One of my all time favorite presidents and founding fathers, John Adams, told us that in any war the battle would be fought on three fronts. Of course the enemy and that 1/3 of Americans would support the war, 1/3 would be strongly against any war, and the true battlefield would be for the hearts and minds of the middle 1/3 who could go either way. I believe that same thing could be said in any political debate as well. George Bush never lost his 1/3 who supported him, could never win over the 1/3 who would never agree with anything he said, but he also lost the majority of those all important middle. We are now seeing the very same phenomenon happening to Obama, just at break neck speed. His popularity with that middle is dropping in months instead of years as those in the middle see how he is governing.
This is the question I have long pondered, how do you reach the hearts and minds of those in the middle? By their very nature they are not partisan, and in most cases are apolitical, not particularly interested most of the time. Before this last election I was preaching who Obama was, who he surrounded himself with, what his views would cause if implemented, and it was unwelcome information. "He seemed like a nice guy, he seemed like he just wants to get along, he even promises to give me a tax break, surely I am in that 95% aren't I?" "You're just a Republican, of course you're not going to like him." Those were things I heard.
Today, a year later, things are changing. I was talking with an Obama voter who used to be a co-worker of mine. Today she has a very different attitude, actually called me today to ask what was going on, why things were happening as they are. She said "you predicted all of this, what is going to happen next?" She has been only able to find part time work since this time last year, as have a full 25% of those who worked in our office before the company shut down. There is one way punish someone financially and they will come to realize that elections have consequences. However, how can we reach them with the carrot instead of the stick?
Sunday morning a friend called, he like I, are hard core right wingers. His call was to ask me to figure out how to temper my political remarks to reach the middle. He was telling me that he and a friend had been talking about my political comments from blogs, emails, and facebook links and posts. Their comments were that there was a lot of great information but it was going over the heads of most readers.
I understand this, however, am still trying to decide what role I want to take. Do I want to figure out a way to make political pablum interesting for the uninitiated, or to feed meat to the passionate. Today I had another call from a friend who is afraid of where we are going, and wanted some understanding of what is going on, but she told me that reading most of political rants makes her more confused than anything. Her comments is one I have heard far too often, she said she simply doesn't understand how politics work, doesn't know anything about history, or economics and just hearing those topics her eyes glaze over and she panics. We need to reach her, and all of those who are not understanding what is going on, but know that something isn't right. How do we do it?
If anyone has any suggestions I am open to listen. How do we sell policy politics to those who don't follow politics, or have any educational background to understand those policies? We are competing with a party that is great with slogans, with promises that hold no weight in reality, that simply can't be done as promised.
However, when someone doesn't know and understand that they are being lied to, it can be effective politically at least short term. When you are dealing with a president who simply is willing to manipulate the populace with his charisma it is difficult to overcome. Obama knows that if he is able to get his Health Care bill passed he will be able to preach about all the wonderful things it is going to do, and how much he has given to the American people through 2012. He Could get away with this because he will be selling the dream of what this bill will do while it won't go into effect until 2013. If he loses in 2012 the Republican will get the blame when the economy sinks further into the abyss because of how that bill will kill millions of jobs and small businesses.
People won't blame Obama and the Democrats but the new president who is taking the heat for the horrible policy Obama left him with. In this bill, Obama is taking the page directly from Professor Harold Hill from the "Music Man." He will be on that last train out of town when the bill arrives.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
A History Lesson to Serve as a Warning.
What can we learn from history? Can we see a percursor to the future, or at least a warning? Many people remember their history lessons on what things happened after Hitler's dictatorship became violent. Let's look at the beggining together, that which we all understand we can stand together against it ever happening again.
In Germany democracy eventually lapsed in the early 1930s, leading to the ascent of the NSDAP and Adolf Hitler in 1933. Although the constitution of 1919 was never officially repealed, the legal measures taken by the Nazi government in February and March 1933, commonly known as Gleichschaltung ("coordination") meant that the government could legislate contrary to the constitution. The constitution became irrelevant, therefore 1933 is usually seen as the end of the Weimar Republic and the beginning of Hitler's "Third Reich".
Let's look at the Weimar Republic that preceded the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany. From November 1918 through January 1919, Germany was governed by the Council of People's Commissioners. It issued a large number of decrees which were confined to certain spheres: the eight-hour workday, domestic labour reform, agricultural labour reform, right of civil-service associations, local municipality social welfare relief (split between Reich and States) and important national health insurance, re-instatement of demobilised workers, protection from arbitrary dismissal with appeal as a right, regulated wage agreement, and universal suffrage from 20 years of age in all types of elections—local and national.
To ensure that his fledgling government was able to maintain control over the country, Friedrich Ebert, President of the Weimar Republic, made an agreement with the OHL (supreme army command), now led by General Wilhelm Groener. The 'Ebert-Groener pact' stipulated that the government would not attempt to reform the army so long as the army swore to protect the state. On the one hand, this agreement symbolised the acceptance of the new government by the military, assuaging concern among the middle classes; on the other hand, it was thought contrary to working-class interests by left wing social democrats and communists, and was also opposed by the far right who believed democracy would make Germany weaker. The new Reichswehr armed forces, limited by the Treaty of Versailles to 100,000 army soldiers and 15,000 sailors, remained fully under the control of the German officer class despite its nominal re-organisation. Today we are hearing of a National Police force as well trained and well equiped as the U.S. Military.
In January, the Spartacist League and others in the streets of Berlin made more armed attempts to establish communism, known as the Spartacist uprising. Those attempts were put down by paramilitary Freikorps units consisting of volunteer soldiers. Bloody street fights culminated in the beating and shooting deaths of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht after their arrests on 15 January. With the affirmation of Ebert, those responsible were not tried before a court martial, leading to lenient sentences, which made Ebert unpopular among radical leftists.
The National Assembly elections took place 19 January 1919. In this time, the radical left-wing parties, including the USPD and KPD, were barely able to get themselves organized, leading to a solid majority of seats for the MSPD moderate forces. To avoid the ongoing fights in Berlin, the National Assembly convened in the city of Weimar, giving the future Republic its unofficial name. The Weimar Constitution created a republic under a semi-presidential system with the Reichstag elected by proportional representation. The democratic parties obtained a solid 80% of the vote.
The permanent economic crisis was a result of lost pre-war industrial exports, the loss of supplies in raw materials and foodstuffs from Alsace-Lorraine, Polish districts and the colonies, along with worsening debt balances and reparations payments. Military-industrial activity had almost ceased, although controlled demobilisation kept unemployment at around one million.
German workers were exhausted, physically impaired and discouraged. Millions were disenchanted and hoping for a new era. Meanwhile the currency depreciated
By 1923, the Republic claimed it could no longer afford the reparations payments required by the Versailles Treaty, and the government defaulted on some payments.
Since striking workers, striking the mines they worked, were paid benefits by the state, much additional currency was printed, fueling a period of hyperinflation. The 1920s German inflation started when Germany had no goods with which to trade. The government printed money to deal with the crisis; this allowed Germany to pay war loans and reparations with worthless marks, and helped formerly great industrialists to pay back their own loans. This also led to pay raises for workers and for businessmen who wanted to profit from it. Circulation of money rocketed, and soon the Germans discovered their money was worthless. The value of the Papiermark had declined from 4.2 per US dollar at the outbreak of World War I to 1 million per dollar by August 1923. In October of 1923 they started printing and distributing 1 Million Mark notes. This gave the Republic's opponents something else to criticise it for. On 15 November 1923, a new currency, the Rentenmark, was introduced at the rate of 1 trillion (1,000,000,000,000) Papiermark for 1 Rentenmark, an action known as a monetary reset. At that time, 1 U.S. dollar was equal to 4.2 Rentenmark. Reparation payments resumed, and the Ruhr was returned to Germany under the Locarno Pact, which defined a border between Germany, France and Belgium.
The last years of the Weimar Republic were stamped by even more political instability than in the previous years. The administrations of Chancellors Brüning, Papen, Schleicher and Hitler (from 30 January to 23 March 1933) governed not through parliament but through presidential decree. This meant that they used the President's power to rule without consulting the Reichstag (the German parliament). The finance expert Heinrich Brüning was appointed as successor of Chancellor Müller by Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg on 29 March 1930, after months of political lobbying by General Kurt von Schleicher on behalf of the military. The new government was expected to lead a political shift towards conservatism, based on the emergency powers granted to the Reichspräsident by the constitution, since it had no majority support in the Reichstag. Does this sound familiar to anyone???
The bulk of German capitalists and land-owners originally supported the conservative experiment: not from any personal liking for Brüning, but believing the conservatives would best serve their interests. But as the mass of the working class and middle classes turned against Brüning, more of the great capitalists and landowners declared themselves in favour of his opponents - Hitler and Hugenberg. By late 1931, conservatism as a movement was dead, and the time was coming when Hindenburg and the Reichswehr would drop Brüning and come to terms with Hugenberg and Hitler. Hindenburg himself was no less a supporter of an anti-democratic counter-revolution represented by Hugenberg and Hitler.
On 30 May 1932, Brüning resigned after no longer having Hindenburg's support. Five weeks earlier, Hindenburg had been re-elected Reichspräsident with Brüning's active support, running against Hitler (the president was directly elected by the people while the Reichskanzler was not).
Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor on the morning of 30 January 1933 in what some observers later described as a brief and indifferent ceremony. By early February, a mere week after Hitler's assumption of the chancellorship, the government had begun to clamp down on the opposition. Meetings of the opposition parties were banned and even some of the moderate parties found their members threatened and assaulted. Measures with an appearance of legality suppressed the Communist Party in mid-February and included the plainly illegal arrests of Reichstag deputies.
