Ideas Have Consequences

In his Inaugural Address, our new president said this: “The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit, to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea passed from generation to generation: the God-given promise that we are all equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”

In the Declaration of Independence, the founding fathers wrote this: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness….”

Thirteen years after the Declaration of Independence was published, the French people rose up in revolt against an unjust government under the banner of “Equality, Liberty, Brotherhood.” The French Revolution was a direct offspring of the Enlightenment and had strong atheistic roots. Hence the proclamation of Equality, Liberty and Fraternity had to be the product of an idea separate from God and not the truths declared by the American founders because many of the intellectuals behind the French Revolution rejected the very idea of God.

Built on a set of noble human ideals, the French Revolution bred reaction which led to the struggle over who would wield the power to enforce the “noble” ideas. And that struggle was the father of the guillotine, the Gulag and the Nazi extermination camps.

America was built on the solid foundation of several “self-evident truths” all of which had their origin with God and not with man. So when the new president speaks about the precious gift of a noble idea of equality, freedom and happiness, where does he stand: In Paris or in Philadelphia? Ideas are from the mind of man; according to the Bible, Truth is a revelation from God. If the foundation of the United States had been built on a set of ideas invented by men, then other men with other ideas could wrench those ideas away with the power of the sword and enforce those ideas through the power of the state. The history of man, and particularly the history of the twentieth century, has been an ongoing battle between the truths of 1776 and the ideas of 1789.

Yes, the president does mention God in his Inaugural, but he structures his sentence to suggest that the “God-given promise that we are all equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness” is a generations old idea, albeit, a “noble idea.”
Many argue today that God is a necessary invention of man; man needs the idea of God in order to pursue “noble ideas.” However, this notion turns the biblical narrative on its head: In the Bible, God is the creator and man is the creature created in God’s own image. “God” created by man is the atheist’s conceit. To the atheist the claim for the existence of God is an insult to the nobility of man’s rational nature and needs to be put to rest once and for all.

So, does the new president stand in the great tradition of 1776 or has the noble appeal of 1789 caught hold of his imagination? It would be nice to know because the real meaning of his words will tell us much about where he wants to lead America.

Ash Wednesday 1991

The day was Ash Wednesday, February 13, 1991. My family and I were on an island in the Caribbean which was not a well traveled place because the U.S. Navy had reserved large sections of the island for practice bombing runs. The bombs no longer were falling and the house we were renting was situated near the top of a hill. It was in that house on that day that I unexpectedly came across a two year lectionary hidden deep in the pages of the Book of Common Prayer. When I discovered this lectionary, it was if I heard a voice telling me that this was the map I needed for the way ahead. So on that day many years ago, I quietly committed myself to following this biblical road map everyday of the year no matter where I was or what I was doing.

Thus began my response to God’s call. I would honor God by coming to know his Word by setting aside time every morning of every day. This journey would be slow and it would require perseverance. But if I was going to truly honor God through my life, I would have to be equipped with a deeper understanding of God’s Word. And through an everyday encounter with the Old and New Testaments, I began to understand what it meant to walk on God’s ancient pathway.

In the Company of Angels

On Friday, I received the call at my office from my sister. Almost immediately, I understood that this was the real thing. Mom was in the Emergency Room at Abington Hospital and in great pain. My sister Megan was extremely upset as it was taking the hospital forever to deal with Mom’s situation.

We had known for more than a year that my mother had a blood condition that would inevitably lead to the end, but despite her 88 years, she remained a huge life force. She seemed to withstand all of life’s afflictions in a perpetual state of good will and good humor, all amounting to nothing less than sheer joy. She faced the darker forces of this life combatively and her friends and children and acquaintances fed off of her powerful and positive spirit of life. The Bible says “choose life” and Mom chose it to the power of ten.

I traveled from New York to the hospital in the suburbs of Philadelphia that evening. When I got there, Mom was in intensive care and heavily sedated. Her breathing was labored but she was asleep and resting and seemed to be beyond the reach of the physical pain that she had suffered through earlier in the day. Megan and I sat with her for several hours and then we reluctantly left for our own resting places for the night.

