One day, author Robert Schuller boarded a plane and sat next to a man who was chuckling to himself. “What’s so funny?” he asked the man.
“You may not believe it but the craziest thing just happened,” he said, and then pointed across the aisle to where American blind singer Ray Charles was seated with his seeing-eye dog.
“So?” Schuller asked again. The man explained: “At our last stop, the captain came out and asked Ray Charles if there was anything he needed. The singer told him, ‘As a matter of fact, yes. Would you mind taking my dog out for a walk?’”
The captain agreed and took hold of the leather handle and led the dog outside. As the passengers waited nearby to board the plane, they could see the captain walking the seeing-eye dog. Just as they watched the captain, led by the dog, head up the steps to board the plane, the announcement came: “All passengers can now board the plane.”
When the gate opened, however, nobody dared to get aboard – not after seeing that captain led by a seeing-eye dog. It took a while for the captain to figure out what was happening. So he came out and explained to the passengers, “It’s all right. I have my sight.”
This anecdote brings us to the subject of trust. If you were in the shoes of those passengers, you will definitely do the same dilly-dallying. Will you trust a pilot who couldn’t see? I am sure you won’t.
“That the Almighty does make use of human agencies and directly intervenes in human affairs is one of the plainest statements in the Bible. I have had so many evidences of His direction, so many instances when I have been controlled by some other power than my own will, that I cannot doubt that this power comes from above.” That statement comes from the mouth of US President Abraham Lincoln.
A lady on a flight from Japan to Manila became very upset when they hit strong turbulence. “Are we going to crash?” she asked the stewardess.
The stewardess tried to calm her down, saying, “Don’t be afraid. We’re all in the hands of God.” The lady replied, “Oh is it that bad?” The stewardess corrected, “No. It’s actually that good…”
All we have to do is trust. “Trust that has been built over a lifetime can be destroyed in a moment, by a betrayal of the basic ingredients upon which that trust was established,” William A. Ward once said. It only takes one single thing and that trust will be gone forever.
In 1662, the people of London saw a procession of 30 prisoners walking along the street without a policeman to guard over them. They were imprisoned because they had refused to take an oath, saying that any man’s word is as binding as any oath can be. Now, they were proving it.
The prisoners were being moved from one jail to another, and the jailer sent them off with these words: “You are to go to Bridewall Prison, and you know your way there. Your word is trustworthy. There is no need of me going with you. You may go alone, providing you promise to arrive there before dark.”
Thomas Elwood was among the prisoners. People were asking them: Where were they going? Why? And with no keeper? Would they escape? It was their chance! But Elwood told the crowd: “No; for our word, which we have given, is our keeper.”
Just how binding is your word? “Trust is a treasured item and relationship,” Ward again said. “Once it is tarnished, it is hard to restore it to its original glow.” The prisoners knew this fact!
Remember the great American inventor Thomas Alva Edison? So many stories were written about him. But there was one that has been told several times – so much so that I could not forget it.
When he was in the middle of his 12,000 experiments to develop the first electric light bulb, Edison handed a finished bulb to a young helper. The lad carried it nervously up the stairs step by step. At the very last moment, he dropped it.
The entire factory team had to work another 24 hours to make another bulb. When it was finished, the American inventor looked around and then handed the bulb to the same boy. Edison knew that more than the bulb was at stake.
“Better to trust the man who is frequently in error than the one who is never in doubt,” Eric Sevareid said. To which Camillo Di Cavour added, “The man who trusts men will make fewer mistakes than he who distrusts them.”
This story may be familiar – but with a different ending. Two six-year-old boys were playing “follow the leader” on top of an old tottering city wall, fully 18 feet above the ground.
Each dared the other to harder and harder challenges. They tiptoed across very narrow spots to prove that they would not get giddy or dizzy. They spat down n contempt from the heights. Then they came to where they wall had crumbled completely. As they stood there looking down, the part behind them broke off. So now they were stranded on a “little island” 18 feet above the ground.
They had to call for help. Up came a man, stood at the foot of the wall, stretched out his arms and yelled to them, “Jump down. I’ll catch you.”
What happened next? The two boys were so alike, as almost to be twins, but each reacted to the invitation in opposite ways. One jumped off the edge of the wall without hesitation. The other sank to his knees, cried in panic and waited for the firemen to come with their long ladders.
