The High Cost of Leadership

So you want to be a leader? Good for you! It's an admirable trait in a world where so many abdicate roles and simply choose to follow along. It would appear that there is not a very deep pool to draw from nowadays when it comes to qualified leaders. Kinda makes you ask the question "What really is a leader?" doesn't it? It's election year and we have seen a dozen or so come and go... aspiring leaders that couldn't quite meet muster. They didn't endear themselves to the people. So what makes a leader (or what should?)?

I dare say this is not an easy question, but a few things stand out clearly...

1) a leader is not his own person. We have seen this failure with the current administration, pushing personal agendas and disregarding the people in preference to his own desires and wishes. A leader serves at the will of the people. He does the will of the people. The majority, that is. He lays himself aside in order to do what is right for the whole. And this brings me to #2.

2) A leader must be a man of principle and willing to stand for what is right, using wisdom to discern between the "wants" of the people and the "needs" of the people.  This may sometimes bring him into conflict with the people's will, but I believe a balanced leader can walk the line on this and effectively convey this idea in a way that is understandable and acceptable to most reasonable people.

3) He's not afraid to be wrong and owns up to it. All men make mistakes. There is no room in good leadership for spin doctoring. Being a man of principle means that you sometimes take chances and sometimes they fail. Sometimes ideas are not good and you need to go back and start over. This is what a successful leader does.

4) He knows his allies and stands by them. A good leader does not abandon those who have stood next to him (or his country) and cavort with the enemy. His principles keep him above people pleasing and encourage him to do what is right even if your enemy is angered.

5) Taking a stand sometimes means going into battle. This means preparing for a fight, even when you don't want one. Remember Top Gun? Remember Goose's response to the Russian MIG when he was inverted over top of him? We have just had a similar event take place except our roles were reversed. A Russian plane barrel rolled over a US fighter jet. Our response? It was unprofessional. We are being provoked constantly by outside forces and our current leadership's response is not to stand up, but to cry "UNFAIR!". It is the feminization of our country, that we cannot take any real stand against affronts to us. I am not talking about bullying, I am talking about standing up to bullies.

6) A leader realizes that since his life is not his own, sacrifices must be made. This means that his entertainment time is often interrupted for the sake of the people. Leisure is not a right, it is a privilege. One that is often denied to those who serve, and so to should it be for those who lead them.

7) Finally, a leader is a leader all the time. It's not just a job, it is a lifestyle. A leader lives and breathes who and what he is all the time. What makes a man? What he does in private, when no one sees him. Not what he does in front of the world. This is why the Clintons will never be real leaders.

This certainly isn't a complete list, and I am sure there are more. Certainly there is a high cost of leadership. It is no small thing for sure.  What do you think?

Part 2- With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

Many years ago, a comic book was published about a young boy who had to suffer a great loss in order to understand the idea that to whom much is given, much is required. A lesson he learned from his uncle just before he died. I admit I am a comic geek. I love the Spider-man comics in nearly all of their incarnations. Throughout them all, this one universal truth stands out... With great power comes great responsibility.... 

You may think it is a silly thing, a comic book saying... But think about how different our society would be if we all followed this one simple principle. We would recognize the duty we have to honor and protect our fellow citizens. It is a shame that our president and many (most) in our legislatures and justice systems never caught on and ran with this idea. Our presidential candidates leave a lot to be desired in many many areas. Our current president thinks that with great power comes great privilege. He fails to grasp that idea that those who rule must rule justly, that privilege is laid aside to serve. A good shepherd serves his flock, the flock does not serve the shepherd. This makes a good church and it makes good politics.

I wish our president would lay aside privilege and understand that the responsibility he has is enormous to protect the citizens of this country. Instead, he leaves us unguarded with a military whose hands are bound, with a police force that is hated by the people they protect, and a people who are more unsure and insecure about the future he has placed before us because he wants to import potential terrorists (refugees) into this country in order to show how open and accepting we are. 

And maybe that is part of the problem. We have relinquished our power in order to be all-inclusive so as to not offend anyone (unless you are noninclusive, then you are fair game). In becoming all inclusive, we have abdicated not only our power as a nation (which lies mainly in the idea of our identity as a people which we are increasingly surrendering to the cult of individualism). In relinquishing our power, we also relinquish responsibility. Not to those around us.... Oh no. Our president seems very comfortable being responsible for everyone in every other nation, Except ours. He eats hot dogs at baseball games and golfs and dances the nights away while our enemies plot and act against us. It seems that he cares more for making nice with the people who hate us, then the country he purports to love. 

