We forget sometimes that everything starts with envisioning something that’s not yet reality.
Still, what sane person would stand before an enormous expanse of rough granite mountain and imagine he could hammer it, beat it or blast it into submission?
Only one: Gutzon Borglum and he was 60 years old when he began this project in 1927.
People called him a fool–and worse–but that didn’t stop him. Neither did South Dakota’s howling winds, thunderstorms, rain, frigid temperatures or blizzards, all of which he and his helpers experienced.
Borglum simply refused to give up on his dream. His vision for that enormous expanse of granite became a burning passion. It took over his life until he drew his last breath in 1941.
(To get some idea of the scale, take a look at those pine trees at the bottom of the photo. They’re not seedlings.)
We visited Mount Rushmore National Park when our four girls were growing up
For a long while we stood there transfixed while eagles circled high above our heads.
Before us were these four faces, each one 60 ft. high. It seemed we could look into the eyes of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
Somehow it felt as if their eyes followed us when we walked from one side to the other. We spent a lot of time there, poring over the information booklet.
The inescapable question: How on earth did they do that?
“They” wouldn’t have done any of it without one man and his “crazy dream”
Gutzon Borglum and his determination made it happen. It’s that simple. Borglum, age 60, drilled the first holes in 1927.
Over the next 14 years he and 400 other men blasted away and chipped away more than 450,000 tons of granite from the face of the mountain. One exhausting day followed another.
Yet they kept on. Finally, in October, 1941, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial was officially declared done.
Sadly, six months before that date, Borglum died of an embolism. His son Lincoln Borglum headed the faithful group of family members, craftsmen and laborers who brought the project to completion.
Because Gutzon Borglum refused to give up his “crazy dream”, the United States of America has this national treasure, Mount Rushmore.
What’s your dream?
Some of us have kept chasing around a tired old dream for years. By now we’ve convinced ourselves our “mountain” is ay too huge and we waited too long. We have no chance of succeeding.
Or maybe we’ve said, “But that will take ___ years. If I start now, by the time I finish I’ll be ___ years old.”
Find your obvious answer in another question. “How old will I be in ___ years if I don’t do it?”
Here’s a promise of God that we can cherish at any age:
As your days, so shall your strength be. –Deuteronomy 33:25b
Maybe it’s not too late
For starters, here are five people who got a late start.
- Andrea Bocelli was told he was “too old” to sing at age 48, but he started singing anyway.
- Susan Boyle, an unknown woman from a very small town in Scotland, made it on “Britain’s Got Talent” at age 48 and wowed everyone. You know the rest of her story.
- Julia Child didn’t start cooking until age 40 and began her long-running PBS cooking show at age 51.
- Harlan Sanders had a couple of other careers before he founded Kentucky Fried Chicken at age 65.
- Grandma Moses never picked up a paintbrush until she was 75–and never took a lesson, yet she became famous.
How about you? If not now, when?
It doesn’t matter whether your dream is as big as Mount Rushmore or as small as mastering the perfect batch of fudge.
What matters is that we don’t assume we’re licked before we start, just because we didn’t begin years ago. At any age and any stage of life, goals and dreams give us a reason to keep going.
As for strength needed to do so, only one Source never gives out. That’s what the Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 4:13. Some of us know the truth of this promise first-hand, because we trusted it when we thought we had no strength left within us:
I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
Who knows what you and I may yet do or how we may bless the world?
As someone put it, “If you woke up this morning it’s a sign God still has something for you to do on this earth.”
That “something” might sound small, such as aiming to be one of those people who cheers everybody up simply by speaking about what’s good and hopeful. (Don’t you love people like that?)
But first we need to get in the habit of looking for what’s good. Any of us could do better at that if we simply stay aware and put in a bit of effort. It gets easier if we remember it is God who guides and enables and gives strength for each day, to all who trust him and ask in faith.
Now let’s be ready to get outside our personal comfort zone. And let’s get going!
Working on it, too,
Lenore
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