To “carry coals to Newcastle” has been used since the 1500s to describe a useless endeavor, since Newcastle, England, was the largest exporter of coal in the British empire for centuries. But carrying five tons of coal in the dead of winter to the north shore of iceberg-locked Iceland, past German u-boats in the height of WWI, now that’s another matter! It was not within the realm of possibility, but then, our God specializes in the impossible.