The question now is: Why did one boy have the courage to jump and the other not? The answer is easy: the man down below was the first boy’s father.
“You may not believe it but the craziest thing just happened,” he said, and then pointed across the aisle to where American blind singer Ray Charles was seated with his seeing-eye dog.
“So?” Schuller asked again. The man explained: “At our last stop, the captain came out and asked Ray Charles if there was anything he needed. The singer told him, ‘As a matter of fact, yes. Would you mind taking my dog out for a walk?’”
The captain agreed and took hold of the leather handle and led the dog outside. As the passengers waited nearby to board the plane, they could see the captain walking the seeing-eye dog. Just as they watched the captain, led by the dog, head up the steps to board the plane, the announcement came: “All passengers can now board the plane.”
When the gate opened, however, nobody dared to get aboard – not after seeing that captain led by a seeing-eye dog. It took a while for the captain to figure out what was happening. So he came out and explained to the passengers, “It’s all right. I have my sight.”
This anecdote brings us to the subject of trust. If you were in the shoes of those passengers, you will definitely do the same dilly-dallying. Will you trust a pilot who couldn’t see? I am sure you won’t.
“That the Almighty does make use of human agencies and directly intervenes in human affairs is one of the plainest statements in the Bible. I have had so many evidences of His direction, so many instances when I have been controlled by some other power than my own will, that I cannot doubt that this power comes from above.” That statement comes from the mouth of US President Abraham Lincoln.
A lady on a flight from Japan to Manila became very upset when they hit strong turbulence. “Are we going to crash?” she asked the stewardess.
The stewardess tried to calm her down, saying, “Don’t be afraid. We’re all in the hands of God.” The lady replied, “Oh is it that bad?” The stewardess corrected, “No. It’s actually that good…”
All we have to do is trust. “Trust that has been built over a lifetime can be destroyed in a moment, by a betrayal of the basic ingredients upon which that trust was established,” William A. Ward once said. It only takes one single thing and that trust will be gone forever.
In 1662, the people of London saw a procession of 30 prisoners walking along the street without a policeman to guard over them. They were imprisoned because they had refused to take an oath, saying that any man’s word is as binding as any oath can be. Now, they were proving it.
The prisoners were being moved from one jail to another, and the jailer sent them off with these words: “You are to go to Bridewall Prison, and you know your way there. Your word is trustworthy. There is no need of me going with you. You may go alone, providing you promise to arrive there before dark.”
Thomas Elwood was among the prisoners. People were asking them: Where were they going? Why? And with no keeper? Would they escape? It was their chance! But Elwood told the crowd: “No; for our word, which we have given, is our keeper.”
Just how binding is your word? “Trust is a treasured item and relationship,” Ward again said. “Once it is tarnished, it is hard to restore it to its original glow.” The prisoners knew this fact!
Remember the great American inventor Thomas Alva Edison? So many stories were written about him. But there was one that has been told several times – so much so that I could not forget it.
When he was in the middle of his 12,000 experiments to develop the first electric light bulb, Edison handed a finished bulb to a young helper. The lad carried it nervously up the stairs step by step. At the very last moment, he dropped it.
The entire factory team had to work another 24 hours to make another bulb. When it was finished, the American inventor looked around and then handed the bulb to the same boy. Edison knew that more than the bulb was at stake.
“Better to trust the man who is frequently in error than the one who is never in doubt,” Eric Sevareid said. To which Camillo Di Cavour added, “The man who trusts men will make fewer mistakes than he who distrusts them.”
This story may be familiar – but with a different ending. Two six-year-old boys were playing “follow the leader” on top of an old tottering city wall, fully 18 feet above the ground.
Each dared the other to harder and harder challenges. They tiptoed across very narrow spots to prove that they would not get giddy or dizzy. They spat down n contempt from the heights. Then they came to where they wall had crumbled completely. As they stood there looking down, the part behind them broke off. So now they were stranded on a “little island” 18 feet above the ground.
They had to call for help. Up came a man, stood at the foot of the wall, stretched out his arms and yelled to them, “Jump down. I’ll catch you.”
What happened next? The two boys were so alike, as almost to be twins, but each reacted to the invitation in opposite ways. One jumped off the edge of the wall without hesitation. The other sank to his knees, cried in panic and waited for the firemen to come with their long ladders.
The question now is: Why did one boy have the courage to jump and the other not? The answer is easy: the man down below was the first boy’s father.
