Embrace Your Weaknesses
February 28, 2008 by Stephen Palmer · Leave a Comment
We waste so much time and energy lamenting our flaws and weaknesses. If only I was taller, we think. If only I could sing better. If only I was a faster reader. If only I was a more persuasive public speaker. If only I didn’t have to wear glasses. If only I could run faster and jump higher. If only…
If only we could realize that our weaknesses are hidden pearls, possible goldmines of opportunity and success. Then we could fully submit to God, accept — rather than resist — our current state, embrace our weaknesses, and unleash our potential. Our weaknesses, far from being annoying obstacles, can be precious keys that open the doors to our success, wealth, and happiness.
It was precisely the weakness of the American army during the Revolutionary War that led Washington to be creative, to innovate and beat the British the only way that they could have been beaten. Thomas Jefferson was shy and considered himself a poor public speaker. Is it any wonder, then, that he found his voice through writing, and produced one of the most powerful political documents in all of history? Louis L’Amour began as a second-rate writer, and his numerous rejection slips propelled him to travel the world and work various jobs to gain the experience and insight that led his treasured tales of adventure.
Jacques Lusseyran, a leader in the French Resistance to the Nazis, also found his greatest strength because of a weakness.
At the age of eight, Jacques lost his sight in an accident at school. The result? “I began to look more closely,” wrote Jacques in the classic And There Was Light, “not at things but at a world closer to myself, looking from an inner place to one further within, instead of clinging to the movement of sight toward the world outside.”
Jacques developed an inner sensitivity, a deep intuition about people and events that was unparalleled amongst his peers. When the Nazis invaded France, Jacques rose as a natural leader in the resistance movement, organizing six hundred youth to distribute pamphlets and flyers exposing Nazi atrocities.
Without his “weakness” of being blind, Jacques would not have developed the internal fortitude and piercing discernment that his duties necessitated. “Sight is a miraculous instrument offering us all the riches of physical life,” Jacques wrote. “But we get nothing in this world without paying for it, and in return for all the benefits that sight brings we are forced to give up others whose existence we don’t even suspect.”
Intrinsic to the universe is a divine scheme of compensation: our greatest strengths coexist with our most glaring weaknesses. However, this cannot be discovered if our energy is spent primarily on animosity towards our weaknesses. Trying to overcome weaknesses with animosity is like fighting fire with fire.
The fires of weaknesses can only be extinguished by the water of acceptance. We must accept and embrace our weaknesses, and therefore open ourselves to the possibilities within our weaknesses, if we wish to overcome and profit from them.
The things that we resist with animosity grow and are magnified; the things that we love and accept are transformed in and through love. The more you resist your weaknesses by disliking them, the further you stray from the wonders that could be yours, and from fulfilling the critical mission that you were born for.
What are the things that you dislike most about yourself? Pay special attention to these, for these things are the seeds of your greatness.
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Copyright © 2008 by The Cause of Liberty. All rights reserved.
The Irony of Connectivity
February 26, 2008 by Stephen Palmer · 2 Comments
Information Age Casualties, and How To Reclaim Them
Why is it that the more digitally connected we become, the more we feel disconnected from the things that matter most?
Picture the following scene, played out many evenings in typical American homes. The father is on his computer in the office, finishing up some last minute work details and reading up on the latest election news on the internet, while the mother is watching TV in the living room. The son is downstairs playing video games while the daughter listens to music on her iPod in her bedroom while instant messaging with friends online.
As you picture this scene (and ponder what’s wrong with it), try to comprehend the magnitude of what we’ve accomplished in the Information Age, the ability to bring the entire world into our living rooms and bedrooms, the ability to connect in real time with almost anyone across the globe.
Want to learn about Zambia? A quick Google search brings up 124 million sites. Want to download the latest song from an obscure artist in Australia? You’re about two clicks away.
What’s the current price of crude oil? Who won Academy Awards? How many delegates does Barack Obama currently have? How can you defeat the final challenge on your favorite video game?
