Hello Blog readers,
I'm still reflecting on the results of my recent run for Congress and thinking about what happened, and what can I or even we learn from all of this. I'm not trying to be negative, but I learned how stuck we seem to be on the negativity and narrow mindedness of some of our positions.
I understand the hurt. Life does not turn out the way we think it should sometimes. We look to blame others. Just look at Cain and Able in the early stages of life. Cain wanted to blame somebody and took it out on his brother. We seem to fall into that trap over and over again.
If our life doesn't turn out the way we hoped, who can we blame? We probably ought to start with ourselves. We don't have ultimate control on all things, and we have to remember that. I pray all the time the way Jesus taught, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven." The Lord's Prayer is still a vital part of this. Not to blame God, but a lot of the time, we don't bother to check in with God about what is best for us, so we run off on our own path and get into trouble of our own making. But we don't want to admit that, so we blame others.
What can we do, when life doesn't fit our plan. I created an Unemployed Support Group, in two different churches as a response to the needs of my congregation, when a local business closed and made several of my church members unemployed. We would gather on Monday mornings, to give them purpose for starting the week, and we would encourage each other. I did a lot of grief counseling at that point and grief needs to be dealt with because in many ways that is what leads us to more trouble. We don't grieve well enough the last dead end we hit, to be able to move forward.
In the Unemployed support group, we looked at figuring out who we really were, what our interests and experiences were. We looked back at what we dreamed we would be as kids thinking about what to do when we grew up. We redid our resumes with help of experts to find a better way to say what we could do. In some cases we looked at going in a different direction altogether. That would take some classes or reading or interning in a different field to get started. I urged the class members to talk to people who do the things they thought they might like to do to gain knowledge and information to pursue it if necessary.
So maybe we need to look into a different direction with the anger in this country. Can we fix the mess we are in by looking at our disappointment and charting a new course? Are we out of work because we didn't have the skills necessary to keep up with the changes? Don't blame someone else for taking your job if you weren't ready for it anyway. There is a feeling that the immigrants are taking all the jobs. But they are willing to work at almost anything to get started on their dream. We need the same inner fire to go after it. I bet our grandparents, or whoever in our family got here first put that kind of effort into succeeding.
As a country, we need to look beyond ourselves because we are a big country. We need to look at the whole story more often than we do. We need to reconnect to our family, our tribe, our neighborhood and build on that.
Family is very important and it can be a biological family or a close network of friends who share a passion to do better. Don't make friends with people who tear you down or limit your potential. Find friends who will believe in you. This will require developing a skill called love. The Biblical kind of love. See I Corinthians 13 as an example.
Tribe is a bigger family, more diversified, but similar connections. We have to learn to look beyond the immediate family to relate to more people. A tribe could be your church, your groups like Lions Club or other similar associations. Meeting more people with a common focus or purpose. It could also be the community that our children go to school in. Develop some pride in the place where we find ourselves in the most of time.
Enough rambling for the moment, I have several ideas about how we need to look beyond ourselves and develop positive new places. Come on the journey to explore them.
Blessings
Pastor Jeff
Saturday, April 30, 2016
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
The Day After an Election Lost
Today is Wednesday, the day after the Primary in Maryland, in which I ran for Congress in the 8th District for the Republican side. I came in second with only 8854 votes, but that was good enough for second and actually more votes collected than 9 other candidates from either party collected for themselves. So part of me feels like I did okay for my very first venture into politics.
I don't know that I would do it again, as much as it was an adventure to be involved in. I saw an opportunity because of the open seat created when our congressman decided to move up to Senator. He won the primary so he will have to work for the general election. I did not want to begin my political career bashing an incumbent. I wanted a very positive campaign. There are very few open seats in Congress. And once in there it's a 92% chance of returning for another term.
One of the reasons I wanted to run was that I was sick of the gridlock in Congress. This group has one of the lowest approval ratings ever. It also has produced the fewest bills of any Congress going back to 1947 Post WW2. The squabbling and the gridlock brought the work of our government to a halt and I wanted to improve the situation with some pastoral counseling to get them to move beyond the gridlock. I know outsiders would do well, and a trusted outsider like a pastor might have a pretty good shot at it. My main opponent was a Freedom Caucus very conservative lawyer. He won. I thought the Tea Party enthusiasm had waned a bit since the gridlock was partially their doing. But there were 10,000 more of those folks in our district than the more moderate voter I appealed to.
So I'm reflecting on what I learned over the past 3 months.
Civic Duty and understanding of our responsibility in the political process is practically non-existent. We are angry, we complain and we stay home because we would rather voice our displeasure than try to do something. Our lessons on Democracy and the Republican hybrid government we have has been long forgotten.
One of the reasons there is gridlock in Congress is that they don't know how to talk to each other and to compromise. But guess what, they do represent us. We don't know how to listen and talk to one another either. WE have lost all civility and ability to gain something from an opponent with a different opinion. I witnessed some really ugly confrontations because we seem to assume that if you don't agree with me completely you are a total idiot and ought to be shipped back to where ever you came from. No matter where you came from. I thought before I ran that we had more common sense and consideration for one another. I'm surprised that we don't, not nearly as much as I had hoped.
