Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
Trusting the Unseen: Lessons from the Simmering Pass Railway
Imagine embarking on a journey without knowing if the destination is possible to reach. That's exactly what the pioneering engineers of the Simmering Pass railway did back in the early 1800s in Austria. Today, we explore their incredible story of faith and innovation, where they tackled seemingly impossible challenges by building a railway on steep terrain without having a suitable locomotive. This bold act of trust and forward-thinking not only reshaped transportation but also offers valuable insights into how faith can turn hopes into reality, resonating deeply with the essence of Hebrews 11:1.
Join us in this episode of Starting Right with Danny Mac as we draw inspiration from these historical feats of perseverance to fuel our own personal journeys. We talk about how, like those visionary builders, we can all move forward even when the path ahead is unclear, trusting unseen solutions and divine guidance. Discover how this powerful alignment of faith and hope can become the foundation for achieving what we long for, and why expecting positive outcomes can truly shape our reality. It's a morning filled with encouragement and the uplifting reminder that our aspirations are not just dreams, but tangible goals waiting to be realized.
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mac. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax and let me help you start your day right. In Austria, back in the early 1800s, the very first railway of its kind was built up through an area called the Simmering Pass. Now, there were a couple things that made this railway unique. First of all, they decided to build it using the standard width of tracks. Up until this time, mountain trains always ran on a narrow width of track in order to allow them to be maneuverable enough to get to where they wanted to go, particularly with all the twists and turns and some of the very steep climbs. But for this particular railway, they wanted to make sure it could handle the standard railway cars and locomotives. The second thing that made this so unique and so difficult was that this was an extremely steep slope that the train would have to climb Over a length of 25 miles. The elevation changed more than 1,500 feet, and there were no engines built at that point in time that could pull a full load up a slope like that while also being able to maneuver the very tight curves that there would have to be in the building of this railway. The builders of the railway decided they weren't going to let the lack of a locomotive stop them from construction. In 1848, they began building the railway and over the next six years they employed some 20,000 workers to build this railway from Glognitz to Mürgeslug. There was a lot of celebration when the railway was completed, but they still had the problem of not having a locomotive that could pull a train up through this track and be able to handle the curves. So a competition was held. The first four entrants all had the power and maneuverability. Completion of the railway that finally, the Engereth locomotive was developed and within a year there were 16 engines available for use on this railway. Actually, this railway is still in use and it's said to be one of the most beautiful train trips in all of Europe. It's one that I wouldn't mind doing sometime, that's for sure. One that I wouldn't mind doing sometime, that's for sure. The thing that amazes me the most is that the builders decided to proceed and build the railway even before they knew that there would be a locomotive that could do the job for them. That really is amazing.
Speaker 1:We all have things that we are praying for and believing for where we don't know how it's going to take place. We don't know how the results or the action or the answer is going to come to us. We just pray, lord, we need this answer, we need this direction from you. Sometimes we try to give him advice and that doesn't work because he doesn't really want or need our advice. But what he does want from us is he wants our faith to believe in him, that, even when we can't see the answer or figure out ourselves how it's going to be, he wants us to put our faith and our trust in Him. You see what these engineers and builders did as they were building this railway. They could already see in their minds the locomotives that were going to be pulling trains up along these tracks, around the corners, up the very steep hills, up over the top and into the places where it needed to go. They already saw that before it became a reality.
Speaker 1:In the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 1, it says Faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things that we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen. The Bible tells us that our hopes and our faith work together in combination. We have faith for what we hope for, but we need to make sure we have a good understanding of what hope means. Hope is not a hope I get a new bicycle for Christmas Like if it's a maybe that this might happen. The Greek word there for hope actually means to look forward to with expectation. Your hope means that you are expecting that something is going to happen, and that's why it combines so well with our faith. This is not trying to force God to do anything. God will not be forced into any situation but what it does do is makes a statement about our faith in God, our trust in God that we can expect that he will answer us, that he is powerful enough to do what needs to be done, to provide, to guide, to heal, to strengthen, to direct and whatever takes place along that path. We know that all things work together for His good and we trust Him with that.
Speaker 1:When we express our hopes and our faith, we are revealing our deepest desires, our deepest expectations and needs, and God will work in those things in our lives. God wants us to dream big. He wants us to believe that he can do the impossible. Keep believing God for something that you cannot see, that you need to see the answers in, whether it be a healing or direction or provision. Whatever it is that you need from that you need to see the answers in, whether it be a healing or direction or provision. Whatever it is that you need from God it's believing that God is able to, and you put your faith in him, trusting, expecting that God will work it out somehow. Let God bless you, let God strengthen you, let God give you the hope that you need to be able to live that life of faith. Be blessed, my friends. We'll talk again tomorrow. Thank you for listening today and I invite you to join me Monday to Friday, right here on Starting Right, with Danny Mac.
