An Apple commercial from 1997 has Steve Jobs narrating these words:
Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.
Most of the people who have changed the world were considered unqualified or had a little bit of crazy in them.
Consider:
Orville and Wilbur Wright never received high school diplomas. In December 1903 a New York Times editorial questioned the intelligence of the Wright Brothers who were trying to invent a machine, heavier than air, that would fly. “It simply defies the laws of physics,” they wrote. One week later, on a cold cloudy day at Kitty Hawk, the Wright Brothers took their famous flight and became the first men in history to make sustained, controlled, powered flight.
Einstein did not speak until he was four and did not read until he was seven, causing his teachers and parents to think he was mentally handicapped, slow and anti-social. Eventually, he was expelled from school because his attitude had a negative effect on serious students and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School. He failed his university entrance exam and had to attend a trade school for one year before finally being admitted. He was the only one in his graduating class who did not get a teaching position because no professor would recommend him. One professor said Einstein was “the laziest dog” the university ever had. You could say he had a slower start than many of his childhood peers. But this is the same lad who grew up and said, “There is no great genius without some touch of madness.”
One day a partially deaf kid came home from school with a note in his pocket from his teacher, “Your Tommy is too stupid to learn. We cannot have him at our school.” His mother decided to teach him herself. Tommy grew up to be Thomas. Thomas Edison was fired from his first job as a newsboy and later fired from his job as a telegrapher. He went on to fail approximately 10,000 times before he succeeded in inventing the light bulb. He created 3,000 different ideas for lighting systems before he evaluated them for practicality and profitability. The boy who was too stupid to learn became the most famous inventor in U.S. history.
Ludwig van Beethoven had numerous physical, mental and emotional handicaps to overcome. His father, an impoverished musician and alcoholic, was physically and emotionally abusive while giving his son music lessons. The young Beethoven was told he was too stupid to be a composer. His legendary temper contributed to his reputation as an unpleasant personality. For most of his life, he suffered the greatest adversity possible for a musician – deafness. Nevertheless, Ludwig van Beethoven was crazy enough to continue pursuing his passion to make music, and became one of the world’s most influential composers, leaving a legacy that still inspires, challenges, and moves us.
As a young cartoonist, Walt Disney faced countless rejections from newspaper editors. He “lacked imagination and had no good ideas” they said. One day a minister from a local church took pity on the young cartoonist and hired him to do some cartoons in a small mouse infested shed behind the church. After seeing a small mouse, he became inspired to draw it. And so Mickey Mouse was born. Disney went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. In fact, the proposed park was rejected by the city of Anaheim on the grounds that it would only attract riffraff. But his critics didn’t seem to dishearten him. They merely fueled his dogged determination. Walt Disney was crazy. He was crazy enough to believe in his dream despite all the naysayers of his generation.
In the early 1970s, a young college student named Fred Smith wrote a term paper for his economics class at Yale University. He envisioned an overnight delivery system for urgent packages around the world. His idea was considered ludicrous. There was nothing like it in the world at the time. His professor did not feel his idea was well thought out and gave him a C on his paper. But that term paper planted a seed for Fred Smith and he was crazy enough to pursue the idea. Even though every delivery expert in the U.S. predicted its unfeasibility, he went on to create what is now one of the world’s greatest companies: Federal Express, or FedEx as it is now known worldwide. We see its distinguishing logo everywhere: on packages, trucks, billboards, labels, boxes, planes, racecars, and even at the movies. Not bad for a crazy college student who got a C.
Crazy people change the world. And when I read my Bible, I see that God delights in calling people with a touch of madness…. People who are crazy enough to take him at his Word and do what He tells them to do, no matter how foolish it may sound.
1 Corinthians 1:26-29 says, “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”
Hebrews 11 is an entire résumé of God’s calling and dealings with crazy people.
Every one of them carried this description: “of whom the world was not worthy”. (Hebrews 11:38 ESV)
- They walked closely with their God.
- Some moved to foreign lands and lived in tents.
- Others gave birth to babies when they were nearly a hundred years old.
- They chose to be mistreated rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin.
- They considered spiritual reproach greater wealth than worldly treasures.
- They all saw the invisible through the eyes of faith.
- They stopped the mouths of lions and walked through fires.
(verses 35-38 tell us) Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
These movers and shakers put a whole new spin on Apple’s advertising slogan: Think Different.
They all had different circumstances, personalities, and weaknesses. But they all had one thing in common – faith. This faith gave them a great testimony, or commendation, the writer of Hebrews affirms.
But here’s my favorite description of them all: “God is not ashamed to be called their God”. (Hebrews 11:16 ESV)
God has always delighted to use people with a little bit of crazy and a touch of madness.
What’s your touch of madness today?
Okay, maybe God isn’t calling you to become a world famous composer. Maybe He’s not calling you to build a monumental theme park, to revolutionize an industry, or to invent something genius. He isn’t likely calling you to build an ark. But He is calling you to do something crazy…
- Maybe it’s loving someone who is hostile toward you.
- Maybe it’s walking in patience with a coworker or an annoying neighbor.
- Maybe it’s forgiving someone who abused or hurt you.
- Maybe it’s being disciplined in raising godly children in an ungodly world.
- Maybe it’s being faithful to the local church in a generation where so many Christians are abandoning the church.
- Maybe it’s investing in a person our society has placed no value on.
- Maybe it’s serving the under-served in your community.
- Maybe it’s learning to be a generous giver in a world full of takers.
- What’s your touch of madness? What’s your crazy side?
- Maybe it’s beginning a relationship with God when millions are running from Him.
I think Steve Jobs was right: you can say whatever you like about the crazies, but one thing you can’t do is ignore them. They do change the world!