Whatever is on your mind, in whatever corner of the globe or concerning the most esoteric and specialized concepts, you have almost instant access to your questions. Technology has given us a brave new–and small–world, with more information, opportunity, and connectivity than our ancestors could even dream of.
And yet, in an age largely defined by connectivity, we’re losing our lifelines to the most important things. Specifically, there are three main connections that, ironically enough, are being systematically severed the more digitally connected we become.
What are those three connections, and how can we strengthen them in our own lives?
The three most important connections we can have are with God, family, and nature. These three life-saving links provide the context in which technology, and every other aspect of the modern world, is given proper meaning and priority. They make up a foundation that, when lost, will plunge us into the emptiness of entertainment, the sterility of science, the cynicism of forfeited faith, and the hollowness of hedonism.
We can have computers, the Internet, iPods, instant and text messaging, TV, radio, blogs, podcasts, and videos pouring out of our homes, while emptying our lives of true meaning in the process.
A person with a deep and lasting connection with God, family, and nature understands the purpose of technology and how to interact with and use it properly. A person who maintains those three connections, despite anything else happening around them, will not be swayed by opinion polls, tainted by compromise, numbed by information overload, or corrupted by exploitive greed.
God, family, and nature are rocks that the sand of modern technology rests upon; when those rocks are removed, the sand quickly collapses, losing all sense of structure, balance, and perspective.
How to Stay Connected
Considering their critical nature, how can we build and strengthen these connections? As with any relationship, for these connections to be deep and sustainable requires ongoing communication and quality time.
God
As counter-intuitive as it seems considering His omnipresent Hand in our lives, it’s actually quite easy to lose connection with God. We become busy, overwhelmed, complacent, and forgetful.
The two best ways to maintain a firm connection with God are to pray and meditate daily. Prayer is when we speak with God; meditation is allowing God to speak to us. As our creator, God knows us intimately, far more than we know ourselves. He will guide us, protect us, unlock our potential, teach us lessons uniquely suited for our particular situation and stage of development. He will do these things and more, that is, if we let Him, if we allow Him into our lives and seek and follow his guidance.
Make the commitment now to pray and meditate daily.
Family
All of us know the cliche that when we’re on our deathbeds, we’re not going to wish we spent more time at the office. Sadly, however, few of us live its meaning in our daily lives.
Do you know your children? Is your love for your spouse stronger than it was on your wedding day? Are you creating memories that your family will cherish for years to come? Is your home a sanctuary, a refuge, an escape from and defense against destructive people, thoughts, materials, and substances? Now, more than ever before, our homes must protect ourselves and our children from the overwhelming forces of destruction.
Make two commitments now that will make all the difference in achieving this goal: religiously have a date night once a week with your spouse, and set aside at least one evening per week for your family to play, study, learn, and grow together.
Nature
This is perhaps the most difficult connection for most people, since much of our modern world is designed to help us escape from nature. While comfort is certainly nothing to avoid, consistently spending time with nature helps us appreciate comfort, escape Information Age noise, and stay balanced.
Intuitively, although perhaps subconsciously, when in nature we seek to emulate its design–the strength of the rocks and mountains, the cleanliness and vibrance of the rivers, the peacefulness of the lakes, the determination of the wind, the perseverance of the trees and plants, and the submission of the animals to their divine place in creation.
In 1851 Seattle, Chief of the Suquamish and other Indian tribes around Washington’s Puget Sound, delivered a beautiful and profound environmental speech in response to a proposed treaty under which the Indians were persuaded to sell two million acres of land for $150,000. His words seem more applicable today than they ever were. Seattle said, “…Every part of the earth is sacred to my people…We are part of the earth and it is part of us…
“We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on…His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert…
“There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place to hear the unfurling of leaves in spring or the rustle of the insect’s wings. The clatter only seems to insult the ears. And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around the pond at night? …The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days he is numb to the stench.”
Have you become numb to the source off all your material blessings? How does this impact your life?
It’s hard and you will find every excuse not to, but it’s critical that you commit to at least one meaningful excursion into nature per month. Go hiking, camping, backpacking, mountain biking, canyoneering. Get out into nature, breathe her in deeply, honor her, and make yourself whole in her presence.
