5/6/15 – Perseverance is Magical

5/6/15 – Perseverance is Magical

This week, let’s start with watching this video below.  It is the TED Talk of David Blaine, professional magician.

As a little background, David is known for his street magic, sleight of hand, and, as you’ll see in this video, a number of crazy stunts putting his physicality and will power to the limit.

It’s not hard to appreciate his feat highlighted in this video, but to further illustrate how impressive it was, imagine watching that entire video again only this time hold your breath for all but three minutes of it.  Yikes!


What is Magic?

Magic causes quite a bit of controversy in the Christian world.  Is it wrong?  Is it evil?  Are they dealing with dark forces?  Is Harry Potter the devil?

It seemed appropriate to look up the definition of “magic” at this time:

Webster: The power of apparently influencing the course of events by using mysterious or supernatural forces.

After reading that, it felt natural to compare it to “miracle”:

Webster: An extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment (some reference “divine intervention”)

What we do know about much “magic” is that it’s all about tricking the audience and has nothing to do with supernatural powers: pulling a card from the bottom of the deck rather than the top, creating distractions away from the trick itself, trap doors, etc.  David Blaine uses his TED Talk as an opportunity to explain how he did something magical, something miraculous, by understanding the physical body and vigorously training.


Fear

David expressed a number of times he was afraid through this process.  Possible brain damage was a concern.  At multiple points during the challenge he actually thought he felt a heart attack coming!

When has fear limited you?  When David encountered fear he persevered through it.  In what ways in your life can you do a better job persevering past the fear to your final goal?


“Magic” and “Miracle” are Synonyms for “I Don’t Understand”

There was a time when gravity was considered something of magic.  A force in the cosmos that kept us from flying away – well, that’s actually pretty close to the real definition.  Over time and through science more and more mysteries have been solved.  This begs the question: what are humans actually capable of?

David Blaine, in his TED Talk, says something to the effect of “if someone can do something then I should be able to do it too.”

Perhaps what makes David so successful in his craft, magic, isn’t his supernatural abilities at all; perhaps his success is based on his perseverance and belief that he can.

John Wolfgang von Goethe (a poet) once said “Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.”  While that sounds a bit fancy free isn’t David a personification of that quote?

What false limitations have you given yourself?  Why do you believe you can’t do it?  What can you challenge yourself with this week to make magic, to perform a miracle?  Believe in yourself and drop all limitations.  Sometimes, even the smartest people in the world are wrong.

4/16/15 - Life Can Be Bittersweet

4/16/15 - Life Can Be Bittersweet 

Has God ever turned something bitter in your life into something sweet?  Here's a literal time God did just that for His people.

Exodus 15:22-27

The Waters of Marah and Elim

22Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. 23When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.^f ) 24So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”

25Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink.

There the Lord issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test. 26He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.”

27Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.

Let's take a look at this story on the surface level.  The Jews came to a water source only to find that it was bitter and, therefore, undrinkable.  Moses cried out to God and he presented a piece of wood to Moses, which he threw into the water and it became sweet and drinkable.

Often times when people read these stories they translate them as parables or miracles.  The lesson of this "parable" is that God makes all bitterness sweet so call to Him when you encounter something bitter.  The "miracle" of this passage is that God took something relatively inactive (a piece of wood) and used it as His instrument in a way that defies physics (or, more specifically, chemistry).


Miracle Berries

Have you ever heard of "miracle berries"?  No, this is not a 420 reference.  Miracle berries are a natural berry out of Africa.  When consumed, the naturally occurring glycoprotein in the berry binds to taste buds on the tongue and changes the flavor of sour and bitter things to sweet.

Due to insufficient food sources many tribes in Western Africa would eat these berries prior to meals in order to make the food more palatable.

We purchased pills created by this fruit to test it out for ourselves.  The pills help in standardizing potency as well as having a much longer shelf life than fresh berries.  You can purchase your own here.

It's easy to do a web search and discover great recommendations for foods to try with this, but here are a few that we found very interesting in our taste tests:

• Plain Cream Cheese
• Tastes like strawberry cream cheese
• Old Red Wine (over oxidized for pleasant taste)
• Tastes like a light port wine
• Old White Wine (that vinegar flavor associated with old whites)
• Tastes like a sweet Riesling
• Straight Vinegar
• Tastes like it was mixed with a lot of powdered sugar - good, in a weird and surprising way
• Lemon
• Tastes like lemonade - as if someone added too much sugar
• Guinness Beer
• Tastes like a milk shake - dangerous!

Application

Has God ever been the "miracle berry" in your life - turning something bitter into a sweet moment?  This could be a breakup (maybe even a divorce), a broken bone or other injury, a financial crisis.  Note that we are not suggesting, necessarily, that God created the negative circumstance, but only He can turn it into something positive.

Take some time to remember the hardest times of your life and try to recognize what has positive contrived from those times.  Thank God for them.

Back to Moses

Now, returning back to Moses and his miraculous piece of wood (or his parable).  What if that "piece of wood" was actually from the miracle berry plant?  Based on today's vegetation it is not likely that they were near the region where this plant is found, however a lot has changed in the last few thousand years and we know that the plant is indigenous to Africa; maybe it was.  

Sometimes God likes to work within the framework of natural laws He has created (physics, chemistry, etc.) and in awe of our creator we often write it off as another miracle.

To learn more about this biblical passage feel free to dive into this great article.

Biblical References

Exodus 15L22-27 (as seen earlier in this post)

Hebrew translation here.

Proverbs 27:7 A person who is full refuses honey, but even bitter food tastes sweet to the hungry.