Lesson Learned

 If you haven’t eaten the “comfort food” at Cracker Barrel, enjoyed the old-fashioned country accoutrements adorning the walls, and shopped in their “country store,” as I have when travelling across the south, you probably won’t care that they changed their logo and are “modernizing” their restaurants. Even if you have, you may not consider their corporate re-do an existential crisis. But there’s more to the story than the fact that the company lost nearly $100 million in market value when its stock plunged after releasing its new logo. According to a creative director specializing in brand development, what Cracker Barrel has done is a textbook case of how not to rebrand. Evidently, the company’s core message is, “We don’t care about our core audience. We’re too busy trying to appeal to everyone and satisfying no one.” In corporate leadership’s view, despite their explanations, corporate leadership believes Cracker Barrel lost its brand identity by removing key elements that customers valued, prompting a reversal of the decision. The lesson is simple: Don't change what works; only fix what's broken, the logo and country store atmosphere weren't the issue.

God's Nature

The depiction of the Old Testament God as perpetually angry and Jesus as endlessly forgiving is inaccurate. The Bible reveals a consistent triune God who is merciful, just, patient, and intolerant of sin. Peter states, "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise... He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). This applies to all humanity, regardless of political or racial distinctions.

How do we determine our experience with God—his grace or wrath? C.S. Lewis addresses this in Mere Christianity: “God is both our comfort and supreme terror, our ally and enemy. Facing absolute goodness is serious; it can be safety or danger, depending on our response. Sadly, we have often reacted poorly.”

The nature of God as either forgiving or judgmental is influenced by individual choices throughout history. God can be perceived as a source of comfort or fear, depending on how one responds to the concept of salvation.  A self-effacing repentant heart has never met God’s wrath, and a proud, defiant one has yet to meet his mercy. Jesus, the exact exemplification or representation of his nature said it like this, once again quoting the Old Testament: “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice.”

We as individuals must take a moment to ask the Holy Spirit to help us understand the degree to which we’re serving the God of the Bible or a god of our own making. Any understanding of the Lord that does not make equal room for both his wrath and his mercy will necessarily fall into the latter category.

The Certainties of Past and Present Party Politics

Someone once said that there are only three certainties in life: death, taxes, and the Democrat Left’s loathing of America. Did I just say that? Admittedly I did. The first two points have consistently demonstrated the birth of our nation, while the last point has become a familiar feature in American ethos and is now largely met without substantial attention. The public swayed by the Left will believe in anything, so long as it is not founded on truth.

A recent Gallup poll finds declining American pride among Democrats and Independents, even as Republican pride rises. Some Democrats link this trend to opposition toward President Trump’s return and perceived achievements. Poll results highlight past instances of left-leaning commentators blaming America for major events. Gallup also notes Republican national pride remains high, with 92% expressing pride during this point in time.

So, here’s the nuts and bolts of it. When it comes to loathing America, Democrats seem intent on proving that their repugnance, hatred, abhorrence...  knows no bounds. Republicans, on the other hand, will no doubt speak out when they think their country has lost its way. But they love her just the same, come hell or high water, come Obama or Biden or, AOC, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Harbi Tlaib, Zohran Mamdani... Word to the wise: “Truth exists, only falsehood has to be invented.” 

Before The Flood Waters Receded...

While most of us were celebrating the 4^th of July festivities, families in central Texas were searching for loved ones, hoping to find survivors amid the catastrophic flooding that started with little warning in the dark hours before sunrise. Before the flood waters had receded, Democrat politicos and hordes of their unhinged leftist surrogates, proxies, bootlickers, sycophants, toadies emerged to blame Trump for the flooding and deaths. As with all mass-casualty incidents over the last 10-20 years across our nation, there emerging among the tragic accounts of heroism and personal sacrifice come fabrications, innuendos, denouncements, inaccuracies... all before the tragedy had waned and rescue had turned to recovery.