Conclusion
The rise in digital connectivity has been largely accompanied by a decline in and stagnation of our connections with God, family, and nature. By maintaining and strengthening these three critical connections, we avoid the dangers of the Information Age and become a rock to rely upon, and a standard to follow.
Commit now to staying connected with God, family, and nature by praying and meditating daily, holding a weekly date night with your spouse, setting aside at least one evening per week for nothing but family activities, and going on at least one nature excursion monthly.
Will you serve technology, or will it serve you? Will you be more connected to your cell phone than to the most important things and people in your life? Will text messaging replace meaningful conversations with the ones you love? Stay connected with God, family, and nature, and answering these questions will never be a struggle for you.
Move the Cause of Liberty by (1) subscribing to the Sentinel, a free weekly newsletter boldly illuminating the principles of freedom in a darkening nation, and (2) pledging your Life, Liberty, and Sacred Honor to the Cause by signing the Declaration of Dependence.
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Copyright © 2008 by The Cause of Liberty. All rights reserved.
On Bridge Building
January 24, 2008 by Stephen Palmer · Leave a Comment
The Right Structures, At the Right Times, For the Right Reasons
The purpose of a statesman or stateswoman is to build bridges — bridges between what is and what should be, between estranged individuals, between conflicting cultures, between opposing classes and races, between clashing historical forces. An education designed for statesmanship, then, will give the student the requisite tools and knowledge that will allow her to be an effective bridge builder.
But as we teach aspiring statesmen and stateswomen, we must always remember that the single most important distance that any of us can bridge — infinitely more important than any other — is the distance between heaven and earth.
A prospective statesman’s relationship with God is infinitely more critical than his relationship with Plato, Shakespeare, Newton, Washington, Churchill, or even a live mentor. In fact, it is his relationship with God that determines the quality, impact, and longevity of all his other relationships.
A student with a strong and active relationship with God will be more in tune with her mission, will study longer and harder, and will have much more impact than the student who shirks in her duties to God. A student with a deep and broad classical liberal arts education, but without a relationship with God, is ineffectual at the least, and dangerous at the worst.
It would be like a person being given an expensive sports car without keys, or handing the keys to that sports car to a 10 year-old child; the one doesn’t have the ability to drive the car, and the other may be able to drive it but will kill people in the process.
The purpose of acquiring a world-class, statesman’s education is not primarily to amass large amounts of so-called knowledge; those who believe this invariably end up by, as Plato wrote in Apology, “…thinking that they are something when they are really nothing.” The purpose of gaining a superlative education is to earn the right to approach God in our moments of greatest need, and with complete honesty be able to figuratively look Him in the eye and without reservation say, “I’ve done everything that I know how to do–You must do the rest.” It is to demonstrate that we have paid the price, taken utmost responsibility, and then have been humble enough to admit that we can’t do it alone, without our humility degenerating into escapism. It is to earn the right and develop the ability to bridge the gap between heaven and earth.
The Dangers of False Allegiances
Those who develop the ability to merge heaven and earth will create generational legacies impacting millions. But for those who do not, the cost is high. They will build half-bridges with half-truths. They may half-heartedly reach toward heaven in an hour of extreme need, but will find that heaven does not reciprocate because they were not worthy of it. They will leave gaps that no mortal can fill. Their legacy will be “almost, but not quite,” which is a deeper tragedy than not trying at all.
Can you imagine how that would feel? To come so close to saving the world through sheer personal effort, and then watch with an unforgivable disappointment as it disintegrates because we thought we could do it alone?
The ranks of those would-be statesmen who fail in fulfilling their duties to God include pedantic academics, narrow-minded businessmen, compromising politicians, “benevolent” tyrants, and unprincipled, sacrificial social workers.
Academics certainly have their place, and I don’t want to be guilty of undervaluing education. However, there is a danger when we are not able to place education in context. The academics I speak of are the prideful and arrogant members of the so-called intelligentsia who rarely offer solutions themselves, but are quick to point out when the men and women of action are doing something wrong in the eyes of the intellectuals.
