All of us face challenges from time to time, and I’ve grabbed hold of an important principle that we should apply in those kinds of times. It’s the Anti-Deer-in-the-Headlights Principle.

When difficulty comes, sometimes we stop—frozen in our tracks—and the difficulty becomes DANGER!

When I was a kid we had a large field of alfalfa behind our house. The groundhogs loved it. From our back window I could see them crawling through the alfalfa and I’d sneak out into the field with my Dad’s single-shot .22 caliber rifle and crawl on my belly until I was in position. Then I’d whistle loudly and it would startle the groundhog. He’d stop. Then he’d raise on his hind legs to look for where the sound came from. BANG!

Imagine if you started to drive across the railroad tracks and your car stalled on the tracks. Would you just sit there wide-eyed? Or would you get out and get moving? Then why do we so often stop in the swamp when we get bogged down by stuff?

Forward momentum is of utmost importance. There’s a song on the radio that says “If you’re going through Hell, keep on going, don’t slow down, if you’re scared don’t show it, you might get out before the Devil even knows you’re there.” But not if you stop.

It’s a weird quirk of humanity that in times of trouble we stop, frozen in the headlights, dead on the tracks facing the oncoming train.

Next time you find yourself in difficulty, hit the gas! Don’t stop. Accelerate through the problem and let the forward momentum carry you to safely to the other side.

I hate the Kansas University Jayhawks. Well, I don’t really HATE them, but I AM a Missouri Tiger, and for most of a century now Tigers have hated Jayhawks and will stop at nothing to communicate their distaste of the tasty bird from the Sunflower state. (By the way football fans, do you know how you keep a Jayhawk out of your yard? Put up a goal post!)

I never miss an opportunity to post my contempt for KU on Facebook, and a friend recently asked “Why do you hate KU so much?” The answer is, I don’t. It’s a tradition at Mizzou, and I’m just parroting the lines I learned there. The truth is: the University of Kansas has one of the most storied traditions and admirable records of achievement in the history of college basketball. They always win. And anybody who wins that much……well, you just gotta be against them on general principle.

It occurs to me that my hatred of KU is kind of an ignorant prejudice. Its easy to pile on to that kind of hate language. Just this week I got a Facebook friend request from a guy I’ve met a few times (though I could tell he didn’t remember me) who wanted to be my friend because he’d read a nasty comment I’d posted to Facebook about KU. Since we had a common enemy he wanted to be friends. Yep. He and I are ignorant together.

I grew up among those who hate black people, though we didn’t use that respectful term when I was a kid growing up in rural, Southwest Missouri. We didn’t know why we hated them. We just did because the generations before us did. We parroted the lines. Unfortunately, I’ve got university educated family members who call themselves Christian who still express their ignorant vitriol for blacks.

The same thing happens in the Middle East. Palestinians hate Israelis and Jews hate Muslims, all because the generations before them did. Nobody stops to ask why.

I’m a reluctant Republican; reluctant only because sometimes other Republicans say or do really stupid things that I hate to be associated with. Republicans hate Democrats and Dems return the favor. It’s really stupid, but most of us tend to project the worst examples of those parties onto everyone who bears that label.

The truth is there are nice Jews and nasty ones, nice Muslims and naughty ones, wise thoughtful Democrats and the rest of them, detestable Republicans and admirable ones, fine folks both black and Caucasian and despicable people in every race. When we choose ugly talk to denounce each other in blanket pronouncements, we only communicate our lack of thoughtful consideration; our ignorance. We really ought to do better than that.

From now on I resolve to withhold my judgment until I know the person and have listened carefully to what they have to say. I’ll judge them not on their race or heritage, but on their belief system and behaviors. It’s the least I can do in this enlightened age. In fact, I think I’ll give up prejudice all together. Except, of course, for one. No matter how much things change, some things always stay the same. KU still sucks!

What kind of leader are you? Don’t be timid. You see, I think too many of us are.

For much of my life I’ve been a timid leader. Those who read these words will chuckle and say I’m not self-aware, since I’m no shrinking violet. But hear me out.

I think part of the leadership package is a craving for affirmation and approval. I don’t know if that just comes with the skill set, or if it’s a result of being at the front of the column of warriors and being tempted to turn back when we are hit with the first stones. But in my experience, the hot glare of criticism and judgment that is heaped on you when you step up to lead is uncomfortable, and can cause you to back off of the very things about which you should be pressing forward. So we lead, less. We tell less truth. We engage smaller initiatives. We temper our criticism of overt wrong; evil sin. We do this because sometimes it just gets too hot and thus, we shrink back.

This self-revelation came to mind today as I read Isaiah. For the first three chapters Isaiah has been saying to Israel “God is unhappy with you” as he lists out a litany of reasons. He’s been warning, and calling for change, and he brings this section of his prophecy to a climax in chapter 3, verse 14 where God takes his place in court and rises to judge the people. Then comes the real shocker. God enters his judgment not against the people, but against their “elders and leaders.” Wow! If you’ve ever thought of your self as a leader this would be a good time to be making your way to the exit. It’s about to get REALLY HOT in here.