The Reichstag Fire on 27 February was blamed by Hitler's government on the Communists. Hitler used the ensuing state of emergency to obtain the assent of President von Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree the following day. The decree invoked Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution and "indefinitely suspended" a number of constitutional protections of civil liberties, allowing the Nazi government to take swift action against political meetings, arresting and killing the Communists. Have you heard that our own White House now has a defined "enemies list" and the Dept. of Homeland Security has classifide those who believe in the Bill of Rights are now to be considered a higher level threat to the State than any Muslim Terrorist?
Hitler and the Nazis exploited the German state's broadcasting and aviation facilities in a massive attempt to sway the electorate, but this election yielded a scant majority of 16 seats for the coalition. At the Reichstag elections, which took place on 5 March, the NSDAP obtained 17 million votes. The Communist, Social Democrat and Catholic Centre votes stood firm. This was the last multi-party election until the end of the Third Reich twelve years later and the last all-German election for fifty-seven years. Our new Diversity Czar is citing his desire to replicate Chavez's crack down on any media outlets that offer conservative broadcasting. If any news media outlet doesn't go with the "party line" they are punished and lose access in our current White House.
Hitler addressed disparate interest groups, stressing the necessity for a definitive solution to the perpetual instability of the Weimar Republic. He now blamed Germany's problems on the Communists, even threatening their lives on 3 March. Former Chancellor Heinrich Brüning proclaimed that his Centre Party would resist any constitutional change and appealed to the President for an investigation of the Reichstag fire. Hitler's successful plan was to induce what remained of the now Communist-depleted Reichstag to grant him, and the Government, the authority to issue decrees with the force of law. The hitherto Presidential Dictatorship hereby was to give itself a new legal form. Of course our president would never blame past administrations for current problems.... would he?
On 15 March the first cabinet meeting was attended by the two coalition parties, representing a minority in the Reichstag: The Nazis and the DNVP led by Alfred Hugenberg (196 + 52 seats). According to the Nuremberg Trials this cabinet meeting's first order of business was how at last to achieve the complete counter-revolution by means of the constitutionally-allowed Enabling Act, requiring two-thirds parliamentary majority. This Act would, and did, lead Hitler and the NSDAP toward his goal of unfettered dictatorial powers.
Hitler abandoned earlier pretence at calm statesmanship and delivered a characteristic screaming diatribe, promising to exterminate all Communists in Germany and threatening the Social Democrats as well. He did not even want their support for the bill. "Germany will become free, but not through you," he shouted. Almost sounds like we don't want to "hear from those who caused the mess." Didn't I just hear that about a month ago?
Meanwhile Hitler's promised written guarantee to Monsignor Kaas was being typed up, it was asserted to Kaas, and thereby Kaas was persuaded to silently deliver the Centre bloc's votes for the Enabling Act anyway. The Act—formally and rather pretentiously titled the "Act for the Removal of Distress from People and Reich" -- was passed by a vote of 441 to 94. Only the SPD had voted against the Act. Every other member of the Reichstag, whether from the largest or the smallest party, voted in favor of the Act. It went into effect the following day, March 2.
In the German Weimar Republic, an Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz in German) was a law passed by the Reichstag with a two-thirds majority, by which the government was authorized to legislate without the consent of the Reichstag. These special powers would remain in effect for the specified time. This is to be distinguished from the provisions of Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which allowed the President to legislate by decree in times of emergency, subject to the veto of the Reichstag. An Enabling Act was supposed to be used only in times of extreme emergency. Are we not hearing a lot about special emergency powers wanted for the White House to restrict Internet access, preemptive arrest without Miranda, without charges, without trails, and with indefinite lengths of imprisonment. I saw on Rachel Maddow's show Obama standing in front of the Constitution making this request.
Only two Enabling Acts were ever passed:
.The first Enabling Act was in force in 1923-24, when the government used an Enabling Act to combat hyperinflation.
.The second Enabling Act, passed on March 23, 1933, was the second stepping-stone after the Reichstag Fire Decree through which Adolf Hitler obtained dictatorial powers using largely legal means. The formal name of the Enabling Act was Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich ("Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the State").
It carried a four-year sunset clause (and would also have lost force should another government have been appointed) but was renewed in 1937, 1941 and 1944.
In contrast to the Enabling Act of 1923, this Act covered changes to the constitution, excepting only the existence of the Reichstag, the Reichsrat and the office of President.
I am not accusing the Obama administration of repeating this history. However, there are so many parallels that We the People need to at least keep our eyes wide open, and be at the ready to protest the possible loss of our liberties and freedoms.
In Germany democracy eventually lapsed in the early 1930s, leading to the ascent of the NSDAP and Adolf Hitler in 1933. Although the constitution of 1919 was never officially repealed, the legal measures taken by the Nazi government in February and March 1933, commonly known as Gleichschaltung ("coordination") meant that the government could legislate contrary to the constitution. The constitution became irrelevant, therefore 1933 is usually seen as the end of the Weimar Republic and the beginning of Hitler's "Third Reich".
Let's look at the Weimar Republic that preceded the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany. From November 1918 through January 1919, Germany was governed by the Council of People's Commissioners. It issued a large number of decrees which were confined to certain spheres: the eight-hour workday, domestic labour reform, agricultural labour reform, right of civil-service associations, local municipality social welfare relief (split between Reich and States) and important national health insurance, re-instatement of demobilised workers, protection from arbitrary dismissal with appeal as a right, regulated wage agreement, and universal suffrage from 20 years of age in all types of elections—local and national.
To ensure that his fledgling government was able to maintain control over the country, Friedrich Ebert, President of the Weimar Republic, made an agreement with the OHL (supreme army command), now led by General Wilhelm Groener. The 'Ebert-Groener pact' stipulated that the government would not attempt to reform the army so long as the army swore to protect the state. On the one hand, this agreement symbolised the acceptance of the new government by the military, assuaging concern among the middle classes; on the other hand, it was thought contrary to working-class interests by left wing social democrats and communists, and was also opposed by the far right who believed democracy would make Germany weaker. The new Reichswehr armed forces, limited by the Treaty of Versailles to 100,000 army soldiers and 15,000 sailors, remained fully under the control of the German officer class despite its nominal re-organisation. Today we are hearing of a National Police force as well trained and well equiped as the U.S. Military.
In January, the Spartacist League and others in the streets of Berlin made more armed attempts to establish communism, known as the Spartacist uprising. Those attempts were put down by paramilitary Freikorps units consisting of volunteer soldiers. Bloody street fights culminated in the beating and shooting deaths of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht after their arrests on 15 January. With the affirmation of Ebert, those responsible were not tried before a court martial, leading to lenient sentences, which made Ebert unpopular among radical leftists.
The National Assembly elections took place 19 January 1919. In this time, the radical left-wing parties, including the USPD and KPD, were barely able to get themselves organized, leading to a solid majority of seats for the MSPD moderate forces. To avoid the ongoing fights in Berlin, the National Assembly convened in the city of Weimar, giving the future Republic its unofficial name. The Weimar Constitution created a republic under a semi-presidential system with the Reichstag elected by proportional representation. The democratic parties obtained a solid 80% of the vote.
The permanent economic crisis was a result of lost pre-war industrial exports, the loss of supplies in raw materials and foodstuffs from Alsace-Lorraine, Polish districts and the colonies, along with worsening debt balances and reparations payments. Military-industrial activity had almost ceased, although controlled demobilisation kept unemployment at around one million.
German workers were exhausted, physically impaired and discouraged. Millions were disenchanted and hoping for a new era. Meanwhile the currency depreciated
By 1923, the Republic claimed it could no longer afford the reparations payments required by the Versailles Treaty, and the government defaulted on some payments.
Since striking workers, striking the mines they worked, were paid benefits by the state, much additional currency was printed, fueling a period of hyperinflation. The 1920s German inflation started when Germany had no goods with which to trade. The government printed money to deal with the crisis; this allowed Germany to pay war loans and reparations with worthless marks, and helped formerly great industrialists to pay back their own loans. This also led to pay raises for workers and for businessmen who wanted to profit from it. Circulation of money rocketed, and soon the Germans discovered their money was worthless. The value of the Papiermark had declined from 4.2 per US dollar at the outbreak of World War I to 1 million per dollar by August 1923. In October of 1923 they started printing and distributing 1 Million Mark notes. This gave the Republic's opponents something else to criticise it for. On 15 November 1923, a new currency, the Rentenmark, was introduced at the rate of 1 trillion (1,000,000,000,000) Papiermark for 1 Rentenmark, an action known as a monetary reset. At that time, 1 U.S. dollar was equal to 4.2 Rentenmark. Reparation payments resumed, and the Ruhr was returned to Germany under the Locarno Pact, which defined a border between Germany, France and Belgium.
The last years of the Weimar Republic were stamped by even more political instability than in the previous years. The administrations of Chancellors Brüning, Papen, Schleicher and Hitler (from 30 January to 23 March 1933) governed not through parliament but through presidential decree. This meant that they used the President's power to rule without consulting the Reichstag (the German parliament). The finance expert Heinrich Brüning was appointed as successor of Chancellor Müller by Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg on 29 March 1930, after months of political lobbying by General Kurt von Schleicher on behalf of the military. The new government was expected to lead a political shift towards conservatism, based on the emergency powers granted to the Reichspräsident by the constitution, since it had no majority support in the Reichstag. Does this sound familiar to anyone???
