I hope………

…..everything gets better.

…..she gets over it.

…..I get a job.

…..I don’t die from a heart attack despite my poor exercise and nutrition.

…..the world changes for the better.

Hope, is not a strategy.

You may or may not know that the years from 1990-1999 were very financially successful in America, and the U.S. stock market performed well. Conversely, the years from 2000-2009 were economically difficult and the U.S. stock market sucked big time. Not long ago I ran into a stock market expert. He is kinda big time. He’s a Certified Financial Planner and has a nationally-syndicated radio program. He manages a very large practice with hundreds of millions of dollars under management. His son has a major league baseball contract. He’s doing well in most areas of his life.

As we did that “talk about the weather and sports thing” that guys do when they run into each other our conversation drifted to our work in the field of finance and he said “Barry, I just hope the next ten years (2011-2020) are like my first ten (1990-1999).” When I asked what he saw on the horizon or in the economy to give him confidence he said “Nothing. I just hope.”

Hope?

Hope??

Is that all you got?

People in Hell HOPE that someone will bring them ice-water.

Hope?????

Many people live their lives in a soap opera version of Fantasyland called Hope. They hope their marriage improves, but they aren’t doing anything to make it better. They hope the economy improves so maybe they’ll get a raise, but they aren’t giving any extra to help their company exceed the competition. They hope their kids turn out all right, but they won’t shut off the TV, talk, listen, and teach. Instead, they sit there and just hope—-as if the world just “does it” to them and they have no control over anything.

Here’s a principle for you: As a man sows, so shall he reap. It doesn’t say “As a man hopes, so shall he reap.” If it did, those folks in Hell would have ice-water.

You are not so weak minded as to believe that hope is an effective strategy for success.

Should you have hope? By all means! And it should rest on a foundation of right thinking, sound decision making, proactive planning, effective habits, and intentional living all bathed in prayer and thoughtfulness. If you’ve got those things happening, then it’s not hope, it’s faith: the evident expectation of a thing not yet seen.

I received a compliment this week. It wasn’t necessarily meant as one. It was just an observation, but it complimented me. A fellow said to me “I sense a calmness in you.”

Indeed. I feel more calm today than perhaps ever in my 48 years.

In Ecclesiastes this morning I read about “The quiet words of the wise…” (v 9:17) and that “calmness can lay great errors to rest.” (v 10:4)

There’s a thought: How many raging fires exist in your life because there was a little spark caused by friction—-and there is friction everywhere, everyday—and in frustration and anger you threw gasoline on the spark? I’d hate to think about how many heart-acres I have scorched because I didn’t exhibit calmness. I’m reminded that Proverbs 15:1 says “A gentle answer turns away wrath.”

Where does calm come from? Is it just an age thing? Only to the extent that time allows you to dig your well deeper.

I think calmness comes from depth. Shallow water has turbulent ripples but deep water is calm. Calmness comes from depth. Where does depth come from?

Depth—deep—-dig, Ah Ha! You gotta dig to get to depth. Dig what? I think your own heart.

My pastor friend, Hosea Bilyeu, has repeatedly encouraged me to listen slowly, think deeply, pray fervently, and obey faithfully. Pause to consider the first two thoughts. Listen slowly implies carefully considering what you hear. Don’t be rushing to formulate your answer. Think deeply. Shallow thinking produces shallow answers that hit us like cotton candy. They may sound good, but they quickly melt to nothing. Deep thinking sometimes—not always—produces profound thoughts and solutions that change the course of our life.

You can’t dig to depth, or think deeply in the midst of noise, and it’s a noisy world. Phones ring. Kids scurry through. Spouses need things. Text messages ding. The computer shouts “You’ve got mail!” All the while the TV or radio blares in the background and we have the temerity to say “I’m thinking.” Not so much.

Learning and growing can’t take place in a life that is noisy. It requires ingestion of ideas through great books, podcasts, conversations & travel. Then it requires digestion of what you’ve ingested. Some of it will help you learn and grow while some just produces waste. You separate the good from the bad as you dig deep into the ideas, and into your heart, and evaluate what you find in comparison to what you know is truth. Thus, you grow. And, somewhere on the other side of that growth, comes calm.

It’s a chaotic world out there. Politically. Economically. Socially. Your internal world is chaotic, too. Relationships. Finances. Fears. All of these things produce friction that is sometimes too much to bear, and when we can’t stand it anymore we spew gasoline on the sparks all the while wondering why we are having to continually fight fires.