 

But just as predictable in the wake of a mass-casualty incident, before the flood waters had receded and rescue had turned to recovery the Democrat ingenuous misanthropists blamed Trump, claiming the tragedy was the result of vacancies at the National Weather Service (NWS). Fact: additional personnel were in the weather center covering the affected area. ABC’s talking head George Stephanopoulos, who claimed erroneously, “We’re also learning there were significant staffing shortfalls to the National Weather Services offices in the region.” A CNN anchor asserted that climate change and Trump are responsible... editor of Medias Touch News, protested: “The people in Texas voted for government services controlled by Donald Trump and Greg Abbott. Occupy Democrats claimed that Trump's NOAA budget cuts contributed to fatalities in Texas during Tropical Storm Barry. Across the country, Democratic leaders, including Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, blamed President Trump, emphasizing the importance of accurate weather forecasting for disaster prevention. Murphy’s message: “There are consequences to Trump’s brainless attacks on public workers, like meteorologists.” Really! Passing blame has become contagious among many of the Left’s Congressional Representatives and their kindred MSM magpies.

 

Let’s go back in time to 29 January 2025. This was like Democrats attributing Trump for the last mass-casualty accident between American Airlines 5342 and an Army Black Hawk helicopter, asserting there were vacancies in the Air Traffic Control tower. If my memory serves me correctly, those vacancies occurred under the previous administration. Meanwhile, families continue grieving after a catastrophic natural weather incident. For his part, Trump straightaway activated federal search and rescue resources and will visit the devastated area soon.

 

Word to the wise: People tend to remember more about what you do than what you say. Just look down at the hallowed halls of history to bear this out. Hence, with the political campaign machine beginning to ramp up for another mid-term season, many candidates, including incumbents, will begin to face this truth again as voters weigh what was said versus what was done. Should the two agree they will most likely be reelected without a problem but if they do not match up, the latest and newest imperious chatterboxes will take over. Lest we forget, “if you’re going to talk the talk you better walk the walk”, “practice what you preach”, “well done is better than well said” and “talk is cheap” have all had their heydays for essentially the same thing. We all want action more than we want words. While words are good for some things when it comes to the important things in life, like leadership, character, love, emotional connection, promises or even spiritual revelations don’t just tell me with words rather define it with action! In other words, what have you done lately. Should we make a mistake and live out our humanity rather than acknowledge it, apologize for it, make any amends necessary and then get back doing what’s best for America’s citizenry. For those who proclaim to be Christians, I say look no further than our Savior’s own example. It is important to remember that he demonstrated his principles not only through words, but also through his actions. Should we make a mistake and live out our humanity before them rather than Jesus Christ’s example, we need to acknowledge it, apologize for the flawed example, make any amends necessary and then get back into following our Savior’s own example after all, He was one who didn’t just tell us with words, He showed us with His own actions!

 

Enough is Enough

 For many years, the radical Left expressed the shameless falsehood that illegal aliens just want a choice at the American Dream. Regrettably reality paints a different portrait. But as California's Orange County riots confirm, the truth is in the pudding. This is an insurrection bankrolled by left leaning anti-America self-serving anarcho-nihilists, leftist’s groups, rogue media, craven politicos, paid malefactors’ anarchists all... many of which are themselves illegal immigrants. Enough is enough. It is time to drop the hammer on the rioting ingrates and those who organize and fund them. It is time to label all illegal immigrants and those who champion them as persona non grata and support our law enforcement, be they local, state or federal officers.

Degradation and Restoration of America's Armed Forces

Over the previous four years, our military service personnel have suffered an enervating shortfall in morale. Sorry to say, it is cyclical, because American voters, the vast majority of whom have never served our nation in any capacity have quadrennially elected leaders who were inept. Mercifully, they wake up and elect unpretentious genuine leaders whose tenure as commander-in-chief restores both military morale and readiness.