Saturday was a day of choices. The doctors all were clear that she was in the last days of her life. We learned that the hospital had a hospice facility and Megan, my brother Steven and I visited it and were impressed by the people who ran it. And after conferring with my brother David, who was still in California, we decided that hospice care was the best option. Mom remained under sedation and asleep all that day and we began to believe that she would never awaken again. She would be moved to hospice care on Monday.

On Sunday, after attending a local church service, my sister and I returned to Abington to be with Mom who remained in intensive care. Soon Steven arrived with his laptop and a DVD of ancient home movies. Unknown to all of us, Steven had brought medicine from heaven. We turned the computer on and watched flickering images of children and parents and places from long ago and we spontaneously began to share stories and memories prompted by what we were looking at on the screen. Soon, the mood changed from the normal hush of a hospital to laughter and jokes and joy. And then Mom awoke from her deep sleep. This was a party she was not going to miss! She recognized all of us and said “I love you” several times. Even the nurses looked up from their stations to see what was going on. Tracey, the nurse in charge of Mom, came in and joined the party that celebrated life in a place where illness and death was so prevalent. This time of light and life would be short lived, but for everyone present it was a miracle. When I think back to those precious moments, I think of the words of King David’s psalm:

You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever.

On Monday, Mom had fallen into a deep sleep once again. She was moved from intensive care to the hospice and so we sat with her throughout the day. That night I returned home as did Steven. We fully expected the vigil to last for a good long time, but on Tuesday in the early afternoon in the presence of my sister Megan, Mom took a gentle last breath and then her spirit rose from that place in the company of angels.

Three Lines, One Message

O Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you restored me to health. Psalm 30:2

And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me. Psalm 50:15

In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. Jonah 2:2

To those who might be experiencing severe distress, I strongly recommend that you consider, if you already haven’t, calling upon the Lord for help. I did and it made all the difference.

I would imagine that to most people the word bankruptcy would summon up images of disaster and ruin, but for me, the experience of financial distress unexpectedly opened up window after window, so that like a captive bird in a cage I was able to fly through the tiny opening and out into a new world and a new life.

As I look back to that traumatic day when I had to file a chapter 11 petition, I still cannot provide an explanation to my survival that many would find reasonable. I should have gone down in flames, but that is not what happened. Instead, I walked away from the smoking ruins unscathed.

I do know this, however. When all seemed lost and hopeless, and when every avenue of escape had closed down, I did call upon the Lord in my day of trouble. I also know that in time I was delivered from my distress even though I did not deserve to survive, nor did I expect to. The only explanation that makes sense to me today is that I experienced the same amazing Grace that John Newton writes about in his song: “I once was lost and now am found was blind but now I see.”

Would my fate have been different if I had not called upon the Lord in my hour of extreme need? I don’t know for sure, but I now believe God’s hand was there to guide me through. And so I believe the psalmist’s words are true: “If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”

The Meaning of Work

“At its most fulfilling, work is creative; inspiration precedes perspiration and process is the child of vision.”

Companies, like individuals, should have goals that are built upon a set of well defined principles that help chart a clear path for successful action. Action always involves risk, but risk can be mitigated if the principles are right.

Furthermore, companies are often designed around groups or teams of people who must learn to work together for a common purpose. If you have played on a successful sports team, you know that the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. Positive results are not just a product of chance, and successful work is so much more than meeting deadlines and accomplishing tasks. Despite what you might have heard, success is a team sport. Sure there are stars; our entertainment culture depends on them, but in the everyday world of work, interdependence is the prevailing reality.

Thus process cannot be a goal; it must be subordinated to vision. Working hard may be admirable, but working smart must come first. And a job can be reduced to something dreary and routine, but creativity is often the trademark of the best and the brightest workers. The miracle behind sustained success is, in fact, vision, inspiration and creativity working together towards achieving well defined and sustainable goals.

