From Hope to Higher Ground: on Principles & Values

Finished Little Rock marathon in 4:38 after 3 years training

Three years earlier, running a marathon seemed as likely to me as piloting the Space Shuttle or performing brain surgery. But back then there had also been 110 pounds more of me. After I was freshly diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic, my doctor had sat me down and told me that without a lifestyle change, I would be dead within a decade. The news propelled me on a life-changing and life-saving pilgrimage that eventually led to the achievement of something I would have thought unreasonable for a once nonathletic “sofa spud” like me. When people ask about the experience, I tell them that running the marathon was not difficult. But the discipline to prepare for the even was as challenging as anything I have ever done.

Thermometer leaders just read room; thermostats adjusts room

Thermostat leadership is different. A thermostat can read and report the temperature, but it also adjusts the temperature to what it should be. Thermostat leadership is aware of poll numbers but is even more aware of the principles worth living for and dying for.

There is a difference between a person’s values and recognizing the “value” of very person. Many political debates center around whose “values” are superior as they relate to the family, the economy, health care, etc. I am convinced that even those of us who are conservatives have missed that the true issue is not creating a must believe set of values but rather adhering to the notion that the worth of each human being should drive our public policies.