They are those who cower into the supposed security of intellectualism as a way to escape the responsibility of acting. They want to be the saviors offering advice without being accountable for the implementation of their advice. They look at people and situations in an objective, idealized, and sterile environment detached from the messiness of practical affairs. They may be practiced visionaries, yet they lack the fortitude and ability to bring their vision to pass through sustained effort in the trenches of practical daily action.
Statesmen and women must be both thinkers and doers. As Theodore Roosevelt said, “It is not the critic that counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again–because there is not effort without error and shortcomings–but he who does actually strive to do the deed, who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause. Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
Having said this, however, it must also be stressed that there is an opposite danger to the academic critic, and that is the uneducated man or woman of action. To possess knowledge without taking corresponding action is irresponsible, yet to act without knowledge is foolish and dangerous.
The world is full of uneducated entrepreneurs, for example, who are great at taking action, but are impatient with obtaining a valuable education, which would greatly enhance their ability to act. Theirs is the school of hard knocks — which has its merits — but it is limited by its very nature. They are limited by their own experience and don’t take time to learn from the experience of others who have gone before. And if they do, it is usually from a narrow spectrum of people who have achieved success in business, but who are not great examples of statesmanship. They may be able to run a profitable business, but they don’t know how to use business as a tool to deeply improve society.
As limited as uneducated businessmen are, they are not nearly as harmful as the compromising politicians. Politicians are anxious for positions and titles without developing the ability to handle them. Their focus is on the glory, not the cause. They are about gaining and maintaining personal power, not on making an impact. When any proposal arises, they ask, “What’s in it for me?” not “Is it right?” Politicians are about looking good, not doing good. Their allegiance is usually themselves and/or other people, and not God.
Politicians are deceptively ingratiating weasels whose harm is generally indirect; benevolent tyrants are wolves in sheep’s clothing who cause direct and immediate harm. Benevolent tyrants oppress people in the name of helping them.
Alexander Hamilton displayed his understanding of this when he wrote in The Federalist Papers, “…a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidding appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government. History will teach us that the former has been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the latter, and that of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants.”
Unprincipled social workers seem relatively harmless on the surface, yet when an entire culture embraces a false sense of government-sponsored philanthropy, the long-term consequences are an irresponsible society operating under a crippling sense of entitlement. The desire to lift and serve others is good, but the danger from the group I speak of comes from using government force to impose their sense of morality upon the populace. This degenerates into a moral cannibalism that ultimately destroys the society.
When the true sense of public virtue is distorted and counterfeited to become forced wealth distribution, the virtue is lost and replaced with resentment and anger by those forced to give, and the loss of dignity and self-reliance on those who depend on the givers. False charity destroys those who know how to fish at the expense of those waiting for fish to be given to them. The cruel irony is that the people who are hurt the most by forced welfare schemes are the same people that misplaced charity is precisely designed to help. People who set out to “serve society” and who do not operate under moral principles inevitably seek to “lift” the bottom by forcefully taking from the top. The result is a miserable mediocrity for all.
All of the above counterfeits result from good-intentioned people not having the proper allegiance — God — and therefore not being able to bridge the gap between heaven and earth. Heaven only speaks to those who listen, and those with allegiances to self and/or others only heed the voice in their head or the voices of the crowd. Without the ability to merge heaven with earth, a world-class, statesman’s education ultimately damns the person receiving it and damages everyone with whom they associate.
A person who gains an education for the purpose of self-aggrandizement is better off–and so is the world at large–not pursuing it at all. They are like the people who, in Christ’s parable of the sower in the book of Matthew, receive the word amongst thorns and, in the words of Christ, “…heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.” After all, continued Christ, “what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
The purpose of a statesman’s education is — or should be — to develop the ability and earn the right to seek and acquire the help of God in any endeavor. Understanding what de Tocqueville says about democracy, or what Tolstoy teaches of aristocracy must be subordinate to what God says about His laws and your mission. As deep and impactful as they are, Democracy in America or War and Peace are poor substitutes for direct revelation from the Source of all classics, who is able to put the classics in context.
