Breaking Mythical Barriers
For decades, the four‑minute mile was considered an almost impossible human achievement. It was like a mythical barrier had been set in place that none could shatter. Physiologists even warned that attempting it could be dangerous.
But on May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister, a 25‑year‑old English medical student, achieved the feat with a time of 3 minutes 59.4 seconds, just under the mythical barrier.
Once the mythical barrier was shattered, the barrier was quickly broken by other runners. Australian John Landy ran 3:57.9 later in 1954, proving the broken barrier wasn’t just a one‑off.
Since then, the mile record has steadily fallen. The current world record is 3:43.13, set by Moroccan runner Hicham El Guerrouj in 1999.
Today, more than 2,000 athletes have run under 4 minutes.
The first American to break 4 minutes was Don Bowden in 1957, running 3:58.7. And now the U.S. has produced dozens of sub‑4 milers, with 69 new additions in 2023 alone.
Fun Facts:
The four‑minute mile requires an average speed of 15 mph (24 km/h).
Despite thousands of men achieving it, no woman has yet run a mile under 4 minutes.
The breaking of the 4 minute mile was often compared to climbing Mount Everest — both were once thought impossible until the mid‑20th century.
Life presents each of us with trials of different kinds, and sadly, some lose hope when the weight of those challenges feels unbearable. Yet history reminds us that barriers once thought impossible can indeed be broken. For decades, the four‑minute mile was considered beyond human capability — until Roger Bannister proved otherwise in 1954. His achievement became a symbol that what seems insurmountable today can be overcome tomorrow.
In the same way, Scripture offers us a deeper assurance. In John 16:33, Jesus declares: “In this world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world.” Just as Bannister’s triumph showed that human limits are not fixed, Christ’s victory in the flesh demonstrates that trials do not have the final word. He set an example for us to follow — showing that endurance, courage, and faith can carry us through even the hardest struggles.
So when life’s obstacles feel overwhelming, we can remember both the runner who shattered a myth and the Savior who conquered the world. Their stories remind us: if it has been done before, it can be done again — and with faith, we too can endure and overcome.
When Ice Bergs Come Crashing
The world’s largest iceberg has run aground in shallow waters off the remote island of South Georgia, home to millions of penguins and seals. The iceberg, which is about 1,250 square miles wide and 985 feet tall, appears to be stuck. The saga of the stranding of this iceberg is the culmination of a40-years long story that started when it first broke off the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf of Antarctica in 1986.
Experts expect it to start breaking up on the island’s southwest shores, since the tides will now be lifting the iceberg up and down. That will grind the iceberg backwards and forwards, eroding the ice.
Where the iceberg is touching the ice shelf where it is stuck, there are thousands of tiny creatures like coral, sea slugs, and sponge. Their entire universe is being bulldozed by a massive slab of ice scraping along the sea floor. That is catastrophic in the short-term for these species, but they say that it is a natural part of the life cycle in the region. Fishermen fear they will be forced to battle with vast chunks of ice. It could also affect the macaroni penguins feeding in the area.
“Where it is destroying in one place, it’s providing nutrients and food in other places.”
While the macaroni penguins who forage on the shelf where the iceberg is stuck could be affected, scientists in Antarctica say that huge amounts of nutrients are locked inside the ice, and that as it melts, it will create an explosion of new life in the ocean.
“It’s like dropping a nutrient bomb into the middle of an empty desert,” says Professor Nadine Johnston from the British Antarctic Survey. “Without ice, we wouldn’t have these ecosystems. They are some of the most productive in the world, supporting a huge number of species and individual animals, and feeding the biggest animals in the world like the blue whale.” says Professor Huw Griffiths.
Sometimes, what looks like catastrophe, wreckage, destruction on the outside, is really full of blessing on the inside. Rather than fighting the icebergs that come crashing into the shoreline of your life, patiently wait for them to grind away until the richness that lies within the hardship and trial is revealed, creating an explosion of new life.
To ignore the refining work of the grinding trials of life would be unfaithful. It would also be unhealthy. However, we are to process what we experience through the filter of God’s Word and God’s character. That helps us, like the scientists and ecologists, to see that once everything breaks up, there will be blessings for those who are the Lord’s people.
As the Scriptures reveal, while others (or even trials) seem to be intent upon harming us, "... but God intend[s] it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives" (Genesis 50:20, NIV). "And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28, NIV).
Sun v Shade
... Did you know that shade doesn’t make temperatures cooler. In fact, air temperature is actually the same in the sun or shade. It’s solar radiation hitting our bodies which makes it feel hotter. On average, solar radiation makes the air feel 10 -15 degrees warmer than it actually is.
This is why official air temperature is always measured in the shade. If the thermometer were placed in the sun, the solar radiation would heat up the thermometer and the resulting temperature would be measuring the warmed up thermometer and not the air around the thermometer. -- ABC News
In the heat of the day, we run to shade for shelter -- some measure of relief from the searing radiation that makes our bodies sweat and our skin burn.
However, the exact reverse is true when we are cold and shivering. We long to step out from the shade, in the hopes of capturing any measure of warmth from the sun's rays to warm our bodies and alleviate the chill.
Scripture is repleat with references to the metaphorical, protective wings of the Lord, spread over us to shield and protect. Often times, as we duck under for cover, we find instant relief from whatever drama, trial, or tragedy has befallen us.
Yet sometimes, we step under the shelter of the Lord's wings and we find no immediate relief. We find the cold and cruelty of our circumstances "feel" no different, no warmer there.
The Lord's protection is no instant panacea, defined quite literally as "a solution or remedy for all difficulties or diseases." As often as not, the Lord's "protection" will take us through the cold hard trial, rather than around it.
Corrie ten Boom, a WWII concentration camp survivor, in her acclaimed book, The Hiding Place, described the pain of standing for hours, at attention before her Nazi captors, in the freezing cold of the pre-dawn hours, or huddled on the wooden bunks, sharing blankets and body heat against the crippling chill of the winter nights in captivity. Why was there no relief from her cold, hard trials? Where, in those moments, were the wings of God's protection?
They were spread wide over her, just as He promised!
Speaking of their times gathered around a small, smuggled bible, she would write,
Like waifs clustered around a blazing fire, we gathered about it, holding out our hearts to its warmth and light. The blacker the night around us grew, the brighter and truer and more beautiful burned the Word of God.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
I would look about us as Betsie read, watching the light leap from face to face. More than conquerors ... It was not a wish. It was a fact.
We knew it, we experienced it minute by minute--poor, hated, hungry. We are more than conquerors. Not 'we shall be.' We are!
Life in Ravensbruck took place on two separate levels, mutually impossible. One, the observable, external life, grew every day more horrible. The other, the life we lived with God, grew daily better, truth upon truth, glory upon glory."
Indeed, in the cruelest of firey trials or chilling challenges, His wings are spread over us. Though we often find no immediate relief for our circumstances, we can (and DO!) find relief for our souls!
"For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless" (Psalm 84:11, NIV).
"Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed. I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills [his purpose] for me" (Psalm 57:1, ESV).
“Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the SHADOW of thy wings” (Psalm 17:8, NIV)