The bulk of German capitalists and land-owners originally supported the conservative experiment: not from any personal liking for Brüning, but believing the conservatives would best serve their interests. But as the mass of the working class and middle classes turned against Brüning, more of the great capitalists and landowners declared themselves in favour of his opponents - Hitler and Hugenberg. By late 1931, conservatism as a movement was dead, and the time was coming when Hindenburg and the Reichswehr would drop Brüning and come to terms with Hugenberg and Hitler. Hindenburg himself was no less a supporter of an anti-democratic counter-revolution represented by Hugenberg and Hitler.
On 30 May 1932, Brüning resigned after no longer having Hindenburg's support. Five weeks earlier, Hindenburg had been re-elected Reichspräsident with Brüning's active support, running against Hitler (the president was directly elected by the people while the Reichskanzler was not).
Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor on the morning of 30 January 1933 in what some observers later described as a brief and indifferent ceremony. By early February, a mere week after Hitler's assumption of the chancellorship, the government had begun to clamp down on the opposition. Meetings of the opposition parties were banned and even some of the moderate parties found their members threatened and assaulted. Measures with an appearance of legality suppressed the Communist Party in mid-February and included the plainly illegal arrests of Reichstag deputies.
The Reichstag Fire on 27 February was blamed by Hitler's government on the Communists. Hitler used the ensuing state of emergency to obtain the assent of President von Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree the following day. The decree invoked Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution and "indefinitely suspended" a number of constitutional protections of civil liberties, allowing the Nazi government to take swift action against political meetings, arresting and killing the Communists. Have you heard that our own White House now has a defined "enemies list" and the Dept. of Homeland Security has classifide those who believe in the Bill of Rights are now to be considered a higher level threat to the State than any Muslim Terrorist?
Hitler and the Nazis exploited the German state's broadcasting and aviation facilities in a massive attempt to sway the electorate, but this election yielded a scant majority of 16 seats for the coalition. At the Reichstag elections, which took place on 5 March, the NSDAP obtained 17 million votes. The Communist, Social Democrat and Catholic Centre votes stood firm. This was the last multi-party election until the end of the Third Reich twelve years later and the last all-German election for fifty-seven years. Our new Diversity Czar is citing his desire to replicate Chavez's crack down on any media outlets that offer conservative broadcasting. If any news media outlet doesn't go with the "party line" they are punished and lose access in our current White House.
Hitler addressed disparate interest groups, stressing the necessity for a definitive solution to the perpetual instability of the Weimar Republic. He now blamed Germany's problems on the Communists, even threatening their lives on 3 March. Former Chancellor Heinrich Brüning proclaimed that his Centre Party would resist any constitutional change and appealed to the President for an investigation of the Reichstag fire. Hitler's successful plan was to induce what remained of the now Communist-depleted Reichstag to grant him, and the Government, the authority to issue decrees with the force of law. The hitherto Presidential Dictatorship hereby was to give itself a new legal form. Of course our president would never blame past administrations for current problems.... would he?
On 15 March the first cabinet meeting was attended by the two coalition parties, representing a minority in the Reichstag: The Nazis and the DNVP led by Alfred Hugenberg (196 + 52 seats). According to the Nuremberg Trials this cabinet meeting's first order of business was how at last to achieve the complete counter-revolution by means of the constitutionally-allowed Enabling Act, requiring two-thirds parliamentary majority. This Act would, and did, lead Hitler and the NSDAP toward his goal of unfettered dictatorial powers.
Hitler abandoned earlier pretence at calm statesmanship and delivered a characteristic screaming diatribe, promising to exterminate all Communists in Germany and threatening the Social Democrats as well. He did not even want their support for the bill. "Germany will become free, but not through you," he shouted. Almost sounds like we don't want to "hear from those who caused the mess." Didn't I just hear that about a month ago?
Meanwhile Hitler's promised written guarantee to Monsignor Kaas was being typed up, it was asserted to Kaas, and thereby Kaas was persuaded to silently deliver the Centre bloc's votes for the Enabling Act anyway. The Act—formally and rather pretentiously titled the "Act for the Removal of Distress from People and Reich" -- was passed by a vote of 441 to 94. Only the SPD had voted against the Act. Every other member of the Reichstag, whether from the largest or the smallest party, voted in favor of the Act. It went into effect the following day, March 2.
In the German Weimar Republic, an Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz in German) was a law passed by the Reichstag with a two-thirds majority, by which the government was authorized to legislate without the consent of the Reichstag. These special powers would remain in effect for the specified time. This is to be distinguished from the provisions of Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which allowed the President to legislate by decree in times of emergency, subject to the veto of the Reichstag. An Enabling Act was supposed to be used only in times of extreme emergency. Are we not hearing a lot about special emergency powers wanted for the White House to restrict Internet access, preemptive arrest without Miranda, without charges, without trails, and with indefinite lengths of imprisonment. I saw on Rachel Maddow's show Obama standing in front of the Constitution making this request.
Only two Enabling Acts were ever passed:
.The first Enabling Act was in force in 1923-24, when the government used an Enabling Act to combat hyperinflation.
.The second Enabling Act, passed on March 23, 1933, was the second stepping-stone after the Reichstag Fire Decree through which Adolf Hitler obtained dictatorial powers using largely legal means. The formal name of the Enabling Act was Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich ("Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the State").
It carried a four-year sunset clause (and would also have lost force should another government have been appointed) but was renewed in 1937, 1941 and 1944.
In contrast to the Enabling Act of 1923, this Act covered changes to the constitution, excepting only the existence of the Reichstag, the Reichsrat and the office of President.
I am not accusing the Obama administration of repeating this history. However, there are so many parallels that We the People need to at least keep our eyes wide open, and be at the ready to protest the possible loss of our liberties and freedoms.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Lincoln's Faith
Recently there was a poll as to who was the most popular, most important of all the American presidents, the winner once again was Abraham Lincoln. There are many who ascribe a non-belief in God to Lincoln, I thought it might be wise to consider what this, most popular of all President had to say on this subject, so with malice toward none, and charity toward all, let me begin.
Abraham Lincoln was a voracious reader, and passionately educated himself, reading Robinson Crusoe, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Franklin’s Autobiography, and law books when he could get them. He memorized the Illinois Statutes. Lincoln took reading seriously, making notes of the literary style, syncopation, and rhythm. Though often portrayed as a Deist, Lincoln read the Bible as studiously as he had the classics. His speeches resound with scriptural metaphors and biblical phrases, rightly applied; revealing he fully understood the context. Unlike a more recent president from the great state of Illinois.
Perhaps no aspect of Abraham Lincoln’s character is less understood that his religion. Like many young men, he was a skeptic early in life. He viewed the “good old maxims of the Bible” as little different from the Farmers Almanac, admitting in the 1830s, I’ve never been to church yet, nor probably shall not be soon.” An often misunderstood phrase Lincoln uttered-purportedly that he was a Deist-was, in fact, “Because I belonged to no church, I was suspected of being a Deist,” and absurdity he put on the same plane as having “talked about fighting a dual.” Quite the contrary, to dispute and 1846 handbill that he was “an open scoffer at Christianity,” Lincoln produced his own handbill in which he admitted, “I am not a member of and Christian Church…but I have never denied the truths of the Scriptures.” Some Lincoln biographers dismiss this as campaign propaganda, but Lincoln’s religious journey accelerated the closer he got to greatness, or perhaps propelled him to it.
A profound change in Lincoln’s faith occurred from 1858 to 1863. Mary had brought home a Bible, which Lincoln read, and after the death of Eddie at age four, he attended a Presbyterian church intermittently, paying rent for a pew for his wife. He never joined the church, but by 1851 was already preaching, in letters, to his father: “Remember to call upon, and confide in, our great, and good, and merciful Maker…He will not forget the dying man, who puts his trust in Him.” After 1860 Lincoln himself told associates of a “change,” a “true religious experience,” a “change of heart.” Toward what? Lincoln prayed every day and read his Bible regularly. He followed Micah 6:8 to a tee..”to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God,” When a lifelong friend, Joshua Speed, commented that he remained skeptical of matters of faith, Lincoln said,
“You are wrong, Speed; take all of this book (the Bible) upon reason you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier better man.”
What kept Lincoln from formal church association was what he viewed as overly long and complicated confessions of faith, or what might be called denominationalism. “When any church will inscribe over it’s alter the Saviour’s condensed statement of law and gospel, “Thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart and with all they soul and with all thy mind, and love thy neighbor as thyself, that church I will join with all my heart.” In fact, he thought it beneficial that numerous denominations and sects existed, telling a friend, “The more sects the better. They are all getting somebody into Heaven that others would not.” To Lincoln, and important separation of politics and religion existed during his campaign: “I will not discuss the character and religion of Jesus Christ on the stump! That is no place for it.” It was Gettysburg, however where Lincoln was born again. His own pastor, Phineas Gurley, noted the change after Gettysburg: “With tears in his eyes,” Gurley wrote, Lincoln “now believed his heart was changed and that he loved the Saviour, and, if he was not deceived in himself, it was his intention soon to make a profession of religion.” Did he actually make such a profession? An Illinois clergyman asked Lincoln before his death, “Do you love Jesus?” to which Lincoln gave a straight answer:
“When I left Springfield I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ. Yes, I love Jesus.”
