Ecclesiastes 12:10

    Probably the most famous ace pilot was Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen or as he was called “The Red Baron. He racked up 81 air kills in combat during the First World War. What made him so deadly was his discipline. He had a set of rules that kept him from danger, rules he adhered to with precision. Number One : Never follow an enemy for too long, there was too much of a chance one of his buddies would come to the rescue and get you.   Number Two : Never fly too far into enemy territory, then enemies' ground fire might pick you off.  Number Three : Never fly too low to the ground, not only would it put you in range of enemy guns, but it also risks a crash if the plane is damaged.   He kept those rules until April 21st, 1918 when we got into a dogfight with a young and inexperienced Brit named Wilfrid May. May’s guns had jammed and as he fled the Baron saw an easy target.   Maybe because it seemed such an easy target Richthofen broke his rul...

  Harry Houdini started out as any ordinary magician. He called himself the “king of cards” yet he competent but not particularly skilled sleight-of-hand artist.  Yet there was one thing that set Houdini apart, He was an escape artist.   It wasn’t just the prepared acts he created that mystified audiences. He would challenge Scotland-yard coppers and Siberian prison guards to try to contain him. He invited the public to devise contraptions to hold him, including nailed packing crates, riveted boilers, wet sheets, mail bags, and even the belly of a whale that had washed ashore in Boston. It seemed no one or nothing could hold him.    The key to his escapes wasn’t a physical one, however, it was mental. As one writer told it was his belief that the means to escape was possible and was within his reach. He believed he could. And then he made it so.   That’s an idea we need to have as well. Too many times we are trapped in a prison of can’t. We can’t over...