it could not possibly fly. Then the powerful engines kick in and slowly, so slowly it accelerates. The engines use incredible amounts of energy, in the form of burning fuel and heat, aimed to provide thrust which will push the vessel forward at an ever increasing rate of speed. It passes the markers slowly, eating up the runway, gradually building up speed. If you are seated inside you may start to get worried because it seems like there is not much runway left, and you still have not left the ground. But suddenly that magical velocity; which is enough for the wings to provide enough lift to offset the total weight of the airplane, is reached and the plane rotates into the air. It is flying, but still slowed down by the landing gear and flaps which restrict it’s speed and ability to fly efficiently. As soon as the gear is up and the flaps raised you notice a surge in speed, and this huge hunk of metal is climbing to the sky at 1000 feet per minute. Unshackled from the gravity which holds it down, the laws of aerodynamics kick in, and you are hurtling across the skies in a controlled fashion to your destination. So a venture requires lots of energy and expense to get going until it reaches the velocity it needs to take off. Yet many people limit the size of their runway, believing that it cannot possibly take off. And they give up before even reaching the go-no go point. And they crash and burn at the end of the runway.
The space shuttle sits on a gantry shackled by gravity and by restraining clamps of guilt and shame. Inside is explosive potential of anger and rage. But if the guilt and shame is released then the explosive power can be released under control of a master, and the ship slowly rises, ever accelerating until it is free of the bounds of gravity and the friction of the atmosphere. The boosters and extra fuel are jettisoned and the shuttle is free to do its mission. On returning to earth, to the bounds of gravity and the atmosphere his angle of entry must be just right or else he will either be burned by fires of hate and lust or he will bounce off the atmosphere and perish for lack of essential breath of heaven. Once he is past the entry there are only a few places where the pilot can land this big fast craft.
As the Shuttle re-enters the atmosphere it heats up because of friction, however the insulated tiles keep it protected. So your venture may heat up with the friction of unbelieving or fearful people. You are going too fast, they say. But your vision sustains you. You can see what others cannot see. That insulates you from the heat. There are also only a few places where your vision can land. If you try to land in a grass strip you will have missed out on the greatest part of your venture. You must land on the designated place.
From over 17000 miles per hour to Mach 22 to 200 or 300 miles per hour takes time, but gradually you are able to stop with the brakes of self constraint and the parachutes of love. If you tried to stop too fast your train would probably de-rail, your ship would probably be crunching into something immovable, your airplane would be destroyed, and your shuttle would break apart.
Sometimes it is right to slow down – slowly. And speed up gradually. But as Newton and every High School Physics student discovered, momentum is best left alone it takes as much energy to slow down as it does to speed up! Almost every venture starts gradually, but once the momentum gets going it takes less effort to keep it going.
So if the going seems slow at first, just take a look at a train, or a ship leaving dock, or a large airplane, or the Space Shuttle leaving the gantry. And be encouraged!
Rick Reece