During the war Lincoln saw God’s hand in numerous events, although in 1862 he wrote, “The will of God prevails. In great contests, each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God can not be for, or against, the same thing at the same time.” Significantly, at Gettysburg, he again referred to God’s purposes, noting that the nation was “dedicated to the proposition” that “all men are created equal.” Would God validate hat proposition? It remained, in Lincoln’s spirit, to be determined. He puzzled why God allowed the war to continue, which reflected his fatalistic side that discounted human will in perpetuating evil. Lincoln called numerous days of national prayer, and unusual step for a supposed unbeliever. The evidence that Lincoln was a spiritual, even devout, man and toward the end of his life a committed Christian, is abundant.
The job of President of the United States is difficult, I know that I feel better knowing that the Leader of the Free World is looking to a higher intelligence for guidance.
Abraham Lincoln was a voracious reader, and passionately educated himself, reading Robinson Crusoe, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Franklin’s Autobiography, and law books when he could get them. He memorized the Illinois Statutes. Lincoln took reading seriously, making notes of the literary style, syncopation, and rhythm. Though often portrayed as a Deist, Lincoln read the Bible as studiously as he had the classics. His speeches resound with scriptural metaphors and biblical phrases, rightly applied; revealing he fully understood the context. Unlike a more recent president from the great state of Illinois.
Perhaps no aspect of Abraham Lincoln’s character is less understood that his religion. Like many young men, he was a skeptic early in life. He viewed the “good old maxims of the Bible” as little different from the Farmers Almanac, admitting in the 1830s, I’ve never been to church yet, nor probably shall not be soon.” An often misunderstood phrase Lincoln uttered-purportedly that he was a Deist-was, in fact, “Because I belonged to no church, I was suspected of being a Deist,” and absurdity he put on the same plane as having “talked about fighting a dual.” Quite the contrary, to dispute and 1846 handbill that he was “an open scoffer at Christianity,” Lincoln produced his own handbill in which he admitted, “I am not a member of and Christian Church…but I have never denied the truths of the Scriptures.” Some Lincoln biographers dismiss this as campaign propaganda, but Lincoln’s religious journey accelerated the closer he got to greatness, or perhaps propelled him to it.
A profound change in Lincoln’s faith occurred from 1858 to 1863. Mary had brought home a Bible, which Lincoln read, and after the death of Eddie at age four, he attended a Presbyterian church intermittently, paying rent for a pew for his wife. He never joined the church, but by 1851 was already preaching, in letters, to his father: “Remember to call upon, and confide in, our great, and good, and merciful Maker…He will not forget the dying man, who puts his trust in Him.” After 1860 Lincoln himself told associates of a “change,” a “true religious experience,” a “change of heart.” Toward what? Lincoln prayed every day and read his Bible regularly. He followed Micah 6:8 to a tee..”to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God,” When a lifelong friend, Joshua Speed, commented that he remained skeptical of matters of faith, Lincoln said,
“You are wrong, Speed; take all of this book (the Bible) upon reason you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier better man.”
What kept Lincoln from formal church association was what he viewed as overly long and complicated confessions of faith, or what might be called denominationalism. “When any church will inscribe over it’s alter the Saviour’s condensed statement of law and gospel, “Thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart and with all they soul and with all thy mind, and love thy neighbor as thyself, that church I will join with all my heart.” In fact, he thought it beneficial that numerous denominations and sects existed, telling a friend, “The more sects the better. They are all getting somebody into Heaven that others would not.” To Lincoln, and important separation of politics and religion existed during his campaign: “I will not discuss the character and religion of Jesus Christ on the stump! That is no place for it.” It was Gettysburg, however where Lincoln was born again. His own pastor, Phineas Gurley, noted the change after Gettysburg: “With tears in his eyes,” Gurley wrote, Lincoln “now believed his heart was changed and that he loved the Saviour, and, if he was not deceived in himself, it was his intention soon to make a profession of religion.” Did he actually make such a profession? An Illinois clergyman asked Lincoln before his death, “Do you love Jesus?” to which Lincoln gave a straight answer:
“When I left Springfield I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ. Yes, I love Jesus.”
During the war Lincoln saw God’s hand in numerous events, although in 1862 he wrote, “The will of God prevails. In great contests, each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God can not be for, or against, the same thing at the same time.” Significantly, at Gettysburg, he again referred to God’s purposes, noting that the nation was “dedicated to the proposition” that “all men are created equal.” Would God validate hat proposition? It remained, in Lincoln’s spirit, to be determined. He puzzled why God allowed the war to continue, which reflected his fatalistic side that discounted human will in perpetuating evil. Lincoln called numerous days of national prayer, and unusual step for a supposed unbeliever. The evidence that Lincoln was a spiritual, even devout, man and toward the end of his life a committed Christian, is abundant.
The job of President of the United States is difficult, I know that I feel better knowing that the Leader of the Free World is looking to a higher intelligence for guidance.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep
Today we are seeing many people who are, maybe for the first time in their lives, dealing with real financial adversity, and great uncertainty. For those 62% of Americans who in the most recent poll know that the Obama administration and Congress are taking America in the wrong economic direction there is real fear trying to figure out just how bad it may soon be. It must be nice to be part of the 38% living in denial or confusion. Is it scary? Yes. Is is upsetting? Yes. Can we personally do anything about it? Not really, we can only do something about us. Sure we can complain, we can campaign, but ultimately we have to look out for ourselves and our families no matter what vacuous headed programs Washington shoves down our throats.
Viktor Frankl, who survived a Nazi concentration camp, learned that it wasn't the strength or health of the prisoners that determined who lived and who died, but their attitudes. He told us;
"The last of human freedoms - the ability to chose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances."
"When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves."
"Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
It would be hard to imagine life more dire and hopeless than being in one of those Nazi Concentration camps, the torture, the starvation, the total degradation. Frankl spoke of how the captures can starve you, beat you, take everything from you including your life and you could do nothing about it, however, they couldn't take your attitude without you giving it up yourself. What a powerful statement.
No matter what your personal battles may be, you have the option of controlling your own attitude. You may well need to find a strength that you may not know you have to do it, but you can. It doesn't matter if you are dealing with financial hardships, marital difficulties, and those often go together. It doesn't matter if your job, or business is failing, your kids are making poor choices and paying the consequences of them, no matter what you are dealing with, you can and must take control of your attitude.
If you would take all of your cares that are weighing you down, that feel like they are sucking the air out of you, and lay them in the middle of the room. If there were a roomful of people in this magic room doing the same, and you could do a blind trade, their problems for yours. You might want yours back, they may not seem so bad after seeing those others are dealing with. One more reason to always try to be kind in our dealings with others, we never know what they are carrying around.
This last week I have had several acquaintances and friends have tragedy strike their lives. One was simply having lunch with a friend and suddenly died of a heart attack in the restaurant at sixty. Another was an old high school girl friend, whose family were long time neighbors of our family who died suddenly, I don't know the cause, at fifty it was too soon and far too sudden. Then yesterday we learn that a past client of mine was found in his car dealer office dead by suicide at forty three, leaving behind a wife and four children. Who knows what drove him there, who knows what caused the hopelessness to feel that only a permanent solution could solve his temporary situations. One more shocking event, a friend and past co-worker's husband was playing with their children climbing a tree and fell breaking his back. We are told that they are unsure of his chances of walking again, another young man with a young family. Thank God he is alive and from what I am hearing is holding a great attitude through it. Upon hearing these stories, do your problems really sound that bad, do they really seem insurmountable, would you ask to trade back for your own in that magic room?
There are some things that work for me. One of them is actually captured in one of my favorite songs by Bing Crosby in White Christmas.
"When I'm worried and I can't sleep
I count my blessings instead of sheep.
And I fall asleep counting my blessings.
When my bankroll is getting small
I think of when I had none at all,
and I fall asleep counting my blessings.
I think of a nursery and I picture curly heads
and one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds.
If your worried and you can't sleep
just count your blessings instead of sheep
and you'll go to sleep counting your blessings."
When I am under pressure, when things are weighing me down, those nights when ledger sheets and daily, unresolved problems keep rolling in my head. I find that Counting my blessings is exactly what the doctor ordered. I simply pray a prayer of Thanksgiving. I start Thanking God for ALL of my many blessings. I start with His gift of Salvation, then my wife who is as much of a blessing and as much undeserved as that salvation. Each child, family member, health, the love we all share, the friendships, the home we live in, cars we drive, food we eat, on and on. I very rarely finish the prayer before I have drifted off to a very sweet sleep. I don't think God minds that I fall asleep in the middle of our talk, at least He never said so. I have often told my kids if your worried or upset, tell God, He is going to be up all night anyway.
Another area that I find great comfort is reading Psalms. In Psalms you will find such wonderful encouragement, many were written during the darkest days David ever went through while his best friend's father, King Saul, was trying to have David killed. David was hiding and on the run, but spoke of his joy in the Lord. If you are a Christian there is a huge difference between being happy and being filled with Joy. Happy is unsustainable and comes and goes with events in your life, Joy is constant and can carry you through those ups and downs. This is a talk for another blog post, but in short Happiness is conditional on what is going on in your life, Joy is knowing where you are going.
Listen to Viktor Frankl, know that no matter what happens to you, you can and must be in charge of how you choose to deal with it. I have always heard that God will not give you more than He thinks you can handle. There have been many times in my life I wish He didn't believe in me so much. But in the end, He was always right. He will be for you as well.
Viktor Frankl, who survived a Nazi concentration camp, learned that it wasn't the strength or health of the prisoners that determined who lived and who died, but their attitudes. He told us;
"The last of human freedoms - the ability to chose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances."
"When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves."
"Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
It would be hard to imagine life more dire and hopeless than being in one of those Nazi Concentration camps, the torture, the starvation, the total degradation. Frankl spoke of how the captures can starve you, beat you, take everything from you including your life and you could do nothing about it, however, they couldn't take your attitude without you giving it up yourself. What a powerful statement.
