Like a large percentage of engineering graduates in India, I don’t work as an engineer.
I’m not entirely sure why, but thousands of students choose to pursue engineering—whether because their parents told them to, to keep their options open, to make lots of money, or maybe because they just don’t like themselves very much.
I fell into the second and third categories. After four years of studying engineering, I moved into the fourth.
But there were some classes I enjoyed. One of them was called Strength of Materials (spoiler alert: they’re strong).
I remember one of the first lectures, where the professor taught us about material failure. We learned how to calculate the maximum stress a material could withstand before it would become ineffective for its intended purpose.
The professor pulled out a tiny spring from a ball-point pen and asked, “If I apply tensile stress to this spring, at what point would you say it becomes useless? When does it fail?”
And all we like sheep, answered, “At the fracture point!” (i.e., the point at which it breaks).
Well, the smart students probably didn’t join us in our chorus.
The professor, either disappointed or amused that he’d baited us, said, “No! If I pull this spring enough so it stops behaving like a spring, it’s as useless as if it were broken.”
“The point of failure,” he continued, “is not fracture. It’s when the spring yields to the stress.”
Our minds were blown! We all stood up, applauded the professor’s genius, and crowned him king of all engineers.
None of that happened. We just asked him for free attendance.
But that lesson has stayed with me ever since.
Not for picking materials for construction, obviously, but for handling temptations.
The point at which we walk towards failure isn’t when we become addicted to a sin or suffer under its consequences. It’s not when our world crumbles because of the impact of sin on our jobs, marriages, relationships, friendships, health, finances, and lives.
The point of failure isn’t when we find ourselves in the pigsty, hitting rock bottom, desperate for hope.
The point of failure is when we start yielding to temptation. When we say, “Just this once,” or “Just a little bit. I’ll be strong, I promise,” or “This isn’t so bad, right? God will forgive me.”
It’s when we start yielding that we become ineffective. We compromise the purpose we were created for and lose our effectiveness for the Kingdom of God.
Yield not to temptation. Do not compromise. Stay strong.
And you’ll be able to hold up mountains and live out your purpose with God.
