The View from New York City and Washington D.C.

It has been an eventful week in the history of America. We are in the midst of what many consider one of the most serious financial crisis in our nations history. For the last 2 weeks I have been traveling with my family on a car journey from Mobile, Alabama all the way to Long Island. During our trip we spent time touring both New York City and Washington D.C. As I read the headlines of our nation's papers during our travel I was feeling a sort of disconnect between the 'talking heads' of our nations media and the reality of the people I see walking around these two cities. Two things strike you as you walk around our nations business and governmental capital cities: Diverse and Driven workers. As I read the headlines, I hear how our nation's economy has no growth and how 'hopeless' and dire the situation has become. I have no doubt that indeed we are facing a serious fiscal crisis. But as I walk the streets I hear people working very, very hard to make a living. The diversity of culture and multiple languages I hear spoken by street vendors, business people, restaurant owners and financial analysts shows you just how important these two cities are to our nation.... and our world.
  There are a lot of causes for our current financial crisis: greed, mismanagement, selfishness etc ...... and yet this nation of over 300 million people still attracts brilliant people from all over the world to work hard to achieve their dreams. On August 2nd we are being told that financial Armageddon looms. If we don't obtain  the ability to push our debt ceiling higher and come up with some sort of budget compromise the bottom falls out and we can all stay home and hide under our beds!
  For some reason I don't believe you need to break out the guns and ammo just yet to protect yourself from ensuing anarchy. The solution to the serious fiscal crisis is right in front of us....it's the people who live here... and aspire to live here. The dreamers, the visionaries, the workers and the immigrants who long to come here if allowed to be free and to work hard will rebuild this nation. Yes, we need to pay down debt..... Yes, we need to 'throw the bums out'..... Yes, we need new leaders who will serve us and not use their positions for selfish gain.
  The vision which created America is still a valid vision. It has been hijacked, prostituted and manipulated...but the original vision is indeed both worthy and noble. A vision of freedom of belief.... freedom to dream and build without undue governmental control and limits. When we refuse to allow our history to be rewritten and really understand where we have come from we might just get back to the values and foundations that built this nation. My walking tour of Washington D.C. and New York city left me hopeful and   prayerful. I don't think we can go forward and see real change without the spiritual character that was once so important to our nations founders. What if we allowed faith, hope and love to again find a home in our nation's moral fiber? I remain hopeful not because the problems we face are not real and challenging. I remain hopeful because those problems are temporary.... and our God is eternal and trustworthy.  Let's call upon his help and resolve to live in such a way that we can bring this nation back to the vision which made it a blessing to the world. There is enough pessimism in the 24 hour news cycle. I resolve to be good news in the very real world in which I live.... will you join me?

Jim

A Vision to Lead: America in Crisis

  I recently watched dueling speeches on national T.V. while on vacation with my family in N.Y. President Obama went head to head in a bully pulpit confrontation with House Speaker John Boehner. It was classic politics but not classic leadership. In trying times we don't need politicians....we are desperate for leaders with vision. Crisis arise due to war, economic depravity or social anarchy. We are in the midst of two of these crisis and we might be headed for the third.
  Yesterday, I toured New York City. I was struck by the immense energy of America's most important city .People are working hard to make a living. Walking around the city you can hear every language and see every culture integrating effortlessly. The buzz is positive and hopeful. During my walking tour of the city I visited the New York Public library which is celebrating its 100 year anniversary. They had a photography display and one picture spoke to me deeply. It was of an American astronaut walking on the moon from the Apollo 12 program. It was a black and white photo. As I gazed into the photo I heard God speaking to me of what was lacking in our current leadership nationally: VISION.
  During the Cold War with the Soviet Union, President John F. Kennedy called us in 1961 to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. My childhood and this nations's last generation was shaped by the vision of building a modern space program. The side effects of the vision were immense: technological innovation, national purpose, educational achievement and ultimately prosperity born of discovery and innovation.
  The nation of America is sorely lacking a vision beyond consumerism and self centered prosperity. Politicians whose salaries and benefits are bloated beyond the common man's take home pay live to survive another day and not truly lead us into the  future. We vote for compromised men and women in both parties whose major goals seem more tied to political survival than to what is good for America.
  There is a huge difference between management and leadership. We are in a stalemate over the fiscal crisis facing America for practical as well as visionary reasons. I do believe there are stark differences in the political philosophy of both the Republican and Democratic parties. However, I believe when leaders truly lead based upon a worthy and moral vision of the future that the two party system will again work in America.

