From Eliyahu
Let’s consider some of the
amazing things that some people
have accomplished with human
abilities alone, and without the
help of extraordinary technology
enhancing their senses.
Ernie Jimenez, Makes the Impossible
Shot:
In May 2015, Ernie Jimenez lay
prone in the Utah desert,
peering through the iron sights
of an unmodified Swiss K31
rifle. This was a surplus
standard-issue bolt-action
service rifle of the Swiss armed
forces from 1933 until 1958 -
not a specially made target
weapon of any kind.
His target stood 2,240 yards
away, about 1.25 miles, was
barely a whisper on the horizon.
With no scope, and only the
naked eye, instinct and
calculation, Jimenez fired.
Spotters who were equipped with
magnification found that the
target was so far away they were
not even able to spot his shots
from the same distance from
which Jimenez was shooting. Four
times, he struck the mark.
According to the Guinness
Book of World Records
it was the longest confirmed
rifle shot ever made that hit
the target with simple iron
sights and no magnification - a
feat of vision, discipline, and
ballistic mastery.
Matt Stutzman, the Armless Archer:
Across another field of
precision, Matt Stutzman, born
without arms, drew a bow with
his feet and released an arrow
that flew 310 yards to strike
its target. His record-breaking
shot wasn’t just a triumph of
adaptation - it was a testament
to the human capacity for
spatial awareness and control
under extreme constraints.
Ma Long, Chinese professional table
tennis player:
He is a two-time Olympic
champion, three-time World
Champion, and three-time World
Cup champion in men's singles.
Widely regarded as the greatest
table tennis player of all time,
he is also the only table tennis
athlete to win 6 gold medals in
summer Olympics. In the blur of
a table tennis match, the elite
competitors at the level at
which Ma Long plays react to
balls traveling over 60 miles
per hour with reflexes as fast
as 0.2 seconds. Their eyes track
spin, speed, and angle in
fractions of time most of us
can’t consciously register. The
game is won not just by skill,
but by the ability to see and
respond faster than thought.
These are the outer edges of
human sensory performance -
where perception is honed to a
fine blade’s edge. But that same
blade also cuts the other way.
Every day, drivers with dulled
senses climb behind the wheel.
They miss a pedestrian in the
shadows. They misjudge the speed
of an oncoming car. They fail to
hear the siren or notice the
stop sign until it’s too late.
In the United States, over
40,000 people die in vehicle
accidents each year. To get some
perspective on that number, the
highest number of American
deaths in a single year during
the Vietnam War occurred in
1968, with approximately 16,899
U.S. military fatalities,
substantially less than half the
number of deaths on American
roads each year. Now factor this
in: more than 90% of those
deaths on the road are
attributed to human error. Not
mechanical failure. Not weather.
Human failure - often sensory
failure.
Unlike Jimenez’s distant target
or Stutzman’s distant target,
these missed cues aren’t feats -
they’re tragedies. They happen
not because the senses are
absent, but because they are
misused, neglected, or
overwhelmed. A moment’s
distraction. A fading peripheral
edge. A glance at a phone. These
are the lapses that turn
ordinary roads into slaughter
arenas.
The contrast is stark. On one
end, perception enables
record-breaking shots and
split-second victories. On the
other, it falters in the mundane
- where a missed cue can mean
the difference between life and
death. This is the reality of
life in this world, and
Scripture warns us about it.
Consider this:
“I returned, and saw under
the sun, that the race is
not to the swift, nor the
battle to the strong,
neither yet bread to the
wise, nor yet riches to men
of understanding, nor yet
favor to men of skill; but
time and chance happen to
them all. For man also
doesn’t know his time. As
the fish that are taken in
an evil net, and as the
birds that are caught in the
snare, even so are the sons
of men snared in an evil
time, when it falls suddenly
on them.” (Ecclesiastes
9:11-12)
Femke Bol - The
fastest runner does not always
win the race. For example, in
2023, Dutch sprinter Femke Bol -
one of the fastest runners in
the world - fell just meters
from the finish line while
leading a championship relay,
turning near-certain victory
into defeat.
Her stumble was not due to lack
of speed, but an instantaneous
lapse in balance and spatial
awareness. A reminder that the
same senses that enable
record-setting feats can fall
short for a host of reasons, and
become the source of
irreversible loss. Precision and
peril live side by side, and the
difference between them is often
only a matter of time and
chance.
Mike Tyson - The
strongest does not always win
the battle. This is proven by
the loss of the famed
heavyweight champion of the
world, Mike Tyson. The date:
February 11, 1990. The place:
Tokyo Dome, Japan. The fighters:
Mike Tyson (37-0, 33 KOs) vs.
James “Buster” Douglas (29-4-1).
Tyson was a 42-to-1 favorite.
The outcome: Douglas knocked
Tyson out in the 10th round.