The simple truth is people do need to be led. There is a very good reason that the Bible and it’s books of wisdom refer to people as sheep—animals that are vulnerable and totally devoid of cunning.

Some of us are in positions of leadership. Many of us got there because we like the spotlight and love to hear the sound of our own voice. Those who’ve known the swoon of an audience when you have them in the palm of your hand and could give any instruction that they would—at that mesmerizing moment—follow, know that leadership is a heady power. What we fail to realize is why we have that power. It’s because God has entrusted to us empowering gifts, abilities and experiences so that we would use them to lead people in the way they should go. Leadership is responsibility. When we relish its power and fail to embrace its responsibility we fall horribly, miserably short. We endanger those who would follow us and provide God a poor return on the investiture He’s placed within us.

Some people hold vested positions of official leadership. I don’t. Other’s embody leadership without formal position. I’m told I do. All of us should take to heart that “God entered judgment against the elders and leaders” and take a good hard look at ourselves. My guess is that we need to stand up, more. To speak truth, quicker. To stand against evil, stronger. To show others the pathways to safety, righteousness, prosperity and right-thinking; all the while pointing out the roads we don’t take and why we don’t take them—because they end in death and destruction. We need to take more seriously the responsibility that comes with the gifts and opportunities we’ve been given.

Timidity just won’t cut it. It’s OK to be afraid. You may need to grow in executing your leadership. You may need to get help from others who know better than you how to bloom into your leadership. But remaining timid and safe is unacceptable. It is unworthy of the gifts that were given to you so that you could deliver on the responsibilities for which you were designed.

If you are going to be a leader, commit to be a leader. If not, sit down, shut up, and get out of the way.

An interesting thought stuck in my head after a visit with my friend Will Worsham—whose practice of law is mostly in the area of criminal defense. Will defined stealing as “depriving someone from the rightful use of what is his, even if for a short time” and to illustrate he picked up a paperclip from my desk. He said “When I hold this paperclip I am stealing, because you can’t use what is rightfully yours while I am holding onto it.” Fair enough.

Those of us who work in regulated industries are perpetual victims of thievery. The thief is usually our government. When the government or its agencies hand down a new edict or regulation with which we must comply, they’ve taken our time away from us. We could hire someone to fill out the forms—much like most of us do with our tax returns—but then they’ve taken our money from us. So government regulation effectively results in stealing by the government from its citizens, often the most productive citizens, because of the time and money it takes to comply with the regulation.

I understand that we have to have some regulation to stave off anarchy, and the willingness to accept it blesses official kleptomania. I don’t fully know what the solutions are. I often wonder at what point our republic will crumple under the sheer weight of its own regulatory bureaucracy. I think part of the solution is less emphasis on regulation and more emphasis on personal accountability and the personal embodiment of morality and values. That’s effectively the problem Jesus had with the Pharisees who were big on regulations while Jesus was big on doing what was right. Often, the two were different. So there He was, violating the regulations by healing sick people on prohibited days. I wonder how many pages of government forms it would have taken to have gotten permission? Or to have documented why it happened and the steps that had been put into place to assure that it didn’t happen again. Lord knows the ultimate fine He paid was expensive.

This week I saw a guy standing in line at the copy shop inside an office supply store. He owns a bulldozer, was covered in mud on his boots and jeans. He was photocopying a thick report of some sort that had his company name emblazoned on the cover along with a very government sounding gobbldy-gooky title with words like “ameliorations, proliferation and remediation.” I said to him “Boy, I bet you dig dirt alot better when you are working on a job that has one of those reports on file.” He just sighed and shook his head. What idiot drawing a check from the taxpayers really thinks that the water-table is safer because we have a ream of paper in the construction superintendent’s office/trailer on the bulldozer operator’s plan to keep the silt from running down hill?

It occurs to me that a part of the problem is that in America we have taken away values and morality and tried to replace them with regulation. Should the excavator care about silting, and the water table, and the wildlife downstream? Absolutely! But we indoctrinated him in an educational process devoid of values because “there is no absolute truth” and turned him loose in a lawyer-saturated culture where personal accountability for behavior is replaced with codes and regulations promulgated to the extent that it is virtually impossible for anyone to fully comply. We call it the American dream.

The American dream was a glint in the eye of pilgrims who came here in pursuit of freedom to do as they pleased without onerous governmental burden, fully cognizant of their accountability to God for their actions. But in a land where God is dead or has palsy—if He exists at all, we aren’t really sure—there’s no fear of accountability to God. It’s those government bureaucrats with clip boards that you’ve gotta watch out for.

It all takes me back Jefferson’s words oft quoted by another Barrister friend, Jillian Ivy Sidoti: a government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.

Meanwhile, Atlas shrugs.