Standing on the windswept shores of Lake Michigan one wintry night, ready to throw himself into the freezing waters, a 32-year-old bankrupt dropout happened to gaze up at the starry heavens. Suddenly, he felt a rush of awe, and a thought flashed through his mind: You have no right to eliminate Yourself You do not belong to t,ou. You belong to the universe. R. Buckminster Fuller turned his back to the lake and began a remarkable career. Best-known as the inventor of the geodesic dome, by the time of his death he held more than 170 patents and was world-famous as an engineer, mathematician, architect, and poet.
Buckminster Fuller’s experience that night on Lake Michigan merely echoed the words of the ancient psalmist, who also contemplated the night sky and was awed by its grandeur:
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
The psalmist was inclined to feel insecure and inadequate in the face of such magnificence, but back came a resounding reply to his question:
You made him a little lower than God and crowned him with glory and honor (Ps. 8:3-5).
Like it or not (for it does carry with it certain responsibilities as well as glories), we have been created by God, and our Creator has endowed us with remarkable capacities.
Alan Loy McGinnis. Confidence: How to Succeed at Being Yourself (pp. 22-23). Kindle Edition.