No matter what your personal battles may be, you have the option of controlling your own attitude. You may well need to find a strength that you may not know you have to do it, but you can. It doesn't matter if you are dealing with financial hardships, marital difficulties, and those often go together. It doesn't matter if your job, or business is failing, your kids are making poor choices and paying the consequences of them, no matter what you are dealing with, you can and must take control of your attitude.
If you would take all of your cares that are weighing you down, that feel like they are sucking the air out of you, and lay them in the middle of the room. If there were a roomful of people in this magic room doing the same, and you could do a blind trade, their problems for yours. You might want yours back, they may not seem so bad after seeing those others are dealing with. One more reason to always try to be kind in our dealings with others, we never know what they are carrying around.
This last week I have had several acquaintances and friends have tragedy strike their lives. One was simply having lunch with a friend and suddenly died of a heart attack in the restaurant at sixty. Another was an old high school girl friend, whose family were long time neighbors of our family who died suddenly, I don't know the cause, at fifty it was too soon and far too sudden. Then yesterday we learn that a past client of mine was found in his car dealer office dead by suicide at forty three, leaving behind a wife and four children. Who knows what drove him there, who knows what caused the hopelessness to feel that only a permanent solution could solve his temporary situations. One more shocking event, a friend and past co-worker's husband was playing with their children climbing a tree and fell breaking his back. We are told that they are unsure of his chances of walking again, another young man with a young family. Thank God he is alive and from what I am hearing is holding a great attitude through it. Upon hearing these stories, do your problems really sound that bad, do they really seem insurmountable, would you ask to trade back for your own in that magic room?
There are some things that work for me. One of them is actually captured in one of my favorite songs by Bing Crosby in White Christmas.
"When I'm worried and I can't sleep
I count my blessings instead of sheep.
And I fall asleep counting my blessings.
When my bankroll is getting small
I think of when I had none at all,
and I fall asleep counting my blessings.
I think of a nursery and I picture curly heads
and one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds.
If your worried and you can't sleep
just count your blessings instead of sheep
and you'll go to sleep counting your blessings."
When I am under pressure, when things are weighing me down, those nights when ledger sheets and daily, unresolved problems keep rolling in my head. I find that Counting my blessings is exactly what the doctor ordered. I simply pray a prayer of Thanksgiving. I start Thanking God for ALL of my many blessings. I start with His gift of Salvation, then my wife who is as much of a blessing and as much undeserved as that salvation. Each child, family member, health, the love we all share, the friendships, the home we live in, cars we drive, food we eat, on and on. I very rarely finish the prayer before I have drifted off to a very sweet sleep. I don't think God minds that I fall asleep in the middle of our talk, at least He never said so. I have often told my kids if your worried or upset, tell God, He is going to be up all night anyway.
Another area that I find great comfort is reading Psalms. In Psalms you will find such wonderful encouragement, many were written during the darkest days David ever went through while his best friend's father, King Saul, was trying to have David killed. David was hiding and on the run, but spoke of his joy in the Lord. If you are a Christian there is a huge difference between being happy and being filled with Joy. Happy is unsustainable and comes and goes with events in your life, Joy is constant and can carry you through those ups and downs. This is a talk for another blog post, but in short Happiness is conditional on what is going on in your life, Joy is knowing where you are going.
Listen to Viktor Frankl, know that no matter what happens to you, you can and must be in charge of how you choose to deal with it. I have always heard that God will not give you more than He thinks you can handle. There have been many times in my life I wish He didn't believe in me so much. But in the end, He was always right. He will be for you as well.
Monday, November 9, 2009
How do we fill the void of Leadership?
Today was a day of contrasts. Today is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. This draws us to memories of one of the great leaders in our nation's history, Ronald Reagan, who through his will, character, and integrity changed the world for the better. His own team of advisers told him not to do this speech, however, Reagan knew it was his responsibility to stand in the gap no matter what slings and arrows may come his way. Courage, integrity, confidence, and accountability are all keys to leadership.
"General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Ronald Reagan
Two years later that wall came down, and freedom was won for millions who had been enslaved for over 70 years.
Today was a reminder of this leadership, Reagan along with his partner in making history for the free world, Margaret Thatcher showed us levels of leadership we hadn't seen since W.W.II. Unfortunately we saw the contrast with the potentially weakest leader, maybe in American history, who couldn't be inconvenienced to attend.
This very day a strong example of leadership was shown by Carrie Prejean who upon the press getting out that she had done a "sex" tape. She was strong enough to come out and tell her story, accept responsibility of poor choices, and was accountable. She is going to be a wonderful example to young girls all over who she will be able to talk to with the authority of someone who has been there, and can warn them about how choices can and will come back to haunt you. She showed great courage and strength in this and earned my respect. Who hasn't done something that they wouldn't want broadcast to the world. She understands that as a Christian, she isn't perfect, just forgiven. It is refreshing to see someone step and take what comes without blaming others or claiming victimhood.
Every day in all parts of our country, and at all levels of our daily lives, we see a lack of quality leadership. We see people who point fingers, assign blame, and act like children who are caught doing wrong but want to use the "not me" defense. Passing the buck, avoiding criticism and making ourselves "look good" seems to be in vogue. Our society today, maybe more than ever, has created a void of leadership by not valuing the character traits that are used in the leadership recipe.
We are so lacking examples of true leadership that I find when I see someone who displays the character of a leader, I find my eyes nearly ready to weep. How starved for those who stand on their own feet, who take responsibility, who are accountable, that it feels like rain on the desert when seen.
A leader can give up anything except final responsibility. When accepting a task, the question that must be answered is "What is required of me?" In other words, what do I have to do that no one but e can do? Whatever those things are we need to put them high on our priority list. Failure to do them will cause you to fail, not only yourself, but your team. There will be many responsibilities of the levels under your position, but only a few that require you to be the one and only one who can do them. Distinguish between what you have to do and what can be delegated to someone else.
What can we learn from some of the great leaders of the past? There are hundreds of outstanding examples of leadership, but I will stay with the most famous for now.
George Washington, one of the great leaders of all time, the corner stone that this nation was built upon. Washington was anything but a good military strategist, but was a great leader. Men wanted to do whatever they could to follow him. They believed in him, and would follow. Washington, though he had a huge ego, was always willing to listen to his subordinates. He had some outstanding generals in Knox and Green and Washington would listen to them and would implement their ideas, sometimes when they went against what he wanted to do. His ego was driving him to attack, his generals convinced him that a war of attrition was their best ploy and they were right, and he was right to lead against his ego. No one could question his courage, integrity, and his commitment.
Abraham Lincoln, led our nation through one of her darkest hours, as it was coming apart at the seams. The longstanding internal battle over the sin of slavery that our founders knew would have to be remedied or would tear America apart but passed the torch down for another generation to solve, that bill came due under Lincoln. Lincoln knew that he needed the very best and brightest around him and had the courage and strength to fill his cabinet with his more fervent political competitors, four were also candidates for President against him in the 1860 election. He wasn't looking for yes men, he wasn't looking for those who would support him, but those who would support America, and would be able to do their jobs at the highest level. Not many politicians would be so courageous, it was rewarded by the best cabinet since Washington's first. Lincoln's honesty, strength, integrity, courage, and resolve won each of these harsh rivals into his greatest friends and supporters. He saved America, and freed millions.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, though his economic policies led us deeper and longer into the Great Depression, he led by lifting the spirits of Americans. His legacy would have been quite different if not for W.W.II that saved the economy. History tells us that his programs did, however, there is no evidence of that. Unemployment was still 14% going into the war in 1941. However, he was a brilliant war time President. He was the leader who galvanized the American people to fight the Nazi's and the Axis of Italy and Japan. We were blessed with many great leaders during the war, soldiers, generals, but one of the great leaders of all time Winston Churchill as well. If you want to study leaders any of these names mentioned so far are great sources.
John F. Kennedy once again was a leader who could get America to come together for a goal. His vision and setting the date of the goal for a man on the moon, made the impossible a reality. Without his building that dream and setting that goal, we may not have ever achieved that amazing feat.
George W. Bush, if you like him or not, was a leader. He put what he believed was right above popularity, he sacrificed himself for his military. The courage for a politician to do the unpopular when he believed it best for America and world is not common throughout history. He did what he said, he was accountable and showed responsibility when things didn't go well. He always gave the credit to his military when things succeeded and deflected it from himself.
Today there seems to be a void of leadership, there is more of a culture of popularity and focus on celebrity than accountability and responsibility. This is most evident in the current White House, but it seen throughout American life. We see coaches, business managers, presidents, and owners, celebrities, all aspects of life ducking personal responsibility, hiding from being accountable. Where is their integrity, where is their simple pride? Where is their shame?
We see some leaders shining example rising, Benjamin Netanyahu from Israel, is possibly this generation's Winston Churchill. Their stories parallel frighteningly, hopefully Netanyahu will not have to be a war time leader as was Churchill, but it is very close right now. Mike Pence is showing that courage of leadership, when I watched him single handily stop a spending bill last fall fighting even his own party's president, I started paying a lot more attention to this rising star. There are others, there is hope. However, what we need is for you to consider taking the challenge.
We need examples of leadership all across our society, at civic organizations, churches, scouts, 4-H, schools, sports teams, local, State, and National politics. As Uncle Sam's posters always said, "We Need You!"
"General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Ronald Reagan
Two years later that wall came down, and freedom was won for millions who had been enslaved for over 70 years.