One of the surprises from all of this is that I came in second. I spent a little under $3,000. Some signs, some permits, some phone calls to our constituency, some brochures to hand out. I was in every Voter Guide, attended every debate and forum during my run for Congress. I filmed two public service commercials, as did the other #2. The other party #2 guy, spent $12 million of his own money for a number two spot. I feel so much better. More money on my part would not have won this side either.
One of the gifts of this race, was the people I met. For a brief moment, I was kind of a celebrity. Introduced in varous places as an important person. Met some great people, including Gov. John Kasich who is running against Trump. I shook his hand, introduced myself as a candidate for Congress, and he wished me good luck. Neither of us did that well. But I really appreciate his efforts at the Presidential level.
So what's next? I don't know. This blog will give me a chance to reflect on my discoveries and that might lead up to something. It has for others, it might for me.
I know I need to pray a lot about how I use this moment in the overall scheme of things. I've always been a "Not my Will, but Thine be done" type of guy. Now I will pray to sense how my feelings about the reason I ran might lead to something more, in that same spirit of "God what would you have me do now?"
I must thank my wife Elaine for incredible patience in this past three months. Her help was great. I must thank Mike Haney and Carole Oursler, my campaign director and my campaign treasurer for their continue presence and support. I must thank the volunteers who helped. I must thank my family for their continued support. I must thank the ones who voted for me. I thank God too, for the opportunity to care enough about our country to want to make it better. I still do.
Blessings on all of you. I'll write again real soon.
Pastor Jeff
I don't know that I would do it again, as much as it was an adventure to be involved in. I saw an opportunity because of the open seat created when our congressman decided to move up to Senator. He won the primary so he will have to work for the general election. I did not want to begin my political career bashing an incumbent. I wanted a very positive campaign. There are very few open seats in Congress. And once in there it's a 92% chance of returning for another term.
One of the reasons I wanted to run was that I was sick of the gridlock in Congress. This group has one of the lowest approval ratings ever. It also has produced the fewest bills of any Congress going back to 1947 Post WW2. The squabbling and the gridlock brought the work of our government to a halt and I wanted to improve the situation with some pastoral counseling to get them to move beyond the gridlock. I know outsiders would do well, and a trusted outsider like a pastor might have a pretty good shot at it. My main opponent was a Freedom Caucus very conservative lawyer. He won. I thought the Tea Party enthusiasm had waned a bit since the gridlock was partially their doing. But there were 10,000 more of those folks in our district than the more moderate voter I appealed to.
So I'm reflecting on what I learned over the past 3 months.
Civic Duty and understanding of our responsibility in the political process is practically non-existent. We are angry, we complain and we stay home because we would rather voice our displeasure than try to do something. Our lessons on Democracy and the Republican hybrid government we have has been long forgotten.
One of the reasons there is gridlock in Congress is that they don't know how to talk to each other and to compromise. But guess what, they do represent us. We don't know how to listen and talk to one another either. WE have lost all civility and ability to gain something from an opponent with a different opinion. I witnessed some really ugly confrontations because we seem to assume that if you don't agree with me completely you are a total idiot and ought to be shipped back to where ever you came from. No matter where you came from. I thought before I ran that we had more common sense and consideration for one another. I'm surprised that we don't, not nearly as much as I had hoped.
One of the surprises from all of this is that I came in second. I spent a little under $3,000. Some signs, some permits, some phone calls to our constituency, some brochures to hand out. I was in every Voter Guide, attended every debate and forum during my run for Congress. I filmed two public service commercials, as did the other #2. The other party #2 guy, spent $12 million of his own money for a number two spot. I feel so much better. More money on my part would not have won this side either.
One of the gifts of this race, was the people I met. For a brief moment, I was kind of a celebrity. Introduced in varous places as an important person. Met some great people, including Gov. John Kasich who is running against Trump. I shook his hand, introduced myself as a candidate for Congress, and he wished me good luck. Neither of us did that well. But I really appreciate his efforts at the Presidential level.
So what's next? I don't know. This blog will give me a chance to reflect on my discoveries and that might lead up to something. It has for others, it might for me.
I know I need to pray a lot about how I use this moment in the overall scheme of things. I've always been a "Not my Will, but Thine be done" type of guy. Now I will pray to sense how my feelings about the reason I ran might lead to something more, in that same spirit of "God what would you have me do now?"
I must thank my wife Elaine for incredible patience in this past three months. Her help was great. I must thank Mike Haney and Carole Oursler, my campaign director and my campaign treasurer for their continue presence and support. I must thank the volunteers who helped. I must thank my family for their continued support. I must thank the ones who voted for me. I thank God too, for the opportunity to care enough about our country to want to make it better. I still do.
Blessings on all of you. I'll write again real soon.
Pastor Jeff
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