I think what we need are justices, congressmen and senators as well as a president who understands that there is a great responsibility sitting before them. That the responsibility is to serve the people and their best interests. They are not here to give us everything we want (that's entitlement), but to give us everything we need. President Obama, pick up a damn Spider-man comic and read it please. It might enlighten you on how civilized people sacrifice and care for those around them. Like i said... might sound silly, but I think it's better than the balderdash we've been fed for the last 8 years.

The Saturday Constitutional: Part one: Service and Vocation

Service in the military isn't just another job. It is a vocation, whether it be long term or short term, much akin to being a pastor or police officer. It is a high calling that requires sacrifice. I am disappointed that the US Army has given yet another exemption for Cpt. Simratpal Singh. Joining the military requires you to give up certain liberties in order to meet conformity standards. I am sure he is a good soldier. A decorated combat veteran. However, when you **voluntarily** enter into US military service, uniformity is one of the first things that you are schooled in. I think it is a shame that accommodations are made for this. It is a slippery slope that once tread may indeed lead to breakdown in unit cohesion. I fear this is part of a larger problem of tolerance and syncretism wherein we are losing our identity as a country, as Americans.

No longer are we a melting pot, where all races, creeds and colors come and become Americans, but a nation of individuals bent on self service instead of service to a higher calling. We are bent on serving self and not others, and whatever pleases me takes precedence over what is meant to serve the greater good. This has become apparent in the recent string of growing troops and their spouses who do not understand their oath to uphold the constitution and protect against threats both foreign and domestic. I have heard some military men and many of their spouses say they do not want their husbands/wives to serve in combat situations no matter how necessary. I wonder if they understand how ridiculous this notion is? Your souse has enlisted for the purpose of serving in a *military capacity*, and that means the possibility (probability in this day and age) of serving in a hostile or combat theater. It is what they are trained to do, from cooks to rangers, from motor-t drivers for MARSOC, from Seamen to Seals. When you as a service member or your spouse speaks out in criticism of deployment to such a theater, or criticises the idea of serving in general, you not only reduce confidence in yourself and your spouse in their ability to perform, but you reduce your unit's effectiveness, because you are showing that you may not have your buddy's back. When you are "in it", and your buddies know your heart is not there with them in the stink of it, how safe do you think they are going to feel?

There is a time and a place for religious practice and political opinions, On duty is not the place, and keep your opinions about deployment private, confined within the walls of your own house, out of ear-shot of everyone else. No one wants to hear your liberal blathering about Sanders' socialism in the military and how your spouse doesn't need to deploy to protect us from terror. So, here, let me recap this for you. If you are serving, there is the knowledge that there are things you are going to have to give up voluntarily (time with your family, the ability to express your faith while on duty in a public way, the ability to dress differently from all your peers, your possible safety, etc), because serving isn't a job, it is a calling. Don't be that nagging pastor's wife who complains that her husband is ministering to the needy, or the cop wife who is complaining that her husband has to patrol a dangerous part of town. Instead, be a good spouse by setting aside your own fears and worries and publicly supporting them with all your being. In that you will be a good partner, and in setting aside your public display of faith to serve your country you can show honor to whatever god you serve by acknowledging that it was he who called you to that service.

Nero and the Resurrection:

There can be no doubt that we live in the greatest empire of the modern age. Technologically we are ahead of nearly every country, we are wealthy beyond belief, we have creature comforts like no other nation in the world, yet something is amiss. There is something that just doesn't jive. As we have seen in the last week, one of the most peaceful countries in Europe, was bombed by Muslim terrorists. In addition to this, our top two conservative candidates have entered into a twitter war over who has the hottest wife, a democratic nominee who is a walking security violation with a chronic lying problem and a whole generation of millennials that believe they deserve everything for free and that entering into a conversation with our enemies will pacify them. We are modern Rome.

Think about it. We have a corrupt senate and congress that serves itself and not the people, a judiciary system that no longer seeks the truth, only what they can prove and is motivated politically instead of by justice, and a president who is a would-be emperor who seeks nothing but to satisfy his own un-slaked thirst for power, glory and entertainment. Our president is a madman who lives in a dream world of peace and harmony between all men. Sadly this is not our world. This is not the reality the rest of creation lives in. We live in a fallen world of disharmony and pain. Suffering and death. We live in an age of terror, where wicked men seek to do us bodily harm and corrupt our souls for their false god of Islam. While all this is going on in the world, our president and those like him would have us believe that evil is small and harmless, that Islam is peaceful and loving, that plurality is the path to peace. He posits (along with those like him) a social utopia where those who work carry along those who do not out of a false sense of fairness. A utopia where those who contribute to society and make it prosperous will feed and clothe the lazy and provide them with material pleasures as a reward for their apathy and self serving attitudes. Our president is Nero, fiddling away while Rome burns. He is dancing the tango while allied countries in true distress from terrorism mourn. He goes to baseball games with our enemies when he should be in a war room planning the defeat of those who are devoted to the very core of their being to destroy us. The glory of Rome is no more.

