Pastor Mickey

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step ”.  When Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in the historic NASA space project, he declared, “One small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.”  History is filled with stories of adventurers, men and women who dared to dream; who dared to explore and discover.  We love to read of dreamers, navigators, conquerors, who often not knowing what the future held, launched into the unknown to fight battles, slay dragons and win victories! In 1952, Sir Edmund Hillary spoke to an auditorium filled with students and teachers about his failure to climb Mt. Everest.  He stepped to the edge of the platform and pointing at the image of the mountain on a map, said, “You’ve beaten me this time, but next time I’ll beat you because you’ve grown all you’re going to grow, and I’m still growing.”  The next year, 1953, Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to conquer Mount Everest after 25 years of failure by ...

One morning as Alfred Nobel was reading the newspaper, he was shocked to find his name listed in the obituary column. It was a mistake, but nonetheless, there it was. He was stunned to see that he was primarily remembered as the man who invented dynamite. At that time in history, dynamite was used in great effect for warfare. It distressed Nobel to think that all he would be known for was inventing dynamite, something that was used to take the lives of others. As a result of reading this mistaken obituary, Nobel decided to change the course of his life. He committed himself to world peace and established what we know today as the Nobel Peace Prize. When the name Alfred Nobel is mentioned today, dynamite is rarely the first thing that comes to mind. Rather, we think of the prize that bears his name. It’s all because Alfred Nobel decided to change the course his life was taking. Another man, living centuries before, also changed the negative course his life was taking. His name was ...