Today was a reminder of this leadership, Reagan along with his partner in making history for the free world, Margaret Thatcher showed us levels of leadership we hadn't seen since W.W.II. Unfortunately we saw the contrast with the potentially weakest leader, maybe in American history, who couldn't be inconvenienced to attend.
This very day a strong example of leadership was shown by Carrie Prejean who upon the press getting out that she had done a "sex" tape. She was strong enough to come out and tell her story, accept responsibility of poor choices, and was accountable. She is going to be a wonderful example to young girls all over who she will be able to talk to with the authority of someone who has been there, and can warn them about how choices can and will come back to haunt you. She showed great courage and strength in this and earned my respect. Who hasn't done something that they wouldn't want broadcast to the world. She understands that as a Christian, she isn't perfect, just forgiven. It is refreshing to see someone step and take what comes without blaming others or claiming victimhood.
Every day in all parts of our country, and at all levels of our daily lives, we see a lack of quality leadership. We see people who point fingers, assign blame, and act like children who are caught doing wrong but want to use the "not me" defense. Passing the buck, avoiding criticism and making ourselves "look good" seems to be in vogue. Our society today, maybe more than ever, has created a void of leadership by not valuing the character traits that are used in the leadership recipe.
We are so lacking examples of true leadership that I find when I see someone who displays the character of a leader, I find my eyes nearly ready to weep. How starved for those who stand on their own feet, who take responsibility, who are accountable, that it feels like rain on the desert when seen.
A leader can give up anything except final responsibility. When accepting a task, the question that must be answered is "What is required of me?" In other words, what do I have to do that no one but e can do? Whatever those things are we need to put them high on our priority list. Failure to do them will cause you to fail, not only yourself, but your team. There will be many responsibilities of the levels under your position, but only a few that require you to be the one and only one who can do them. Distinguish between what you have to do and what can be delegated to someone else.
What can we learn from some of the great leaders of the past? There are hundreds of outstanding examples of leadership, but I will stay with the most famous for now.
George Washington, one of the great leaders of all time, the corner stone that this nation was built upon. Washington was anything but a good military strategist, but was a great leader. Men wanted to do whatever they could to follow him. They believed in him, and would follow. Washington, though he had a huge ego, was always willing to listen to his subordinates. He had some outstanding generals in Knox and Green and Washington would listen to them and would implement their ideas, sometimes when they went against what he wanted to do. His ego was driving him to attack, his generals convinced him that a war of attrition was their best ploy and they were right, and he was right to lead against his ego. No one could question his courage, integrity, and his commitment.
Abraham Lincoln, led our nation through one of her darkest hours, as it was coming apart at the seams. The longstanding internal battle over the sin of slavery that our founders knew would have to be remedied or would tear America apart but passed the torch down for another generation to solve, that bill came due under Lincoln. Lincoln knew that he needed the very best and brightest around him and had the courage and strength to fill his cabinet with his more fervent political competitors, four were also candidates for President against him in the 1860 election. He wasn't looking for yes men, he wasn't looking for those who would support him, but those who would support America, and would be able to do their jobs at the highest level. Not many politicians would be so courageous, it was rewarded by the best cabinet since Washington's first. Lincoln's honesty, strength, integrity, courage, and resolve won each of these harsh rivals into his greatest friends and supporters. He saved America, and freed millions.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, though his economic policies led us deeper and longer into the Great Depression, he led by lifting the spirits of Americans. His legacy would have been quite different if not for W.W.II that saved the economy. History tells us that his programs did, however, there is no evidence of that. Unemployment was still 14% going into the war in 1941. However, he was a brilliant war time President. He was the leader who galvanized the American people to fight the Nazi's and the Axis of Italy and Japan. We were blessed with many great leaders during the war, soldiers, generals, but one of the great leaders of all time Winston Churchill as well. If you want to study leaders any of these names mentioned so far are great sources.
John F. Kennedy once again was a leader who could get America to come together for a goal. His vision and setting the date of the goal for a man on the moon, made the impossible a reality. Without his building that dream and setting that goal, we may not have ever achieved that amazing feat.
George W. Bush, if you like him or not, was a leader. He put what he believed was right above popularity, he sacrificed himself for his military. The courage for a politician to do the unpopular when he believed it best for America and world is not common throughout history. He did what he said, he was accountable and showed responsibility when things didn't go well. He always gave the credit to his military when things succeeded and deflected it from himself.
Today there seems to be a void of leadership, there is more of a culture of popularity and focus on celebrity than accountability and responsibility. This is most evident in the current White House, but it seen throughout American life. We see coaches, business managers, presidents, and owners, celebrities, all aspects of life ducking personal responsibility, hiding from being accountable. Where is their integrity, where is their simple pride? Where is their shame?
We see some leaders shining example rising, Benjamin Netanyahu from Israel, is possibly this generation's Winston Churchill. Their stories parallel frighteningly, hopefully Netanyahu will not have to be a war time leader as was Churchill, but it is very close right now. Mike Pence is showing that courage of leadership, when I watched him single handily stop a spending bill last fall fighting even his own party's president, I started paying a lot more attention to this rising star. There are others, there is hope. However, what we need is for you to consider taking the challenge.
We need examples of leadership all across our society, at civic organizations, churches, scouts, 4-H, schools, sports teams, local, State, and National politics. As Uncle Sam's posters always said, "We Need You!"
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Where Have the Leaders Gone
Where have all the Leaders gone? There seems to be such a shortage today. Too often we are teaching our kids the exact opposite of what it takes to be a leader. Too often we see examples of our "leaders" on the national stage who lie, cheat, steal, and self-aggrandize to where that is the image leadership seems to be imprinted on our national conscience. That isn't being a leader, there are so few today that most Americans probably couldn't point one out in the crowd. Real leadership isn't always flashy, it is about hard choices made for the good of the people not for the good of the leader. We don't see much of that. I am thinking of a couple who are giving us signs that they may be. I look forward to watching them rise.
My first goal for this blog tonight was to give a quick overview of what a leader was, and then compare some well known figures from today and from the past. However giving the overview became longer than I planned, but I believe to have a substantive talk on leadership we must know what one is. We can continue this discussion another time on who and what. However, a teaser for future posts. I am FED UP, with the gross lack of leadership I see daily in business, in politics, in public. People we can do better, I am tired of watching people not stand up and lead when they are in position to. I am tired of people not showing character and integrity, no matter if it is in a local club, business, or politician, or even with those in the White House. I don't care if I agree with their ideology or not, I would respect them if they showed ANY integrity and character.
Tonight we are going to look at what it takes to be a leader. Later I will deal with those who are pretending, but not leading.
What is a leader? How can they be defined? How does one become one? One of the great teachers of Leadership skills today is John Maxwell.
Leadership is influence, however sociologists tell us that even the most introverted individual will influence ten thousand people during his or her lifetime. We never know who or how much we influence. Yet influence is a skill that can be developed. The three components of this triangle are communication, recognition, and influence. You start to communicate effectively. This leads to recognition and recognition in turn leads to influence.
There are four levels of leadership.
1. Position: This is the basic entry level of leadership. The only influence you have is your title. Your boss makes you a "manager" and your subordinates have to do what you tell them for fear of their jobs, however your influence is only as far as you can see them. Your only influence here is your authority over them. Those who stay at this level, and frankly most managers you meet do, get into things like territorial rights, protocol, tradition, and organizational charts. These things may not be negative, unless they become substitutes for leadership skills. Real leadership is being the person others will gladly and confidently follow. A real leader knows the difference between being the boss and being a leader, as illustrated below.
The boss drives his workers; the leader coaches them.
The boss depends upon authority; the leader on goodwill.
The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm.
The boss says "I"; the leader, "We."
The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown;the leader fixes the breakdown.
The boss knows how it is done; the leader shows how.
The boss says "go"; the leader says "let's go!"
These appointed positional leaders have more difficulty working with volunteers, white collar workers, and younger people.
I have often suggested to those who want to become leaders to get into volunteer organizations. I learned more leading volunteers running wrestling tournaments than nearly anything else I have done. It is wonderful experience leading those who simply do not have to listen to anything you say, you don't hold anything over them, not a paycheck, nothing. When you learn to lead a team that is having to work harder than they ever would at work, under more pressure, and as volunteers you will see what I mean.
2. Permission.
Fred Smith of FedEx says, "Leadership is getting people to work for you when they are not obligated." That will only happen when you climb to the second level of influence. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Leadership begins with the heart, not the head. It flourishes with a meaningful relationship, not more regulations. The leader who is on the "permission" level will lead by interrelationships. The agenda isn't the pecking order but people development.
On this level, time, energy, and focus are placed on the individuals needs and desires. People who are unable to build solid, lasting relationships will soon discover that they are unable to sustain long, effective leadership. Needless to say, you can love people without leading them, but you can't lead people without loving them. Relationships involve a process that provides the glue and much of the staying power for long-term, consistent production.
Please don't try to skip a level. The most often skipped level is #2, Permission. For example, a husband goes from level #1, position, a wedding day title, to level #3, Production. He becomes a great provider for the family, but in the process he neglects the essential relationships that hold the family together. The family disintegrates and so does the husband's business.
3. Production; On this level good things begin to happen. Profit increases, moral is high, turnover is low, needs are being met, goals realized. Accompanying this growth is momentum. Leading and influencing is fun, problems are being solved easily. Everyone is results-oriented, in fact results are the main reason for such great activity.
