Perspective

By L. Jim Tuck
 

January 16, 2025
 

Do You Have the “Wright Stuff?”
 

    Before the Wright brothers built their first airplane, they opened a bicycle sales and repair
shop called, “The Wright Cycle Exchange.” On December 17, 1903, on a cold frosty and windy
morning at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville Wright climbed into their unwieldy-looking
contraption. Wilbur cranked up the new Wright engine, and it happened--the first man flew through
the air powered by an engine! That history-making first flight was just 120 feet, only lasted a mere
12 seconds, and the aircraft only traveled through the air at the top speed of 6.8 miles per hour.
There were only a few witnesses standing by, but it was a dream come true for the Wright brothers.
They achieved something historic. Their perseverance to achieve led them to success. Jesus said
that he who endures to the end shall be saved. Becoming a part of God’s coming kingdom depends
on having the “right stuff.”

What qualities are required to achieve success?

    If the Wright brothers had not endured to finish their dream of flight, someone else would
have surely done it. What they built by today’s standards of air travel was akin to constructing a
kite with a motor on it. It was a small step in aeronautics, but the Bible says not to despise small
beginnings (Zech. 4:10). Their accomplishment was much greater than they could even imagine.
    

    The modern marvels of air travel with commercial air craft, such as the Concorde in March 2,
1969, which flew faster than the speed of sound, came about because of the humble beginnings of
that first flight achieved by Wilbur and Orville Wright. The Concorde commercial airline, when it
was operational, achieved a maximum air speed of Mach 2.04 and had a cruise speed of 1,354 mph.
Several companies are developing hypersonic commercial aircraft. These include an Atlanta-based
startup, Hermeus, and others---Stratolaunch, Hypersonix, and Venus Aerospace. The goal is to
create planes that can carry passengers at speeds above Mach 5 or 3,710 mph, which is five times
the speed of sound; at that speed you could fly to London from New York in just one hour.
    

    To a large extent the Wright brothers inspired further discoveries by other inventors, like Robert
Goddard, who constructed and successfully tested the first rocket using liquid fuel. The flight of
Goddard’s rocket on March 16, 1926 at Auburn, Massachusetts, was as significant to history as that of
the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk. From the development of rocketry, sprang the space program and
eventually sending man into space. Becoming an astronaut during the early days of John Glenn and the
Mercury Seven was challenging and required resilience and determination. Glenn, the first American to
orbit the Earth, paved the way for other astronauts and played a significant role in space exploration.
    

    Wikipedia states: “The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research
and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the
development of emerging technologies for use by the military.”
    

    A number of nations such as Russia, China, and India have been developing hypersonic
missiles. DARPA has achieved speeds between Mach 17 and Mach 22 with the Falcon HTV-2, an
unmanned, rocket-launched, maneuverable aircraft that glides through the Earth's atmosphere at
incredibly fast speeds.
 

    Consider this, the Wright brothers, Goddard, and many others, including the Mercury 7
astronauts, had to have right character traits to help push them to achieve their goals. They had the
“right stuff” in character which propelled them to achieve great things. They set a goal, and then
they had the right understanding to educate and prepare themselves for it. The Wright brothers fixed
their eyes on the goal of flight, and each day they drove themselves to that goal. They had to be
resourceful, because they wanted to do something no one had done. They had to build a light
weight engine to make it fly (no one else made it). They had to persevere and not allow themselves
to become discouraged when they failed.
 

Do you see your calling?
 

    God has given those He calls an incredible calling! The ramifications of it far exceed what
anyone can imagine. It is way bigger that our imaginations can muster! Paul, the apostle, wrote:
“But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the
things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’” (I Corinthians 2:9)
 

    This tells us we need to set our sights a little higher and make sure we are grasping the
greatness of what God is giving us! We need the “righteous stuff,” the good character to achieve
this greatest goal ever. Herbert W. Armstrong wrote a small book many years ago, The Seven Laws
of Success. It maps out the kind of character the saints must have to endure to the end to be saved.
The seven laws are these: 1. Fix the right goal 2. Education, or preparation 3. Good health
4. Drive or energy to achieve 5. Resourcefulness 6. Perseverance
 

    An additional law that most successful people of the world have not applied, but one which is
absolutely vital to the saints, is law seven: maintain contact with God. We need the assurance of
His strength and the power of the Holy Spirit so we can endure any obstacle or trial that comes our
way and attain the kingdom of God. We cannot do it on our own, and we can be sure our heavenly
Father and Savior Jesus Christ love us and they want to help us succeed! Wilbur and Orville Wright
had the “right stuff” to achieve flight. God has given us the right tools, the perfect goal, and the
support of His Spirit to achieve a much greater feat than physical flight ever could be-- His gift of
spiritual flight and eternal life as a part of His family!
 

    This is my Perspective!