Friday, May 8, 2015

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.


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