The Golden Gate Bridge was one of the most mechanically and technologically significant advancements of its time. It daunted the "reasonable" minds of the day with its then-ridiculous price tag of $35 million. To give that a bit of perspective, that would be about $1.2 billion in more current estimates. No one had ever built a suspension bridge with one of the towers in the water. No one had ever built a suspension bridge that long. It was unheard of.
Well, along with all of this, there came new challenges. How do you even get workers to go 700+ feet into the air for their day job? Well, they did. Apparently, people were lining up for the work. I guess they realized that this was gonna be a big piece of history. And that it would slap some meat on the table.
There was one little caveat: it was a pretty common understanding among the construction laborers of that day that, in large projects such as this, it was fairly understood and accepted that one man died for every million dollars sunk into the work. In fact, it was expected. I can imagine getting up for work every day with the fairly expected belief that today might be my last day alive.
In any case, imagine what your work output would be like if you knew that every moment held the very real possibility of your imminent death. Let's just say you'd probably be taking your time. A lot of it. And if you're like me, you'd probably have to take a breather once every few... seconds. Joseph Strauss, the lead engineer on the Golden Gate project, thought he'd do something about this. He instituted the safety net.
Once workers saw that they had assurance of safety, everything changed. Work picked up as the men saw that they could traverse the bridge with a new ease and confidence, even despite seeing the water hundreds of feet below. In fact, many of the workers got yelled at for jumping into the net for kicks.
Ladies and gents, I'd like you to meet your safety net. It's called God's Love. It's been around a while longer than the Golden Gate's net, but don't worry - time hasn't worn it out. It does, however, seem to have the same effect as that of the net in San Fran: it takes the fear of man away.
It's for this reason that we've seen men dive into the deep darkness of sharing the gospel to hostile tribes. God's Love is the net that has allowed men to stay true to their Savior when guns are pointed at their family. This is the net that has given men the audacity to speak loudly, love furiously, live unconventionally, stand firmly, trust completely, live nobly, believe against all odds and fight against all tides.
Instituted since the beginning of creation, this net has saved too many to count, and the men who dive into it find that the death they had feared was insignificant compared to life after the fall.
So, there's this project that's going on. It's called "Redemption." I hear it's been instituted with an unlimited budget. The boss need workers, but don't worry.
He's got a safety net for you.
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