Without God as a foundation and guide, our education will mirror the efforts of the builders of the Tower of Babel–reaching for heaven with the wrong structures and for the wrong purposes, and our “wisdom of men” being scattered to the winds of popular opinion.
Conclusion
In my first three years of attending George Wythe College, I read over 150 classic books with topics including philosophy, theology, history, government, economics, politics, business, personal finance, psychology, self-improvement, literature, biography, and family relations. But aside from the relatively decent amount of knowledge I gained, there is one experience that stands out above all else.
The single most powerful experience that I had at George Wythe College occurred in the Constitutional Convention of 2006. For days, over 150 people waded and fought through confusion, frustration, insecurity, and the hostility that comes from thinking that we knew everything, that if only we could convince the group that our idea, our plan, our solution would save the world. We tried so hard — but of course in vain — when we labored under the lie that we knew anything. We debated heatedly, we quoted assiduously from our favorite classics, and we reasoned and argued until we were blue in the face.
Then, in the middle of the contention, backbiting, and politicking, the awful moment arrived when we were collectively overcome with the deep and intensely humbling recognition that we knew nothing. We knew nothing and we knew that we knew nothing as deeply as anyone can know anything. The debating quieted, the long-held and fiercely contended beliefs surrendered impotently to the realization of our ignorance, and our pathetic arguments were revealed for the naked egoisms that they were.
And then, in the depths of our abject humility, we collectively bowed and knelt before the Source of all Truth, all Knowledge, and all Wisdom and pled our case before Him. We fully understood what Abraham Lincoln meant when he said, “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.”
The answers came quickly and unmistakably. The confusion, anger, and frustration vanished and were instantly replaced with peace, harmony, and inspiration. Calm faith replaced anxious desperation. Never in my entire life have I witnessed a scene where over 150 people were on the same page, striving toward a common goal with nothing but love and humility in the ranks.
The Cause moved forward, the delegates were united, the solutions were Divine. The Constitution was no longer “my” document or “her” idea, but His and ours. Not only was there synergy between the delegates, but there was also synergy between heaven and earth.
This didn’t happen because of our knowledge of Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Montesquieu, Madison, Toffler, and Bobbitt. It happened because we collectively bridged the gap between heaven and earth. Studying the classics was but one small step toward being worthy of a bridge being extended from heaven to earth. And as we bridged that most important gap, we could tangibly see the other governmental and societal bridges being built, almost in spite of us.
It happened because we, through our diligent study, deep pondering, and pure hard work, were able to approach our Father and say with all honesty and sincerity, “We’ve done everything we are able. It’s Your turn now. You must fill in the gaps of our weaknesses.” Heaven touched earth, even if briefly, and the result was nothing short of miraculous. We may have paid a small price through our study of the classics, but the classics were not, in the end, what gave us the answers we so desperately needed.
An aspiring statesman who knows the classics but who is a stranger to God is not a statesman at all — he is an ineffective politician, a dangerous tyrant, or both. Students of the classics who do not seek the mind and will of God will get surface-level understandings of the classics at best. Acquiring a world-class education is not so much to fill our heads with knowledge, as it is to earn the right to call on heaven in our hour of greatest need. We can’t know — and aren’t expected to know — everything, but God does expect us to prove to Him that we are worthy of His help by our diligence in seeking answers.
Let us remember the wisdom of Winston Churchill who said, “To every man there comes…that special moment when he is figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a special thing unique to him and fitted to his talent. What a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for the work which would be his finest hour.” Let us never forget that the most critical preparation for an aspiring statesman is to learn how to bridge the gap between heaven and earth.
Move the Cause of Liberty by (1) subscribing to the Sentinel, a free weekly newsletter boldly illuminating the principles of freedom in a darkening nation, and (2) pledging your Life, Liberty, and Sacred Honor to the Cause by signing the Declaration of Dependence.
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Copyright © 2008 by The Cause of Liberty. All rights reserved.
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