You, your family, the people you work with, even the world needs your calm.

Get a shovel, and start digging.

(Sorry guys, this article isn’t about what you thought it was about. But hey, the title worked—you’re here. So read on!)

An article in this morning’s New York Times laments “The Great American Cleavage,” the fact that—as indicated by recent elections—there is increasing political, religious and philosophical polarization in America these days and fewer of us in the center. My casual observations would support that notion.

My Republican friends are more overt in their strident Republicanism and anti-Democrat taunts while my Democrat friends……..oh wait, I don’t have any Democrat friends…….well, there is Kurt Wolfram, but I think he’s faking it just to keep everyone on edge….and then there is Jessica Spragg, but if we didn’t have her to rib who could I joke with…….well, at least the Democrats I see on TV, hear on the radio and read in the paper seem to be shrill-voiced, angry, even nasty in their demeanor. But then. my Republican friends are similar with perhaps only a touch more patriarchal gentility in their tone. One emailed me just this week after he’d seen us out on a carriage ride (see how genteel we Republicans can be—-carriage riding. How quaint!) during which he’d asked “Are these Republican horses?” and told me he knew they were Republican horses because they hadn’t left any crap on the streets. (Kinda funny. Worth a slight rim-shot on a snare drum and a minor harumph.)

That’s what its come down to, those with different philosophies have become caricatures instead of people.  The unthinking and vociferous manner in which we attack each other personally—because we don’t want to do the heavy intellectual lifting of thinking through what we believe, understanding what they believe, comparing, contrasting and then vigorously debating the philosophy with which we disagree—has created a national divide unlikely to be repaired. It’s simply easier to Jerry Springerize the conversation than it is to think and talk and challenge. Yet, Isaiah says the people of God are to be the restorers of the breach. So we who call ourselves His ought to at least be thinking about how to shift the tone so we can become thermostats that control the temperature of dialogue rather than thermometers that respond to it.

I believe the reason we’re divided is that we don’t know who we are. WE don’t have a culture anymore. Every individual has become a culture unto himself. We’ve heightened individualism, dummed-down morality, and reduced the teaching of who we are and where we came from. It’s no wonder we are confused as a people.

Let’s be honest, it’s gotten to where the Jaywalking segment on the Tonight Show has gone way beyond being funny that people don’t know basic things about America’s history, geography and politics and has instead become a sad indictment of our country. I propose a few ideas that might turn the tide.

#1. Let’s teach history & geography in school. Students should learn how civilization spread from it’s Middle-Eastern and North African cradle across the European continent to become what America is today. Students should learn about the oppression of autocratic government that led pilgrims to risk everything for the simple opportunity to be free. The should learn that freedom is an implicit gift from God and with it comes immense responsibility. They should be taught, challenged, and expected to step-up and embrace their responsibility to God, to humanity, and to the country. They should learn the unpopular lesson that WE is more important than ME, and be tested, drilled, challenged, and coerced to prioritize the good of the group over the good of the individual.

#2. We’ve got to require intellectual heavy-lifting. Our population has been over-run with intellectual midgets, not because they don’t have capacity, but because learning and thinking is hard-work. I’m no intellectual heavyweight. I’m kind of a middle-weight. I’ve met some heavy-weight thinkers and wow! They were impressive in their ability to bring together world history, cultural philosophy, economic reality and cultural plurality into cohesive thoughts about where we are and where we needed to go. We need to turn off the damned TV (curse highly intentional), pick up a book, learn, think, and converse. We need to challenge each other and learn the skill of argument. Puny intellects who refuse to attempt meager progress in their ability to think will necessarily be relegated to a position of inconsequence.

#3. English. That’s where we came from. Not everyone who settled America or has immigrated here came from English speaking countries but they all came in pursuit of freedom and opportunity that America provides. That opportunity rests on a foundation of rebellion, yearning, and risk taking that our forefathers embraced in order to create what is America. English is our language. In order for a team to win they have to establish a common lexicon of words that have meaning so that when the someone says “x” all the things that “x” means come to mind. It happens that in America we express “x’ in utterance that is labeled English. Embracing English is part of the package of embracing America.

