Someone called in and asked how to strike up political conversations with people. Another caller had great advice, "Just put the ball in play." I've been thinking about that all day. It might be awkward, but just do it. We're so obsessed with comfort that we're afraid of a little awkwardness?
Hey, welcome to Politics by Faith, brought to you by the Patriot Gold Group. On the show the other day, SiriusXM show, we, well actually someone called in and said, Slater, I want to spread the word, but how do I talk to people? And I said, well, I've got a couple of ideas, but let's open it up to the phones and see how people are talking to people and how it's been going. And it was great.
Phones lit up and people gave some great advice. But there's one line that sticks with me is this guy said, listen, I just stand in line at the grocery store, the gas station, whatever. And I just lay it on. I just say, who you got, Kamala or Trump? And the people are like taking back for a second, but then that's it. That's the conversation, it starts. And he had this great line. He said, just put the ball in play. Just put the ball in play. And I love that.
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Don't be afraid of it, you are smarter than 99.9% of people on these political issues. You're way more informed than anyone. And you maybe don't think you are, but I promise you, you are. Like literally, if you know that, if you know how many states there are in this country, you're in the top half of knowledge. If you know what a woman is, you're way ahead of the game. So don't be hesitant because you don't think you know enough.
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And don't worry about it being awkward. I learned a long time ago, I read this somewhere, that something is only as awkward as you make it. Or it's maybe something more like, something's only as awkward as you think it's awkward. So just don't think it's awkward, it's not awkward, done.
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Awkwardness is gone. So don't worry about that. You're never going to see this person again. You're staying in line at the grocery store. Don't worry about it. And also maybe some people are hesitant
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because it's so important. I heard a long time ago, someone told me when I was talking about spreading the gospel, they said, you don't worry, the gospel isn't fragile. Just go for it.
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And I think that's similar with our conservative values. It's not some fragile artifact that needs to be handled delicately and you know with perfection. Just go for it. Put the ball in play. Let's go. On the SiriusXM show one of these days we'll give you a little sneak peek. I'm going to read from a speech that Alexander Solzhenitsyn gave at the Harvard commencement. It didn't go over very well. Solzhenitsyn, Russian author, dissident, Gulag Archipelago was one of
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his books. Eight years in a Soviet prison camp, sentenced to his anti-Soviet agitation and malicious slander. This is from Gulag Archipelago, such a good line. He said, Bless you prison, bless you for being in my life. For there lying upon the rotting prison straw, I came to realize that the object of life is not prosperity, as we are made to believe, but the maturity of the human soul. That's from Gulag Archipelago. It's so amazing. I'm going to take some from Sultan Itzikon's
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speech at Harvard, particularly his section on the decline in courage. He said, must one point out that from ancient times, a decline in courage has been considered the first symptom of the end. So I'm going to use that as an inspiring message to get out there and put the ball in play when it comes
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to spreading the word. But right here, I want to present a different idea. And that is a theme throughout his speech that prosperity is not all good. Prosperity can be bad. He said, the constant desire in the West to have still more things and a still better
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life and the struggle to this end imprint many Western faces with worry and even depression. We're so obsessed with more, more, more, more, more. It's killing us. It's literally killing us. So many people terrified of difficulty or struggle. But Sultan Iskandar said, even biology tells us that a high degree of habitual well-being is not advantageous to a living organism. A couple good lines here and then I'll get to some scripture. He said, the humanistic way of thinking, which has
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proclaimed itself our guide, we've been living in this culture for a long time, do not admit the existence of intrinsic evil in man, nor did it see any task higher than the attainment of happiness on earth. That's one of the, I think, the biggest lie from the devil. I believe, first, you don't need to save her,
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but the root of that is you're born good. So if you're born good, you don't need to save her, you don't need to be saved. And this is part of the humanist thing, that they do not exist, they do not admit the existence of intrinsic evil in man. Everyone's born good.
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And then also we need this higher attainment of happiness on earth. It started modern Western civilization on the dangerous trend of worshipping man and his material needs. Everything beyond physical well-being and the accumulation of material goods, all other human requirements and characteristics of a subtler and higher nature were left outside the area of attention of state and social systems, as if life did not have any higher meaning.
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Thus gaps were left open for evil, and its drafts blow freely today. The West has finally achieved the rights of man, and even to excess, but man's sense of responsibility to God and society has grown dimmer and dimmer. All the celebrated technological achievements of progress, including the conquest of outer space, do not redeem the twentieth century's moral poverty. Wow, our moral poverty, which no one could have imagined, even as late as the nineteenth century.
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We have it better materially than anyone could ever have fathomed. But how is our spiritual life? How's our moral state? Well, we're in moral poverty. Alright, here's the key line. The individual's independence from many types of state pressure have been guaranteed, so we're free.
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The majority of the people have been granted well-being to the extent their fathers and grandfathers could not have dreamed about. It has become possible to raise young people according to these ideals, preparing them for and summoning them towards physical bloom, happiness, the possession of material goods, money, and leisure, towards almost an unlimited freedom in the choice of pleasures. So who should now renounce all this? Why? And for the sake of what should one risk
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one's precious life in defense of the common good and particularly in the nebulous case when the security of one's nation must be defended in an as yet distant land. He's like, who would give this up? And for what? Why would anyone give up this perfection, this comfort, this materialism that we've worked so hard for? Who would renounce all this? Jesus did. He left much better to come down and experience much worse. Reminded me of Mark 15.23.
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Then, as he was on the cross, they offered Jesus wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. Me quote Spurgeon. He said, on the heights of heaven, the Son of God had long ago stood down on the globe to measure the long descent to the farthest depths of human misery. He added the total of all the agonies that redemption would require, without deducting
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the smallest amount. From the throne of greatest glory to the cross of deepest woe. And the myrrh, with its sedative influence, would have stopped him short of the utter limit of misery, so he refused it. He did not pull back from all he had chosen to suffer for his people. Spurgeon says, oh, how many of us would have longed for things to relieve our grief?
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Even things that would have been harmful for us. Reader, have you ever prayed for release from hard service or suffering with a willful petulant eagerness? Think about it. If it were said to you, if you desire that loved one of yours will live, but God will be dishonored, could you put away the temptation and say, Your will be done? Oh, it's sweet to be able to say, Lord, even if I am not called to suffer, if I can honor Your more by suffering, if the loss of all my earthly loves will bring You glory,
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then so be it. I refuse comfort if it gets in the way of Your honor. Now that we could walk more like this in the footsteps of our Lord, if we could cheerfully endure trial for His sake, promptly and willingly putting away thoughts of self and comfort when they interfere with our finishing the work He has given us to do. We choose comfort almost all the time. Jesus, when on the cross, and even when offered the slightest, the slightest relief of a little bit of pain, he said no. All for God's glory. Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript and commercial free on God's glory. Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript and commercial free on the website Mike Slater dot locals dot com.
