Ehrich the Enthusiastic

My An Arkie's Faith column from the November 16, 2022, issue of The Polk County Pulse.

Ehrich Weiss was a remarkable man. By the time he died, he was famous around the world. But until recently, I had never heard of him. He was born to Hungarian-Jewish parents in Budapest, Austria, in 1874. In 1878 his family came to America, settling in Appleton, Wisconsin. Ehrich's father was a Rabbi and served the Zion Reform Jewish Congregation in Appleton.

When he was 13, Ehrich moved with his father to New York City. There, he became interested in the trapeze, calling himself "Ehrich, the prince of the air." Ehrich also tried his hand as a professional magician and renamed himself, Harry Houdini. I am sure you are familiar with the name Houdini. He was not successful as a magician, but he soon drew attention for his feats of escape using handcuffs. In 1893, he married fellow performer Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner, who would serve as his lifelong stage assistant, Bess Houdini.

Ehrich, as Harry Houdini, became the highest-paid entertainer of his day. He drew tremendous crowds across America and Europe. Houdini's feats would involve the local police, who would strip search him, place him in shackles and lock him in their jails. He constantly upped the ante from handcuffs and straight jackets to locked, water-filled tanks and nailed packing crates. He was able to escape because of both his uncanny strength and his equally uncanny ability to pick locks.

On March 10, 1904, the London Daily Illustrated Mirror challenged Houdini to escape from a unique pair of handcuffs they had prepared. There were six locks on each cuff and nine tumblers in each one. Seven days later, 4,000 spectators gathered in the London Hippodrome to witness Houdini attempt to escape from the handcuffs.

As the show began, Houdini was handcuffed, then stepped into an empty cabinet that came up to his waist. Kneeling, he was out of sight for a full twenty minutes. Then Houdini stood up, smiling. The crowd applauded wildly, thinking he was free. But Houdini was still in handcuffs. He asked for more light. The lights came on brighter as Houdini knelt out of sight. Fifteen minutes later,  he stood to his feet. Applause broke out, but again it was premature. The handcuffs were still on his wrists. Houdini told the crowd that he just needed to flex his knees.

Houdini went down into the cabinet again. Twenty minutes passed slowly for the murmuring crowd before he stood to his feet with a broad smile. Loud applause quickly stopped as the audience saw Houdini was not yet free. Because the bright lights made the heat so intense, he leaped from the cabinet and twisted his manacled hands in front of him until he could reach a pocketknife in his vest. Opening the knife with his teeth, Houdini held its handle in his mouth and bent forward until the tail of his coat fell over his head. He grasped the coat, pulled it over his head, then slashed it to ribbons with the knife between his teeth. Throwing aside the strips of his heavy coat, he jumped back into the box as the audience roared its approval and cheered him on.

Down went Houdini, but this time for only ten minutes. With a dramatic flourish, he jumped from the box, showing the crowd that his wrists were free, and waving the bulky handcuffs over his head in triumph. Once again Houdini had achieved what seemed impossible. 

Afterward, Houdini agreed to an interview. Everyone wanted to know why he had to interrupt the process of his escape as often as he did. With a twinkle in his eyes, the magician admitted that he didn't have to interrupt the process. The interviewer asked why he kept standing up before he was loose. Houdini confessed it was because he wanted the audience's applause to keep up his enthusiasm!

Enthusiasm is powerful. Athletes feed on it. Salespeople are motivated by it. Teachers count on it, and students fail without it. Enthusiasm is essential to athletes and performers and is also necessary for ordinary people like you and me. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."

Few characteristics are more contagious and more magnetic. An enthusiastic person believes in his ability to transform things and make them work. It is not success that brings enthusiasm. It is enthusiasm that brings success. A genuinely enthusiastic person can be more productive and dedicated to whatever he does. 

I think enthusiasm is one of the most remarkable words in the English language! It is derived from two Greek words, en and theos. Theos is the Greek word for God, so "enthusiasm" literally means "full of God." Maybe that's why enthusiastic people are so often creative and joyful! I'm convinced that one of the reasons God gives us so many personal promises in the Bible is to stir up our enthusiasm.

God wants enthusiastic followers. "He gave himself for us to set us free from every sin and to cleanse us so that we can be his special people who are enthusiastic about doing good things." Titus 2:14 (GW) But often, we find ourselves in an environment where our enthusiasm gets siphoned off. For example, if you are constantly in the company of negative people, your outlook will become negative, and your reactions to people and events will be negative.

God wants to fill us with enthusiasm that isn't affected by the economy, politics, the weather, negative people, or our circumstances. He wants us to be enthusiastic about our relationship with Him. Paul tells us how to do this in Romans 12:10-12 (NLT), where he writes, "love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying."

Gentle Reader, we can choose enthusiasm. We can stop saying discouraging, hateful, negative, and critical things. Choose enthusiasm! Talk it, live it, pray it, act it! The Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes 9:10 (NLV), "whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might." Whatever you do, "work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people." Ephesians 6:7 (NLT) God wants terrific things for us. Let's show our enthusiasm!