Lest you think I am being inappropriately English-centric, you should know I am learning Spanish because I’m involved in missions projects in a Spanish speaking country and when I go there I know that I’ll be more effective if I learn to speak their language. The fact that people argue against this is beyond absurd, it is idiotic. In America English is the language, moreover it is the language of commerce in the world. Speak it.

#4. Pull your pants up, learn to say “yes, Sir; yes, Ma’am; please; and thank you.”

Those are a few of my starting thoughts. What are yours?

Wrong thinking reared its ugly head on the front page of the Springfield Business Journal recently. An article in the September 13, edition entitled Diversity in Development and subtitled A 92-percent-white Springfield poses problems for economic development demonstrates just how weak-minded even strong and well-respected leaders can be. The article posits that Springfield is the second least diverse metropolitan area exceeding 400,000 in population (in the nation, presumably) and that companies that have diversity as a corporate value see Springfield as a “non-competitor.”

Let’s stop and think about “diversity” as a corporate value. Hmmm. What economic value is there in diversity? How does diversity result in the creation of more or better widgets or whatever your company produces? How does diversity increase the level of service your company provides to customers? How does diversity make you a better corporate citizen? How does diversity increase your company’s return to shareholders? How does being more diverse make you better?

If diversity is better, shouldn’t the NBA diversify and sign some short guys, and shouldn’t the NFL sign some skinny guys, and shouldn’t the football team have more girls and shouldn’t the volleyball team have more boys?

This notion that diversity is a value to be cherished or pursued is weak-minded. It comes from the elite who relish lecturing us on what’s wrong with us, but who really have no idea what our significant issues are and have even less notion about how to solve problems. In most all areas of human endeavor, diversity simply isn’t a problem—except in the minds of those who want to remake everywhere into their superior notion of what utopia should look like.

Springfield is mostly white. The 2008 census says its 92.4% white. That’s just a fact. The corporate elitists and Chamber of Commerce members who want to make it a problem are engaging in anti-white prejudice. They are saying “too much white” and “too little color.” They’ll be the first to tell you that we shouldn’t judge a man by the color of his skin but by the content of his character. Why then does the fact that Springfield is 92.4% white matter?

It doesn’t.

Can you imagine the Chamber of Commerce in Detroit saying “The problem in Detroit is that our population is 87.7% black—-we need more white folks to increase our diversity.” Can you imagine going to Laredo, Texas and saying “The fact that Laredo is 94% Hispanic poses problems.” The uproar would be instantaneous and vociferous! And you’d be called a “racist” for your suggestion. But when the shoe is on the other foot and a similar thing is said about our Springfield, we yawn and look the other way. Why? That’s the genius of freedom that makes Springfield work! You can say whatever you want here, and many lunatics do. Its a freedom that should be replicated, not denigrated.

I don’t know why Springfield is so WASPy. Other parts of Missouri aren’t. The Kansas City and St. Louis metro areas have significant non-white populations. Many parts of North Missouri have black residents. I’d venture to guess that the southern part of Missouri is white because our ancestors were independent minded rebels, loners, hunters, fishermen, and trappers. In the Mississippi and Missouri River watersheds the soil is better for farming and thus entrepreneurial-minded agriculturalists established large farms and plantations empowered—at one point in our history—by slave labor. The ease of river travel brought racial and cultural diversity to the state’s two major cities that didn’t happen in the isolated and rugged terrain that is the Missouri Ozarks. Instead, much of the lower half of the state was wooded frontier land. It was settled by folks who just wanted to be left alone, and to subsist. They didn’t settle large parcels, but small tracts of land. They ate off the land. For the most part they didn’t have jobs, they had lives—meager ones at that—supported by what they could scrape together. It made for a hard, rugged, life of individualism and freedom. There was virtually no economy. No employment. Not much for anyone to do except get by. The people were called hillbilly. They didn’t have slaves. Who’d have wanted another mouth to feed? (If they could have figured out why their women kept turning up pregnant and creating all those additional mouths to feed on such meager rations, they might have even stopped having sex.)

Though improvements in transportation and technology have opened the doors of our parochial enclave to the rest of the world, the belligerently independent mindset of this region remains ingrained in our politics. Taxes are fiercely low. Most of us who live here are suspect of those who don’t, particularly those who work in Washington, D.C.

