Independence Day

Written by Jason Haines

“Before destruction the heart of the man is haughty, and before honor is humility. He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him. The spirit of man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear? The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge. A man’s gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men. He that is first in his own cause seemeth just; but his neighbor cometh and searcheth him. The lot causeth contentions to cease, and parteth between the mighty. A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle.” -Proverbs 18:12-19 NKV

Last weekend my family had friends over for dinner and to catch up. We enjoy spending quality time together discuss where each of us is at in our lives. One conversation stood out as we discussed current events and how surreal it seems to be. That conversation was around a popular podcasts discussion on how the world seems to believe they are playing a video game, and when they cancel someone or something that person just disappears as if they never existed. This got my mind pondering about society in this day in age, mainly two things in particular. One, have we really become so self-centered and lost in this world that we think that ending someone else’s livelihood is proper to a happy and productive world? And second, will we find true leadership in all this noise that is out there, or will we just become more and more lost?

I never thought I would ever have any kids, ever. I believed I was destined to be single forever. Living a life that I woke up and proceeded to do whatever I felt like doing. I had my fun, not just on the Fourth of July, but many other days and holidays throughout the year. Working and living life was the way for me, and I would not go back and change those days because they were my days and memories. Worked hard, played hard and all while going through school and getting a degree. But there was always something missing, I just didn’t know it until I met my wife and we had our children. Now it is almost as fun to watch them learn the things we take for granted and the amazement in their eyes when they learn something new. Even more, just getting to play with them and teaching them new things is an experience within itself. ?

One thing I am not fully good at it yet, just ask my wife, that my kids have taught me is patience. Now patience wasn’t one of my best attributes in my younger days, or it may have been in some areas, but not in others. ?And I will admit the areas that I needed patience weren’t always there. I learned this when I was in my first leadership role at a foundry that I had worked at. I was very quick to tongue and sometimes it got the better of me, but over time I learned to become a better leader and listen to my people. We always think that being a leader is something that we strive to be and that our lives would be better off if we were leading others, but that is not always true. As leaders we learn to listen and help our people, and if we don’t, we get left behind. Show them we care and are willing to listen to then and hear their needs. Plus, as leaders we must show we are willing to go the extra mile and make the lives of our followers easier by doing the things most are unwilling to do.

Over the years I have witnessed many bad leaders. They enjoy the money and power of the position, and they let this go to their head. These leaders don’t think they have to do anything and collect a paycheck at the end of the week. The hardest thing for leaders to understand when teaching and mentoring on Lean is that the working side by side with the workers will gain the most respect of all. As Ronald Reagan once said, “the greatest leader is not necessarily who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.” This is also true in any endeavor as we look back over the years as with leaders like George Patton, John Wooden, George Washington, and anyone who signed the Declaration of Independence. They may not have been the greatest people in what they did but were able to guide everyone around them to do extraordinary things. Despite what we have all heard in recent memory that the United States of America was not built on greedy people who want to take over your world, we were built on a vision of making a more perfect union through imperfect people.

In the early years most who came to North America were trying to escape religious persecution and to be free to practice their religions. Others came to escape going to prison and others came to work and pay off debts in indentured servitude. But religious freedom was the largest reason many of our forefathers arrived in the United States to settle down. I’ll let you in on a secret - it didn’t really work as well as they thought because they were still under the thumb of the government of the English in Great Britain. This was because the King didn’t want to lose control of the lands because the English needed to pay for their many wars around the world. However, there was just too much sentiment from the people in the United States on the need to separate from the government in England, they wanted to have their freedom. Freedom of religion, freedom of thought, freedom from taxes, and freedom for all people.

Recently we have seen a rise in people who question these freedoms and rights. They want us to sit back while they force feed ideals that have no common sense within this country or this world. I am not saying that there aren’t issues in this world, yet we have worked through many of those issues over the years and will continue to do so moving forward. As our forefathers said we are trying to form a more perfect union, they never said it was perfect despite how much others try to misconstrue what was said.

There is only one perfect person ever and that was the Lord Jesus Christ himself who died for all our sins. The Lord Jesus Christ was sent here to us as a gift from his father God to see what was the issue with all the people of the world, really the ultimate form of the Gemba, by going and seeing what he could do to help the people of earth. Naturally all people are flawed and inherently evil, but we must learn through a moral structure, as Jesus and our forefathers knew to do, to live together and create a better future. When that future is compromised the people fall into an area of fear and violence because there is no hope of anything good. There must be direction, vision, and true leadership to take us to where we need to be and not where we want to be at to provide a brighter future.

With out a plan we are all lost and that is where we are right now no plan in place and no standards set that people agree on. We can’t even seem to agree on anything anymore, and that is setting us on a dangerous course that I would rather not be heading towards; many of the people I know do not want this is as well. Yes, moving forward is something that we should always be doing, but the path we are currently on is not moving forward but rather destroying everything that is good and replacing it with fear and loathing. We have a country of hope, or at least that’s the country I grew up in was. We had standards and we all followed those standards. If we live in a place with zero standards, then we will fall into chaos and that chaos comes with fear and darkness for all who are in it.

Why did our founding fathers write the Bill of Rights and base it off the Ten Commandments? The biggest reason was to have a guide that was based on religious freedom in this country. Yes, religious freedom, because our founders did not want a central church as they have in many countries. They wanted states that were separate to govern themselves, but also follow the federal government. These states were all equal in the eyes of the federal government because together we are strong and separate, we are extremely weak. Today, we are extremely weak just like we were extremely weak at the time of the Civil War. What has gotten us to this point?

First, we must start looking at ourselves and begin with leading ourselves before we can lead others and guide others in this world. Have a plan to where we want to grow and coach ourselves and our families. Second, let’s all find something to set a standard of living that we can all follow. Find a place of common ground and escape from this crazy train that we seem to be being pushed towards. We must have standards of living just like we must have standards at work. If we don’t then we drop into chaos. ?How can we move together forward?

I want to end this Independence Day paper here challenge you to think about how we got to this point and how can we move forward together? While thinking about it, focus on ways we can come together and rebuild our country to be better together. It starts with each of us, and we must remember to work on ourselves before working on others. Please pray for our people, our country, and our children. Have a happy Fourth of July and enjoy your family and friends.

“Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom, and then lost it, have never known it again.” -Ronald Reagan

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