This is a major difference between levels 2 and 3. On the "relationship" level, people get together just to get together. There is no objective. On the results level people come to get together to accomplish something. They like to get together to get together, but they love to accomplish. In this level your team will follow you because things are happening, they believe in your vision and are starting to share it. They want to be a part of it, they are no longer following just because they have to, or even that they like you, they like themselves better as they are realizing goals and seeing success.
4. People Development; How do you spot a leader? They come in all shapes and sizes, and personalities. Here is a clue: Since some people are mediocre, the true leader can be recognized because somehow his people consistently demonstrate superior performances. A leader is great, not because of his or her power, but because of his or her ability to empower others. Success without a successor is failure. A worker's main responsibility is doing the work himself, a leader's main responsibility if developing others to do the work.
Loyalty to the leader reaches its highest peak when the follower has personally grown through the mentorship of the leader. At level 2, the follower loves the leader; at level 3, the follower admires the leader; at level 4, the follower is loyal to the leader. Why? You win people's hearts by helping them grow personally.
This is the level that most of us aspire to. This is where you are building new generations of leaders under you, replacing, duplicating, and improving on yourself with your team. The core of leaders who surround you should all be people you have personally touched or helped to develop in some way. When that happens, love and loyalty will be exhibited by those closest to you and by those who are touched by your key leaders.
Keep in mind that as you move up the levels of influence and leadership in a growing organization, you will always have people who see you in each of the levels. Those who are new may just see you from your title, others who have begun to get to know and like you who are in that relationship permission level, and those who are starting to see success through their association with you in the production level.
5. Personhood; this is a level few of us ever see. It is that rare air where you have developed legions of level four leaders who are leading their organizations, but still see you as their mentor and guide. Few of us are fortunate enough to know anyone here, I have been blessed to know one well, and have been through him, with a couple others for extended periods of time. These are people who leaders seek for guidance.
Some people who you will know who would fall into this category that are well known are from the sports world. One is John Wooden, another Dean Smith. Let's consider Dean Smith, not only was he a legend as a basketball coach, his legacy of great basketball coaches who learned their trade working under Smith is long and a whose who of the sport both in college and professional ball. These men still get together with Coach Smith once a year at a retreat to learn from him. None will make a move professionally without consulting him. His influence on the game is still powerful though he is personally retired.
The higher you go in the leadership scale, the higher the level of commitment you must give. There are times in leadership that are the loneliest and most heartbreaking you can imagine. There will be times when what you are doing, and where you are leading won't be initially understood. One of those level 5 leaders once told me, "Whenever you have to make a tough decision that one way favors you personally and the other way more your people, even if it is not good for you, always do what is in your people's best interest."
As a leader you must develop the ability to juggle three of four high priority projects successfully. Your people must always see you as consistent, your attitude must be predictable, positive, and inspiring. You don't have the luxury of being down. A leader can give up anything except final responsibility.
Ultimately the mark of a great leader is character. The secret to rising and not falling is integrity.
"In order to be a leader a man must have followers. And to have followers, a man must have their confidence. Hence, the supreme quality for a leader is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office. If a man's associates find him guilty of being phony, if they find that he lacks forthright integrity, he will fail. His teachings and actions must square with each other. The first great need, therefore, is integrity and high purpose." Dwight Eisenhower.
"If my people understand me, I'll get their attention. If my people trust me, I'll get their action." Cavett Roberts
For a leader to have the authority to lead, he needs more than the title on his door. He has to have the trust of those who are following him.
"Every great institution is the lengthened shadow of a single man. His character determines the character of the organization." Emerson
"People's minds are changed through observation and not argument." Will Rogers.
Leaders must live by higher standards than their followers. this insight is exactly the opposite of ost people's thoughts concerning leadership. In a world of perks and privileges that accompany the climb to success, little thought is given to the responsibilities of the upward journey. Leaders can give up anything except responsibility, either for themselves or their organization. John D. Rockefeller, Jr, said, "I believe that every right implies a responsibility, every opportunity, and obligation; every possession, a duty."
"It is priceless to find a person who will take responsibility, who will finish and follow through to the final detail- to know when someone has accepted an assignment that it will be effectively, conscientiously completed. But when half-finished assignments keep coming back- to check on, to verify, o edit, to interrupt thought, and to take repeated attention- obviously someone has failed to follow the doctrine of completed work." Richard L. Evans
"Don't let yourself be victimized by the age you live in. It's not the times that will bring us down, any more than it' society. There's a tendency today to absolve individuals of moral responsibility and treat them as victims of social circumstance. You buy that and you pay with your soul. What limits people is character." Tony Robbins.
When the character of leaders is low, so are their standards. Image is what people think we are, Integrity is what we really are.
"The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he would never be found out." Thomas Macauley
Life is like a vice' at times it will squeeze us. At those moments of pressure, whatever is inside us will be found out. We cannot give what we do no have. Image promises much but produces little. Integrity never disappoints. We cannot lead anyone else further that we have been ourselves. Too many times we are so concerned about the product we try to shortcut the process. There are no shortcuts when integrity is involved. Eventually truth will always be exposed.
"People of integrity expect to be believed. They also know time will prove them right and are willing to wait."
My first goal for this blog tonight was to give a quick overview of what a leader was, and then compare some well known figures from today and from the past. However giving the overview became longer than I planned, but I believe to have a substantive talk on leadership we must know what one is. We can continue this discussion another time on who and what. However, a teaser for future posts. I am FED UP, with the gross lack of leadership I see daily in business, in politics, in public. People we can do better, I am tired of watching people not stand up and lead when they are in position to. I am tired of people not showing character and integrity, no matter if it is in a local club, business, or politician, or even with those in the White House. I don't care if I agree with their ideology or not, I would respect them if they showed ANY integrity and character.
Tonight we are going to look at what it takes to be a leader. Later I will deal with those who are pretending, but not leading.
What is a leader? How can they be defined? How does one become one? One of the great teachers of Leadership skills today is John Maxwell.
Leadership is influence, however sociologists tell us that even the most introverted individual will influence ten thousand people during his or her lifetime. We never know who or how much we influence. Yet influence is a skill that can be developed. The three components of this triangle are communication, recognition, and influence. You start to communicate effectively. This leads to recognition and recognition in turn leads to influence.
There are four levels of leadership.
1. Position: This is the basic entry level of leadership. The only influence you have is your title. Your boss makes you a "manager" and your subordinates have to do what you tell them for fear of their jobs, however your influence is only as far as you can see them. Your only influence here is your authority over them. Those who stay at this level, and frankly most managers you meet do, get into things like territorial rights, protocol, tradition, and organizational charts. These things may not be negative, unless they become substitutes for leadership skills. Real leadership is being the person others will gladly and confidently follow. A real leader knows the difference between being the boss and being a leader, as illustrated below.
The boss drives his workers; the leader coaches them.
The boss depends upon authority; the leader on goodwill.
The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm.
The boss says "I"; the leader, "We."
The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown;the leader fixes the breakdown.
The boss knows how it is done; the leader shows how.
The boss says "go"; the leader says "let's go!"
These appointed positional leaders have more difficulty working with volunteers, white collar workers, and younger people.
I have often suggested to those who want to become leaders to get into volunteer organizations. I learned more leading volunteers running wrestling tournaments than nearly anything else I have done. It is wonderful experience leading those who simply do not have to listen to anything you say, you don't hold anything over them, not a paycheck, nothing. When you learn to lead a team that is having to work harder than they ever would at work, under more pressure, and as volunteers you will see what I mean.
2. Permission.
Fred Smith of FedEx says, "Leadership is getting people to work for you when they are not obligated." That will only happen when you climb to the second level of influence. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Leadership begins with the heart, not the head. It flourishes with a meaningful relationship, not more regulations. The leader who is on the "permission" level will lead by interrelationships. The agenda isn't the pecking order but people development.
On this level, time, energy, and focus are placed on the individuals needs and desires. People who are unable to build solid, lasting relationships will soon discover that they are unable to sustain long, effective leadership. Needless to say, you can love people without leading them, but you can't lead people without loving them. Relationships involve a process that provides the glue and much of the staying power for long-term, consistent production.
Please don't try to skip a level. The most often skipped level is #2, Permission. For example, a husband goes from level #1, position, a wedding day title, to level #3, Production. He becomes a great provider for the family, but in the process he neglects the essential relationships that hold the family together. The family disintegrates and so does the husband's business.
3. Production; On this level good things begin to happen. Profit increases, moral is high, turnover is low, needs are being met, goals realized. Accompanying this growth is momentum. Leading and influencing is fun, problems are being solved easily. Everyone is results-oriented, in fact results are the main reason for such great activity.
This is a major difference between levels 2 and 3. On the "relationship" level, people get together just to get together. There is no objective. On the results level people come to get together to accomplish something. They like to get together to get together, but they love to accomplish. In this level your team will follow you because things are happening, they believe in your vision and are starting to share it. They want to be a part of it, they are no longer following just because they have to, or even that they like you, they like themselves better as they are realizing goals and seeing success.
4. People Development; How do you spot a leader? They come in all shapes and sizes, and personalities. Here is a clue: Since some people are mediocre, the true leader can be recognized because somehow his people consistently demonstrate superior performances. A leader is great, not because of his or her power, but because of his or her ability to empower others. Success without a successor is failure. A worker's main responsibility is doing the work himself, a leader's main responsibility if developing others to do the work.
Loyalty to the leader reaches its highest peak when the follower has personally grown through the mentorship of the leader. At level 2, the follower loves the leader; at level 3, the follower admires the leader; at level 4, the follower is loyal to the leader. Why? You win people's hearts by helping them grow personally.