And yet, in the midst of this, we are here, on this day that many in the world celebrate the Resurrection. It is a day that we look back and remember that there is hope. We look back and see the death of death in the death of Christ. A man who was fully man, and so much more... Fully God.  To our sensibilities, it seems almost incomprehensible to think about. How can one man defeat death? How can the pain and suffering of this world be alleviated by a man who suffered a humiliating, embarrassing (it was a shame to be executed on a cross in ancient Rome), and most painful execution? The truth is, if he was simply a man, it would be rather unremarkable.Nothing special, just another criminal of the state being executed for crimes against the state. Yet there was something remarkable about Jesus of Nazareth, this humble carpenter from a backwater country that nobody really cared about. He had an unusual father who set a plan into motion before we existed. A plan where pain and suffering and death would be eliminated. Where death would die to the man who was slain for us. And he could accomplish it because he was not just a man, he was also God. This is a day that we look back and see that all that is wrong in this world is coming to an end. Our bent, twisted existence is being made straight, and it was the beginning of the end for evil and those who would do harm to others. It began the process whereby all things are made new. Is it no wonder that when Mary Magdalene saw that the stone had been rolled away her first thought was that someone had come and stolen the body of Christ? It took the two men there to ask her why she sought the living among the dead and Christ simply saying her name to open her eyes to what had happened. Our Nero will continue fiddling, and our Rome is destined to perish. It is the way of men. Nothing we build lasts forever. it is prone to corruption, but we have an incorruptible Lord who stands risen above all things and has promised that though nations shall rise and nations shall fall, we can take heart, knowing that death is defeated, pain and suffering are but for a moment, and then peace. Joy.

The Sunday Morning Constitutional:That's the Fact, Jack!

Sitting here this morning on my throne (the chair on the back porch where I write all my commentaries), I have been thinking of the news, the politics and how people seem to be reacting to what is amounting to what might be considered one of the most exciting election campaigns in decades. I have not seen people this excited, angry, distressed and involved in years. It is not hard to guess why. Our nation is in a state of distress. Religious persecution seems to be at an all time high (try being a Christian in an openly/increasingly secular-hedonistic society), Racial tensions are arguably worse now than they were in the 60's, our president seems to be dismantling and emasculating our military, our democratic hopefuls have announced that they have no intention of deporting *ANY* illegals, terrorism is not on the decline, but on the rise (both internationally and domestically, with a boldness that should shock even the most hard core liberal), and our economy is no better than it was 8 years ago. Add to that the circus that the GOP has turned into and the overt socialism of the left where the party line seems to be "don't work, that's ok... we'll just take from those who do and give it to you".

Is it any wonder people seem to be losing hope? Hope in the system, hope in those running, hope in just about everyone around them? The truth is, all these things will let you down. Why? Because we as men are flawed creatures. This means that inherently, our system is flawed, parties are flawed, the people running are flawed... We live in a fallen, flawed world and people and the things they put in place let us down. It is the nature of it. It will be this way until Christ returns and makes all things new.

So what does that leave us with? Can we work with something that is flawed? There is an idea out there of something called "sufficiency". It is the idea that while something is not complete, comprehensive, all encompassing, it is sufficient for what we need. I believe our constitution is sufficient. It is not perfect. This is seen in the fact that there have been amendments to the constitution over the years, but that does not mean it is irrelevant or useless, outdated or antiquated. It certainly is not infallible or innerant, but it is sufficient. What has served us in the past can continue to serve us equally today. Our founding fathers took great care (much greater care than we have today) to craft this document in a way that benefits all men. We cannot redefine the very foundations of what our country was founded on and hope that we will even remotely resemble the nation we were founded as. A nation where men can worship without infringing on the rights of others, a nation where free ideas and thought and marketplace breeds healthy competition and causes us to prosper, a nation that is strong and stands ready to protect us and our allies, because we understand truth, justice and liberty. An nation that truly is of the people, by the people and for the people. Isn't that something we can work with? Isn't that sufficient?

But if all these are flawed, where can we turn? Well, for me, I like the words of Paul to Timothy:

2Ti 3:16-17  All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,  (17)  that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Now there is a complete, sufficient book that won't steer you wrong. It will give you something to hope in when our government and those around you are failing. When life seems to be falling apart and our crazy world seems to be growing just a little more insane every day. Just something to think about.