Missouri’s 7th congressional district (bordering Arkansas, Oklahoma & Kansas) hasn’t sent a Democrat to congress in over 50 years, and the 8th district which extends across the south-central and south-eastern parts of the state has a similarly Republican tendency. For better or worse, this is Bush-McCain country. Clinton, Kerry & Obama aren’t at home here. Sarah Palin is a heroine and some think Hillary Clinton is the devil. That’s not a political statement. It’s a fact. Just like its a fact that 92% of the population of Springfield is white. It’s not something to be cured. It’s not a disease. It’s not a problem. Its an “is.”

I grew up in a very backwoods part of the world in Stone County, Missouri in the 1960’s and 70’s. There were no Jews in our county. Our neighbor, also the local Sheriff, made sure black folks knew to be across the county line before dark. There was only one Catholic family in our town and we were all suspect of them. So I come by my rednecked-ness honestly. Lest you think that prejudices me today read my blog post of June 9, 2010 entitled London: Thoughts on Race and Prejudice. And, you need to know that just this morning my pew at church was “taken” by a group of Chinese students (how dare they…everybody knows I sit on the middle aisle, row 2, stage right) and that one young Chinese woman shared a wonderful testimony of what God was doing in her life after which I thanked her in my very limited Chinese “Xie Xie” (SHAY SHAY—-for you hillbillies). She laughed and replied in Chinese and I quickly had to tell her in English that I was “out of words.” But I did appreciate her story and wanted to greet her in a way that was human, loving, and emotionally engaging. What better for her 10,000 miles from home to hear a big, white, hillbilly speaking to her in her native tongue?

You should know that the company I own has employed minorities. I can only think of three that ever applied, and two were hired. One still works for us today. That’s 66% of minorities who applied that got hired. White folks don’t have nearly that good a record with our company, so maybe I am prejudiced against them. Who knew?

My next door neighbor is from Korea. I can’t understand much he says, but he’s a good guy and we share a bit together. He asks me what treatment to give his livestock when they have “juicy poop.” (I wish you could hear him say that with an Asian accent. It’s a riot!)

I’m not all lathered up about protecting the white man’s spot. I am all lathered up about people missing the point and failing to understand what does and doesn’t matter, what should and shouldn’t be our priorities.

My point in all of this my friends, is to say that Martin Luther King was RIGHT! It’s NOT about the color of your skin. It IS about the content of your character. It’s NOT about the accent with which you speak. It IS about the values you affirm including individual freedom and self-determination in an atmosphere of right behavior and right thinking. Where we disagree on the definitions of “right” in terms of behavior and thinking it is about persuasive reasoning and passionate logic articulated amid respectable dialogue.

If diversity means welcoming, then I’m for diversity. If diversity means recruiting and posturing to assuage our guilt for the great life with which we’ve been blessed, if diversity means being different for different’s sake, then I think we leave well enough alone.

Does Springfield need to be better. Undoubtedly. Everyone can improve, and so can everywhere. But does Springfield need to be “less white”? Not necessarily. Those who think so have been sucked in by wrong thinking, and they’ve all together missed the point.

When I was growing up, I was always admonished to “use good judgment.” But it seems like judgment has fallen on hard times. More and more I’m hearing people speak of “not being judgmental.” It sounds good at first, but if you think it through it doesn’t ring true. Growing in knowledge and wisdom should result in the development of one’s judgment, and once developed it ought to be used.

In recent decades our culture has grown soft. I wonder if avoiding judgment isn’t just a way to sidestep uncomfortable truth. It’s become fashionable to “suspend judgment,” especially if using your judgment might be deemed to hurt the feelings of another. And, in the softening culture, anytime we express our disagreement its seen as an opportunity to exhibit hurt feelings. Maybe we should toughen-up a bit.

I advocate “hardening” of our feelings—-not to the point of insensitive oblivion, but to the point that we can navigate through daily life without our emotions being hurt by the littlest slight. Get the chip off your shoulder. Life is tough. People say things. Not everybody agrees with you. But that’s doesn’t necessarily mean you should change your opinion. Maybe you are right and should stand on your conviction. However, if unchecked the  softening culture will tempt you to give in so you don’t hurt anyone’s feelings. That’s weak-mindedness. Don’t let it overtake you.

You can be judgmental without being ugly. In fact, you can be overtly gracious and kind, and still be judgmental. But even then, you’ll offend because weak people don’t like truth accompanied by strength. Don’t let that dissuade you. There is life in truth.

Think deeply. Train yourself to think soundly. Develop your judgment. Then don’t be afraid to use it! The world needs your sound-minded judgment.