This is the level that most of us aspire to. This is where you are building new generations of leaders under you, replacing, duplicating, and improving on yourself with your team. The core of leaders who surround you should all be people you have personally touched or helped to develop in some way. When that happens, love and loyalty will be exhibited by those closest to you and by those who are touched by your key leaders.
Keep in mind that as you move up the levels of influence and leadership in a growing organization, you will always have people who see you in each of the levels. Those who are new may just see you from your title, others who have begun to get to know and like you who are in that relationship permission level, and those who are starting to see success through their association with you in the production level.
5. Personhood; this is a level few of us ever see. It is that rare air where you have developed legions of level four leaders who are leading their organizations, but still see you as their mentor and guide. Few of us are fortunate enough to know anyone here, I have been blessed to know one well, and have been through him, with a couple others for extended periods of time. These are people who leaders seek for guidance.
Some people who you will know who would fall into this category that are well known are from the sports world. One is John Wooden, another Dean Smith. Let's consider Dean Smith, not only was he a legend as a basketball coach, his legacy of great basketball coaches who learned their trade working under Smith is long and a whose who of the sport both in college and professional ball. These men still get together with Coach Smith once a year at a retreat to learn from him. None will make a move professionally without consulting him. His influence on the game is still powerful though he is personally retired.
The higher you go in the leadership scale, the higher the level of commitment you must give. There are times in leadership that are the loneliest and most heartbreaking you can imagine. There will be times when what you are doing, and where you are leading won't be initially understood. One of those level 5 leaders once told me, "Whenever you have to make a tough decision that one way favors you personally and the other way more your people, even if it is not good for you, always do what is in your people's best interest."
As a leader you must develop the ability to juggle three of four high priority projects successfully. Your people must always see you as consistent, your attitude must be predictable, positive, and inspiring. You don't have the luxury of being down. A leader can give up anything except final responsibility.
Ultimately the mark of a great leader is character. The secret to rising and not falling is integrity.
"In order to be a leader a man must have followers. And to have followers, a man must have their confidence. Hence, the supreme quality for a leader is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office. If a man's associates find him guilty of being phony, if they find that he lacks forthright integrity, he will fail. His teachings and actions must square with each other. The first great need, therefore, is integrity and high purpose." Dwight Eisenhower.
"If my people understand me, I'll get their attention. If my people trust me, I'll get their action." Cavett Roberts
For a leader to have the authority to lead, he needs more than the title on his door. He has to have the trust of those who are following him.
"Every great institution is the lengthened shadow of a single man. His character determines the character of the organization." Emerson
"People's minds are changed through observation and not argument." Will Rogers.
Leaders must live by higher standards than their followers. this insight is exactly the opposite of ost people's thoughts concerning leadership. In a world of perks and privileges that accompany the climb to success, little thought is given to the responsibilities of the upward journey. Leaders can give up anything except responsibility, either for themselves or their organization. John D. Rockefeller, Jr, said, "I believe that every right implies a responsibility, every opportunity, and obligation; every possession, a duty."
"It is priceless to find a person who will take responsibility, who will finish and follow through to the final detail- to know when someone has accepted an assignment that it will be effectively, conscientiously completed. But when half-finished assignments keep coming back- to check on, to verify, o edit, to interrupt thought, and to take repeated attention- obviously someone has failed to follow the doctrine of completed work." Richard L. Evans
"Don't let yourself be victimized by the age you live in. It's not the times that will bring us down, any more than it' society. There's a tendency today to absolve individuals of moral responsibility and treat them as victims of social circumstance. You buy that and you pay with your soul. What limits people is character." Tony Robbins.
When the character of leaders is low, so are their standards. Image is what people think we are, Integrity is what we really are.
"The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he would never be found out." Thomas Macauley
Life is like a vice' at times it will squeeze us. At those moments of pressure, whatever is inside us will be found out. We cannot give what we do no have. Image promises much but produces little. Integrity never disappoints. We cannot lead anyone else further that we have been ourselves. Too many times we are so concerned about the product we try to shortcut the process. There are no shortcuts when integrity is involved. Eventually truth will always be exposed.
"People of integrity expect to be believed. They also know time will prove them right and are willing to wait."
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Deck Prism or Dead Sea?
My mother-in-law is always buying very interesting gifts for me at Christmas, I have this funky four foot long battle axe type thing that I had to hide from my boys for years. It now rests behind my bedroom door, real bad idea for burgle to enter. Most of these caused head scratching, but one that we found cleaning out her home that she had forgotten to give me I really like. At first I had no idea what it was, but upon reading about it I became fascinated. It is a large greenish glass paperweight that is a replica of one of the deck prisms from the old whaling ship the Charles W. Morgan. I am a look it up kind of guy, I always want to know more, so after researching this I was quite taken by the lessons this prism can teach.
This prism went to my office to sit on my desk, because I knew I would write a motivational talk about it and what we can learn from it. I also left it on my desk to be a conversation piece looking forward to people asking questions about what it might be. I have to admit that I was greatly disappointed that no one asked. Several would pick it up and look at it, play with it, set it back down, but never ask. The only person in over a year of sitting on my desk to ask was my oldest son. He seems to have inherited curiosity.
A little history, the Charles W. Morgan was built in 1841. She and her 36 crew members made thirty seven three to five year voyages to collect the fifty plus whales needed to fill her hull with barrels of whale oil. After her eighty years of active whaling she was retired, today she has been restored and is a floating museum. You can learn more about her by googling her, she is a very pretty ship, no matter what her function was.
In her deck there were these small hexagon shaped prisms were embedded flush with the floor of the deck. They worked as overhead lighting for the rooms below. The sun would hit the top of the prism and then disperse throughout the rooms below. The prism sides directed the light all over those rooms, so not only did light come in through these small holes, but expanded and spread to light the entire room.
What should we learn from this? Shouldn't we too be a way to spread light about us? To amplify and share with others that which we are blessed with, as the phrase says to pay forward. The Bible warns us not to hoard our blessings that if they only flow into us and not through us we would be like the Dead Sea. Jesus warns us not to take all our blessings and build a big barn and try to rest on our blessings in his parable with the rich man dying when he decided to miser his wealth.
When we are learn something that can help others, shouldn't we pass this information on? I love to study and gain new knowledge and understanding on many different topics. However, the real joy is then passing that information or new skill onto someone else. When you go to a seminar and learn a new idea do you just take it for yourself, or do you teach it to someone else? The irony is that by teaching it you will really learn it much better for yourself. There is no better way to learn about something than to teach it. I used to work with a team that are brilliant at human development. When you reached a level of leadership and became part of the speaking circuit you could always tell what the top leadership thought were your biggest weaknesses because that would be the topic you were sent out to teach. It works like magic!
Be like that deck prism, shine your light around you. It matters not if that light is spiritual, business, relationship, or any type of learning that you can pay forward to someone else. Even if it is as simple as reading something that you feel you learned something from on a link from a social networking sight like Facebook or Twitter. If you learned or gained from it, re-post it share it. If you take a class share it, if you hear a great sermon that touches you, pass it along to others. Don't be the Dead Sea be that deck prism. Your life will be greatly blessed as you bless others. Don't be a depository, rather be a conduit. Be curious and be generous.
This prism went to my office to sit on my desk, because I knew I would write a motivational talk about it and what we can learn from it. I also left it on my desk to be a conversation piece looking forward to people asking questions about what it might be. I have to admit that I was greatly disappointed that no one asked. Several would pick it up and look at it, play with it, set it back down, but never ask. The only person in over a year of sitting on my desk to ask was my oldest son. He seems to have inherited curiosity.
A little history, the Charles W. Morgan was built in 1841. She and her 36 crew members made thirty seven three to five year voyages to collect the fifty plus whales needed to fill her hull with barrels of whale oil. After her eighty years of active whaling she was retired, today she has been restored and is a floating museum. You can learn more about her by googling her, she is a very pretty ship, no matter what her function was.
In her deck there were these small hexagon shaped prisms were embedded flush with the floor of the deck. They worked as overhead lighting for the rooms below. The sun would hit the top of the prism and then disperse throughout the rooms below. The prism sides directed the light all over those rooms, so not only did light come in through these small holes, but expanded and spread to light the entire room.
What should we learn from this? Shouldn't we too be a way to spread light about us? To amplify and share with others that which we are blessed with, as the phrase says to pay forward. The Bible warns us not to hoard our blessings that if they only flow into us and not through us we would be like the Dead Sea. Jesus warns us not to take all our blessings and build a big barn and try to rest on our blessings in his parable with the rich man dying when he decided to miser his wealth.
When we are learn something that can help others, shouldn't we pass this information on? I love to study and gain new knowledge and understanding on many different topics. However, the real joy is then passing that information or new skill onto someone else. When you go to a seminar and learn a new idea do you just take it for yourself, or do you teach it to someone else? The irony is that by teaching it you will really learn it much better for yourself. There is no better way to learn about something than to teach it. I used to work with a team that are brilliant at human development. When you reached a level of leadership and became part of the speaking circuit you could always tell what the top leadership thought were your biggest weaknesses because that would be the topic you were sent out to teach. It works like magic!
Be like that deck prism, shine your light around you. It matters not if that light is spiritual, business, relationship, or any type of learning that you can pay forward to someone else. Even if it is as simple as reading something that you feel you learned something from on a link from a social networking sight like Facebook or Twitter. If you learned or gained from it, re-post it share it. If you take a class share it, if you hear a great sermon that touches you, pass it along to others. Don't be the Dead Sea be that deck prism. Your life will be greatly blessed as you bless others. Don't be a depository, rather be a conduit. Be curious and be generous.
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