Our son, Timothy, continues to send me the books he uses to help develop leadership where he works. The most recent batch have titles like Love as a Business Strategy: Resilience, Belonging and Success; or Love Works: Seven Timeless Principles for Effective Leaders; or The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues. Finally, in the Preface of the fourth book, Beyond High Performance by Jason Jaggard, the author tells a story.
In 1982, Tony Cavallo was sweating in the Georgia heat working underneath a vintage Chevrolet Impala. Suddenly, the car slipped off its jacks onto Tony’s chest. Instead of crushing him, Tony felt the three thousand pounds of weight begin to slowly rise off his body. He strained to see who was lifting the car and was shocked to discover not the legs of his coworkers but the familiar stockings of his mother. His aging mom had lifted the car just enough for two neighbors to replace the jacks and pull tony out from underneath. Once Tony was out of danger, he and his neighbors looked at his mom in disbelief. No one was more surprised than her. She whispered to herself, “I didn’t know I could do that. (Seven Words that Change Everything!)
Jaggard says that the phenomenon of enhanced ability has a name in medical circles: hysterical strength, and apparently, stored up in each person, under the right conditions, are abilities people didn’t realize they have.
Those kinds of things happen. We all possess these yet untapped abilities to do extraordinary things in the most critical moments. Lois and I enjoy watching heroic movies on Netflix and welcome the notice at the beginning of the movie, ‘based on a true story.” We watched one last night, Ordinary Angels.
For people of faith, occasions of hysterical strength are better explained by the power of God being active in our lives, especially when we need it most. The bible is full of testimonies to that truth. I have mentioned before the daily gospel devotional written by Paul David Ttripp, New Morning Mercies. In an entry for July 23, 2026, he writes:
God will call you to do what you cannot do, but will provide everything you need to do it.
Noah didn’t have the power to get all those animals into the ark, but the Lord provided what was necessary for it to happen.
Joseph didn’t have the ability to preserve his life and put himself in a position of power in Egypt, but the Lord made it happen.
Moses didn’t have what it takes to free the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt but the Lord empowered him to lead them to the Promised Land.
The Israelites didn’t have the means to get across the Red Sea, but the Lord parted the waters for them.
The pilgrims in the wilderness had no means of feeding and sustaining themselves, but the Lord provided everything they needed.
The children of Israel had no means of defeating the walled city of Jerico but the lord gave them a victory.
David had no personal power to overcome Goliath, but the Lord gave him courage and strength in the Valley of Elah.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had no ability to keep themselves from burning up in the fiery furnace, but the Lord preserved their lives.
The disciples had no means of feeding a hungry crowd that had gathered to hear Jesus, but He fed them well from a boy’s lunch.
Paul had no ability to preserve himself and those who were with him from a shipwreck, but the Lord exercised his power so that none were lost.
We live in a time of extraordinary challenges, global, national, personal. Some are of great adversarial intent and effect David French, in a piece titled This Is What Keeps Me Up at Night, July 23, 2026, wrote of this concern:
If the Trump administration is good at anything, it’s good at resurrecting some of the worst ideas of the American past. Racist immigration policies, brutal federal violence, McCarthyite censorship of political opponents, destructive tariffs, fruitless foreign wars — the Trump administration is bringing it all back.
My good friend Larry Mickel referred to me a conversation between Bret Stevens and Frank Bruni, How Can Anyone Trust This Crew with Anything?(New York Times, July 23, 2026). In it, Bruni makes the following observation:
Frank: But there’s a big chunk of the MAGAverse for whom the pantomime of religion permits as many of the seven deadly sins as they wish to rack up. (And they’re racking like crazy these days, with greed and gluttony getting especially vigorous workouts.) Mouth enough dogma, sprinkle your conversation with enough references to Christ, maybe drape a cross around your neck, and all manner of cruelty and corruption is forgiven.
Is it true that even the pantomime of religion in this country is allowing for the tolerance of all manners of cruelty and corruption? Have we lost our way that much? And is God calling us to do what we can to confront the evil with goodness, all the lies with truth, the darkness with light, the immorality with virtue, the violence with neighborliness and war with peace?
God will call you to do what you cannot do, but will provide everything you need to do it.
There is no greater testimony in scripture than what Paul wrote to the Romans, a rather lengthy reference but very worthy of our reading. In fact, tape it to the fridge or tack it to the bulletin board. Please read it thoughtfully and absorb its inspirational truth.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba![l] Father!” 16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness[m] with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God, 20 for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor, 23 and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in[n] hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes[o] with groanings too deep for words. 27 And God,[p] who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit[q] intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
28 We know that all things work together[r] for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose…
31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else? 33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ[i] who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus and in Him we become more than victorious in doing what we thought we could not do.