As a retired Army officer, I have seen the cycle of degradation and restoration multiple times. Under Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter, there was degradation, followed by Reagan's restoration. Similarly, Clinton led to degradation, Bush restored, then Obama degraded, and Trump restoration. The Biden/Harris administration continued the degradation, which was again followed by Trump's restoration.

Recently, President Trump's Secretary of Defense delivered a keynote address for a Special Operations Forces event, and one line summed up the restoration of Department of Defense under Trump: "Everything starts and ends with warriors, from training to the battlefield. We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind. No more pronouns. No more climate change obsession. No more emergency vaccine mandates. No more dudes in dresses, we're done with that s_ _t."

It is by the grace of God that this 250th year of the founding of our Armed Forces, and next year's Sester centennial commemoration of American Independence, did not fall under the farcical, absurd, daft...  administration of the Harris/Walz duo.

The Democrat Party’s Missive

In today's tense political debate, Republicans claim Democrats lack a message to attract voters. Let's examine their messaging and determine if a clear strategy exists. Truth be known, by their words and actions the Democrats do have a message, which is this: Every policy of the Trump administration that is designed to make America safer, stronger, affluent... is a policy that must be resisted, sabotaged, obstructed... by any means necessary. Furthermore, its protagonists should be demonized and marginalized as extremists, fascists, enemies of democracy, Hitler’s aspirants... I ask you, the reader what does this look like in the context of the real world and America’s cold war with nuclear adversaries, totalitarian nemeses, Muslim jihadists and home-grown radical extremists who have made known their yearning to annihilate us? In this context, the Democrats’ divisive strategies weaken America, give comfort and aid to our enemies, and undermine our efforts to defend ourselves.

I again query to you the reader, was not some of Biden’s first acts as President questionable calls? Lest we forget, Biden illegally opened our borders to somewhere between 10 and 20 million unvetted immigrants. Did not many of them have long criminal records? We’re not many of them on the terrorist watch list? Rejecting the results of the 2024 elections showed that most Americans thought that Biden’s open border policy was in fact perilous, reckless, unwise... It is apparent Democrat politicos have dedicated themselves to impeding the Trump administration’s efforts to deport the criminals that Biden welcomed, sponsored, and funded on taxpayers’ dime. Does this not reflect badly on Democrats’ concern for the safety of their fellow American citizens and projects weakness to foreign adversaries and domestic terrorists seeking to infiltrate and ravage our nation? 

The long and short of it: The democrats do have a message. But it is a message so recognizable, caustic, and dark that it offends Republicans so profoundly they would prefer not to recognize it, so they don’t. It bears repeating; Democrats do have a message, every policy of the Trump administration that is designed to "Make America Great Again” is a policy that must be resisted, defied, sabotaged, incapacitated... obstructed by any means necessary. Worse, its proponents should be demonized and marginalized as extremists, dyed-in-the-wool fascists, enemies of democracy, and aspiring Hitlers.

What does this look like in the context of the real world and America’s cold war with armed nuclear adversaries and tyrannical foes, who have made no bones about their desire to destroy us? In this context, the Democrats’ divisive schemes diminish, weaken, undermine America, give comfort and aid to our enemies, and undermine our efforts to defend ourselves. 

Traversing America's Fragmented Landscape

America is experiencing a transition, moving from a unified culture to one divided into various subgroups, or tribes. People now identify more with their political parties, professions, religions, sexualities, aberrant behavior ... leading to increased division, tension, aggression... Christianity's integration into America’s mainstream over the past century has intensified these divides, as Christians strive to maintain their influence. In this era of uncertainty and chaos, how should leader’s travers this fragmented landscape? More importantly how should we? How about confronting issues with a concerned, yet calm presence.

Our current cultural disarray results in several expected outcomes: greater variance, heightened apprehension, elevated anxiety... Various groups and political factions perceive events as pragmatic or existential challenges. Consequently, how do leaders guide society when it is experiencing anxiety and disorder? Isn't the current climate ideal for spreading the Christian message and for leaders and laypeople to lead with passion? I have heard it argued that this state of chaos and uncertainty is like a “seedbed for new growth.” Do you suppose as I do, that in these circumstances, dedicated soldiers of the cross will stand out?

