When the exercise of my freedom results in my destruction or the destruction of those around me, what I’ve exercised is the freedom to be selfish. And if such an exercise of freedom leads to my destruction, I should be quick to realize the frightening similarities between selfishness and stupidity.

All the forces of reason combined are unable to rescue the thoughtless person who is so enamored with their agenda that they themselves are perishing at the hands of that very agenda. And in order to insure that the principled nature of this nation is not doomed to perish alongside them, we must make certain that we are not that person.

Self-serving biases and self-centered agendas are cotton jammed in the ears of our conscience. Even if truth shouts, we can’t hear it.

If the compass that I hold in my hand is driven by the agendas that I craft in my head, that compass is something more like a windmill erected in a place where the wind never stops blowing.

It seems that we are indiscriminately committed to force-fitting a moral standard to the selfishness of our agendas as a means of hiding the selfishness of our agendas. Yet, the only thing that’s hidden is the fact that nothing is hidden.

God invites. Man indoctrinates. The former is an invitation to run the wilds of an eternity anticipated now in order to fully live there later. The latter is a set of chains that knows nothing of running, nor the space within which to do so.

If I’ve created this road, it’s likely that my agendas define it. And although I believe the ascent to be lofty, it’s anything but the ‘higher road’ that I pretend it to be. However, if God’s truth’s define it, there is no road that is higher and there’s no pretending that it’s not.

You will find great leaders pounding the pavement of life instead of pounding the pulpits of their agendas.

Leadership must embody servanthood, for without it leadership will become the embodiment of our selfish agendas. And leadership of that sort will lead us to places that none of us want to go to.