Walk in the Woods

I often enjoy hiking in the woods alone. On one particular trip, the trail took me up to a ridge on a low-lying mountain range in central Pennsylvania. On such trips, the familiar noises of civilization can often be heard: the distant rumble of a passing freight train or the subtle hum of an interstate or just the low-grade sounds of distant activity filtering up to the trail.

But on this day everything was different, for as I moved further along the rocky path, I began to notice the absence of sound. The feeling of isolation became palpable and the sense of sudden vulnerability was haunting.

It is at times like this that you feel a deep appreciation for the power of two. If I had fallen while alone, I would have been in trouble, but if a companion had been with me, I would have been helped. If I had become lost, my friend would have assisted finding the way back to the trail. Alone, my chances of success would have been greatly diminished.

This noiseless world, beautiful and intriguing as it was, left me with a feeling of aloneness. It seemed like a world outside of God’s design. So, while the walk was memorable, I was relieved, in the end, to hear all the familiar sounds of human activity once again. For to me these noises were the sound of companionship, friendship and most importantly, the sound of love.

It felt good to be back.

It Could Happen Here...

In 1989, my company was forced into Chapter 11. Until that fateful day, I believed that I could overcome all the overwhelming forces surrounding me. In the years preceding the bankruptcy, I engaged in all the delusional behaviors I now see being acted out on a larger stage. Probably the most seductive and insane idea was that more debt could erase current debt.

America is a great country with an amazing heritage, but lately, it seems, our business and political leaders have fallen into the same sort of strange pathologies that I experienced in my own moment of crisis. For it now appears that our political and financial elite, who profited disproportionately during the good times, have foolishly concluded that burdensome debt will save the country from…burdensome debt.

I look on in wonder as America’s best and brightest explain to a nervous nation that two plus two does, in fact, equal five. Unfortunately, a time is coming, and may have already come, when it will be clear that their new math is fatally flawed. And what then? Will the fate of King David’s shining city on a hill be America’s fate as well?

“How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations! She who was queen among the provinces has now become a slave.” (Lamentations 1:1)

For Those Who Feel Alone Today...

“God is everywhere.
There is no spot in heaven or in earth where he is not present.
From the first moment of my existence to the present moment, I have been in God’s presence. Everywhere. At all times.
Often I forget this truth.
Often I go on in the actions of life without a thought of God.
But here today I will remember that I am in the presence of God.” From St Augustine’s Prayer Book

A Prayer for Today

Given the fact that some of the leaders in our financial and political centers have gone to the dark side, I thought it would be timely to offer a little prayer they might recite in the gentle quietness of the morning before they sally forth into the world of getting and spending.

Two things I ask of you, O LORD; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, “Who is the LORD?” Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.

Winter Light

In early February the light begins to change. Without much warning, the steel gray of deep winter gives way to intimations of a softer season ahead. Daylight lingers longer into the afternoon and the warmth of the light reflecting off distant skyscrapers seems to battle the forbidding coldness of the moment. And in the late afternoon, when the sky is clear, the setting sun paints the western horizon in orange and reds, intimating that the cloistered winter months will soon be past.

This is the time when I begin to feel the draw of the hills and mountains of the country beyond the shores of this water bound city. Though snow and ice still cover much of the surrounding land, I instinctively begin to plan to head out to the territory of the low lying Appalachian Mountains and the trail that connects the twelve states between Georgia and Maine.

I am often asked why I leave the comforts of home to walk the many miles of the Appalachian Trail, and I guess I have many reasons, but what I always come back to is the way the trail connects me to the mysteries of God’s universe. I may inhabit a world constructed by the hands of man and I may marvel at all its complexity and brilliance, but the city of man with its activities and diversions is never enough. Solomon attributes this longing to the way God made men and women, for while we live in the temporal, we yearn for things eternal. (Ecclesiastes 3:11) When the psalmist says, “The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing….” (Psalm 65:13), he sees the eternal handprint of God behind everything. So even though my feet are planted firmly on the hard ground of this world, my heart tells me that I also desire to walk where “the hills are clothed with gladness.” (Psalm 65:12) The new light of February once again has awakened that eternal longing within my heart.