  I am praying and asking God to give us men and women who will have a clear vision of the future that God has planned for our nation. When we have a clear vision we can work together for the common good and not malign and tear down the nation so many great leaders have worked to build. Will you pray with me?

Jim

When Governments Fail

You know things are bad when the President of the United States threatens to stop the lifeline for his nations poor and elderly. President Obama yesterday warmed the hearts of no one by issuing a thinly veiled threat to our nation that unless he got his way in the budget impasse he could not guarantee he would issue social security checks to the people who so desperately need them. We live in the world's richest nation with the poorest attitude. While our elected officials live in financial luxury we the poor 'working stiffs' continue to pay taxes while they 'fiddle while Rome burns'. We are in desperate need of a new American revolution. It was John Adams who said that democracy as a form of government would only work for a moral people. When we cannot govern ourselves.... when our ability to exercise self restraint and a commitment to personal moral excellence falters, then no formal external government can save us from ourselves.
  We are seeing history repeat itself. The historian Edward Gibbons in his classic tome, "The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire" detailed how Rome fell from within from moral decay. We also are collapsing from within and neither political party can be our savior. The kind of deliverance we need is a a deep spiritual transformation where we come face to face with moral absolutes again. We are the most morally confused nation on the planet.  We carry an outward veneer of religion while wanting our own selfish way again and again. We simply cannot have it both ways. We either turn away from selfishness, greed and injustice or we watch the slow and inexorable collapse of a once great nation. I'm praying for mercy and for real and lasting change to come to America once again. Will you pray with me?

Jim

Leading during Hard Times

We are in the midst on an ongoing and seeming unrelenting world wide economic recession. Despite the horrific suffering world wide  that this economic down turn has caused, there is another crisis being revealed with much graver implications. The vanishing of  our national prosperity has revealed a severe lack of leadership in every aspect of human government.
  Much of our inability to overcome the downturn in stock markets, banking, housing and other main economic indicators has resulted from the lack of moral fiber in our elected leaders worldwide. The price of true leadership never varies during crisis:

1. Courage
2. Frank and honest communication
3. Long term planning
4. Willingness to sacrifice for the common good
5. Humility
6. Moral commitment to absolute truth

  Since the corruption and hubris of Wall Street and the global markets came crashing down in October of 2008 we have seen very few willing to 'pay the price' to lead us out of this recession. We have seen massive borrowing and printing of money, but no real honest and bold leadership. The facts are that many individuals, families, local, state and national governments are in deep and unsustainable debt. We simply have to change the way we live to bring real and lasting change to our economic worlds. Who will speak the truth into the midst of this harsh reality?

  Not only have our leaders failed us, but our media who have become a part of the consumer propaganda machine, don't dare speak the truth either. We are told to buy more.... get the latest gadget and keep riding on the Ferris wheel of consumer fantasy.

 The fact is we are in a recession for some very good reasons. We have created an entire economy built on greed, deception and short term gratification. We are wanting our pleasure fulfilled right now regardless of cost and consequences. We have met the enemy.... and he is us! We criticise our leaders and fail to remember we elected them! We elected them largely because we would rather believe the lies of short term and grossly ineffective 'solutions'. 

  There really is no easy way out of the global economic crisis. There really is no gain without pain. The solution will come when we accept the real moral truths revealed to us as a society by God himself. When we return in humility to those truths we will find the prosperity we have squandered over this last generation. Prosperity and blessing are not accidental.... they are born of a commitment to truth lived in community under God.

Jim

Prodigal

Prodigal

Mind unsettled, an anxious burn

My heart is melting, I can't find home

Something tells me, I'm not who I was

The pressures mounting, I've come undone

Someone's calling to a place I love

Confusion lifting, a soul reborn, I know the power of unseen love.

While fools proclaim a counterfeit, I've found the real in the house of love

Father's waiting outside the house, his tears still falling from a broken heart

I've waited too long, it's time to go, I am falling     forward into his arms of love.