Jesus called his disciples "the light of the world," so hiding this light causes metaphorical darkness. Living by God's teachings can inspire others to recognize our good actions and honor God in heaven. Compromising with negative aspects of society often means sacrificing beneficial outcomes for oneself and losing the ability to influence society positively. By distancing ourselves from harmful cultural influences, we gain the opportunity to guide others towards positive change. Rejecting societal issues allows us to embody the progress we seek to achieve.

 

Why Not Stand and Acknowledge Reality

 The questions we need to ask Congressional Democrats following President Trump’s first Joint Address to Congress: What do you stand for besides singing in unison “We Shall Overcome.” Word to the wise, denying the truth is a defense mechanism that today’s Democrat politicos often use to protect themselves from uncomfortable or unpleasant realities. However, denying the truth can have serious consequences, both on an individual level and for society. Congressional Representatives should pause, reflect, and reconsider the importance of facing reality. It all begins with acknowledging the reality at hand.

Why not stand for the announcement that military recruiting reached fifteen-year highs? Why not rise to acknowledge a young man who received news from the President about his acceptance to West Point? Why not pay deference and stand for a woman who lost her 12-year-old daughter to a couple of social deviant iniquitous undocumented immigrants? Why not stand and support a young female, volleyball player, who suffered a traumatic brain injury from a biological male masquerading as a female? Why not stand for a 13-year-old brain cancer survivor who was ceremoniously given honorary membership into the US Secret Service? Yes, the question must be asked of every single one of those Democrats who were the Joint Congressional Address: What do you stand for? Did you stand for the revelation of fraud, waste, and abuse of taxpayer greenbacks? Do the democrats believe themselves so above the law that they are no longer accountable and answerable to We the People? It seems evident based upon their refusal to stand and talk about what they do stand for.

Furthermore, do the Democrats stand for a strong military with increased recruiting? Do they really stand against Title IX and protecting women’s sports? Do they stand for more American girls and women to be victims of lawless undocumented immigrants? Do they stand for more human and sex trafficking? Why do the Democrats remain silently defiant following the capture of the ISIS terrorist behind the Abbey Gate bombing, which killed 13 American service members? So, we must presume that they stand for Islamic jihadists and extremists, just like with the transnational narco-criminal terrorists. We all know that the Democrats do stand for designating concerned parents and pro-life activists as domestic terrorists… not those who tear down American flags and replace them with Hamas flags. Are there any Democrats who will stand for the right reason, with the American people?

Straightforwardly, History Repeats Itself

Donald Rumsfeld once stated a truism that to this day rings as true as it did in the past and will continue to do so in the future. “There are known knowns: the things you know. There are known unknowns: the things you know you don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns: the things you don’t know you don’t know.”

The last-mentioned category can be the most perilous, in war and in life. Israel didn’t know that it didn’t know that Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islamist's military wing was preparing for the October 2023 incursion that killed more than a thousand Israelis and changed the course of the Middle East. Hezbollah didn’t know that it didn’t know Israel was weaponizing pagers to kill many of its pugnacious Hamas myrmidons and aspiring underlings. The U.S. didn’t know that it didn’t know al Qaeda would execute a massive terrorist attack on 9/11.

It's bad enough when we don’t know what we need to know. It’s worse when what we think we know turns out to be wrong, such as Israel’s certainty that Hamas did not have the capability to stage the October 7 invasion. And it’s even worse when we know parts of the truth and are therefore inaccurately but categorically convinced that we know the truth. 

A true expression of freedom is not acting on self-seeking impulse but committing our lives to serving the greater good and standing up for what is right. Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what is necessary or appropriate.

