A Lesson from John Wesley Powell

byjcfuhrmann

215 followers

12 years ago

John Wesley Powell, the famous American explorer, and I share a birthday (today), so I'm sharing this story.

Back in the nineteenth century, a famous explorer named John Wesley Powell mapped the Grand Canyon. Of course, going down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon for the first time presented a special problem – he didn’t know how long the trip would be. All he could do is estimate based on what he knew of the overall dimensions of the canyon. Since rivers don’t flow in a straight line, he just had to make a good estimate on how much food to supply for himself and his party. It turned out in the end that he planned it out pretty well, though no one would know that to be the case till the expedition was over.

During the expedition, the party lost one of their boats (a supply boat), so they lost a lot of food, and some them began to doubt they’d finish the trip. Three people decided to abandon the party and hike out of the canyon, thinking their chances were better on foot than following the river. They didn’t make it out alive. Powell and the rest of his party discovered the end of the Grand Canyon and civilization two days later.

Moral of the story: Plan well, and see it through to the end. And from a Christian perspective, I'd add: Stick with your captain, have faith in Him. He will bring you to the end.