A Singular Commitment

In our desire to achieve and have lives of meaning we often find ourselves struggling with commitment issues. What will I study or major in at college? Who will I marry or develop a serious relationship with? What career calling should I pursue? Making life impacting decisions is never easy. But there is one decision that rises above all other life decisions in terms of its impact and importance. Psalm 37 has so much truth with regards to making commitments that it can't be avoided by anyone who wants direction and wisdom to be at work in their daily life. In Psalm 37 and verse 5 we read about a singular commitment that we must enter into as soon as possible, "Commit everything you do to the Lord.  Trust him, and he will help you."
  In our seeking for direction and preparing for success, we dare not leave out the importance of our supreme relational commitment. We NEED God. While modern society places religion and spirituality at the periphery of our culture, we dare not ignore the need for knowing God. We strive for 'stuff' and security while ignoring the ONE who outlasts and ultimately provides everything we need. You ignore the 'faith factor' at your own peril!
  For too many of us there is a huge disconnect between our beliefs and our daily lives. We try to live compartmentalized lives. God on Sunday. (or another 'religious' day) Work on Monday. Party on Friday etc.... But it wasn't meant to be that way. Our lives were meant to be a seamless flow of relationship where love is at the very center of EVERYTHING we do and are. Until and unless we make that kind of a singular commitment we might just wind up going places we were never meant to go, becoming someone we were never meant to be and never achieve the dream and vision that God himself has planted in our souls.

Jim

Reflections on 26 years of Marriage to Mary

  Mary and I just celebrated our 26th anniversary on the 29th of June. I have always said it feels like we're just getting started in our marriage. Time spent with someone you love moves much faster than you would like. We were blessed to spend a little time in Destin, Florida walking the beaches and reflecting on God's goodness to us both over the last 26 years. Although we don't have a 'perfect' marriage we are indeed very blessed to love one another more than we did on the day we committed ourselves to one another in marriage in 1985!
  What are some of the things we have learned along the way that have kept us close and committed to one another? The first thing that keeps our relationship and healthy is the word RESPECT. When I first met Mary I only knew her from a distance. We had mutual friends. From the very beginning I have had nothing but respect for Mary. I admire her love and compassion for others. In fact I am deeply humbled by that compassion. From a distance I found myself wondering what it would be like to know someone like Mary in a closer and perhaps more intimate way. Mary had a depth of character that drew me to her. I wanted to know her and learn from her. I knew that I had a lot of 'head knowledge' about mercy and compassion but was weak on the actual living of it. What could Mary teach me?
  The next thing that was key in cementing our relationship from the very beginning was a shared VISION of life. When I finally had the guts to ask Mary to spend some one on one time with me we had amazing talks about vision. What do you see yourself doing with your life? What would you do with your life even apart from ever being married? Mary had a clearly defined understanding of who she was and what she wanted to do with her life. She told me that she felt called to work with children in Bangladesh or some other Asian nation. Her education was in Physical therapy and she was already working in Chester County, Pa. with disabled children. I went to visit her at work and watched her care for children with serious disabilities. I was humbled and amazed at her competent and compassionate care for hurting children. I left her workplace thinking that this was the type of person I could spend my life with!
  I had felt that God would have me also working in some form of international ministry. I knew that in order to be effective I would not be able to marry someone who did not have a similar call. Mary had that and more. Mary didn't just understand where she was called.....she was already living it right where she was.
  The third thing that has been key in our relationship is Attraction. As I began to reflect on the respect that I had for Mary and the vision we shared my eyes opened to the beauty of who she was. What began as admiration moved forward to a deep and abiding attraction that had endured and even grown over time. Mary is indeed an amazing beautiful woman. Proverbs 31:30 warns us, "Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised." There is a superficial beauty that is truly temporary and fleeting...but a woman whose character and love is rooted in truth has a lasting attraction that time cannot fade or mar. When I look at Mary I see a woman of true beauty that I will love until the end of time itself.
 Finally, I would like to share one more essential quality that keeps our love for one another fresh and vital. Mary and I both love God with all our hearts. We love one another....but we also love God more. We recognize that we are frail and imperfect people in need of a fresh and ongoing relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I will not love Mary perfectly....we will fail one another at times. A fractured and broken relationship can be healed, renewed and strengthened by the God who initiates all relationship. As I continue to reflect on the first 26 years of our marriage I do so knowing that all the glory for our love goes to the God who brought us together. We've only just begun! The best is yet to come. I love you Mary!

Jim