Does not the Word of God lend credence that validate the mentioned truism? Looking through the lens of Ecclesiastes 3 and Ecclesiastes 1:9 we see an illustration that shows the breadth and depth of God's sovereignty over time and the events of life. To picture this more clearly, we must perceive time as a moving reality. It is as though it is coming toward us and moving away from us simultaneously.

Though time is involved in this statement, the emphasis is more on the events that happen within time rather than time itself. We can perhaps understand this verse better as saying that what is happening right now, already happened in the past, and what will happen has already happened. It is a way of saying that, in one sense, time cannot be broken into parts. Time and the events happening within it, of and by themselves are a whole. Thus, the Word of God is essentially saying, “Past, present, and future are bound together.” In what way is this so? Time and the events happening in it are parts of a continuous stream. Solomon's point is again that only God is in perfect control of both time and its events, and He can seek out and bring back into existence in the present what happened in the past. Thus, Solomon's comment in Ecclesiastes 1:9 is a parallel: “What has been, what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”  Straightforwardly, history repeats itself.

A Reasonable and Natural Time to Contemplate America's Past, Present and Future

Two thousand years ago, the Apostle Paul was writing to a wayward congregation of Christian believers in Corinth, inquisitively enough, his words still capture the epochal change that may await us just over history’s horizon. “For now, we see in a glass, darkly,” he wrote. “Now I know in part, but then shall I know fully.”  Indeed, mesmerized by a present filled with spellbinding events ranging from elections to wars, we too gaze into a darkened glass unable to see how the future might soon unfold before our eyes. 

The end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025 is a reasonable and natural time to contemplate what happened in the recent past and could very well happen sooner than later.  I think back over the year that was. Like the seismic activity of an earthquake fault that too often opens itself and cuts loose with repellent force, a deep deposit of hate, anarchy, antagonism, one-upmanship toward a targeted political party’s leadership, ethnic group, religious faction...  The result of which was and remains absolute chaos manifested in the arise or emergence of the following: crushing inflation and spiking energy costs; facilitating the breakdown of law and order resulting in skyrocketing crime, to include an influx of foreign gangs and adversaries; facilitating the chaos of unchecked illegal immigration; empowering our enemies and alienating our allies; threats of terrorism on the Homefront, antisemitism protests, traditional and social media censorship, lawfare being used to achieve political objectives, racist hucksters peddling reparations for past wrongs, warfare in Europe and the Middle East, and multiple assassination attempts of prominent public figures... pushing gender ideology on children; sapping our military services and corroding our institutions  with Divisive, Extreme, and Intolerant (DEI) initiatives and Critical Race Theory; making LGBTQ evangelization a central aim of our foreign policy; deconstruction of our institutions; parents detained for speaking out for parental rights at school board meetings; Christians arrested for peacefully demonstrating and praying outside abortion clinics while the abortion clinicians dispatch the innocent unborn at the rate of nearly “one million” babies annually. And smearing political opponents as Nazis, book burners, and garbage doesn’t resonate with most Americans of any color, creed or gender. Who would have known?

Question! Is not America a nation, founded by Christians? Question! Has today’s America and much of its leadership somewhere along the line lost its way? Question! Is today’s America presently grappling with increasing polarization and a worrisome decline in trust in our governing institutions? Along with these issues, our nation’s global leadership is facing challenges from authoritarian regimes and terror organizations striving to shape a world that serves their interests.

God willing, we as a nation will let this year be an opportunity to recommit to one of the central principles that America’s Future stands for: to renew, revitalize, regenerate the role of faith in our lives, our communities and our country. More than ever, America needs all Judeo-Christian churches and their congregants to speak up and stand-up for the Biblical Judeo-Christian values that America was founded upon. If America’s future is to survive as one nation under God, it begins with faith and donning the Armor of God: the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, and the belt of truth. Lest we forget, each piece of armor is designed to protect believers from the “wiles” of the devil and the spiritual forces of evil that threaten their faith and purpose.