Your response to, “Sanford Bishop Must Go!” was overwhelming. I asked you to forward and ask your friends to sign up. My inbox was filled for the next three days with new signups and they are still coming.

It is clear that Sanford no longer represents us. For many, the vote to impeach our President was the last straw. Some who voted for Sanford in the past said, “No More!”

I saw optimism and confidence. As we begin 2020, let me share about optimism and confidence. What I am about to share goes beyond politics. It is just plain old good advice.

I sometimes play a Bible trivia game with those with whom I am speaking. I name 10 characters from the Bible and ask if anyone knows who these 10 characters are. Rarely has anyone ever heard of the names I mention.

Then I add two more, Joshua and Caleb. The light comes on when they hear those two.

If you know the historical story of Moses leading the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt, you will remember that they came to the border of the Promised Land. (Numbers 13:1-33) Moses sent 12 men, one from each tribe on a reconnaissance mission to determine the best path to take into the land.

They returned with good news and bad news. The good news was that the land was, in fact, everything that Moses had said that it was. Crops were abundant, and all of them agreed that it, “certainly does flow with milk and honey.”

There were also challenges. There were giants in the land and the cities were fortified and strong. The people began to waver with pessimism and fear at the report of the ten.

Joshua and Caleb boldly called on the nation to move forward in trust and obedience. They said that Israel “by all means” should move forward and that they would “surely overcome” each of the challenges before them.

The ten gave a defeatist report and concluded, “we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

The majority report prevailed. The people stopped. As a result they wandered in the wilderness for the next 40 years.

This is a powerful message, not only about our spiritual lives, but also human nature itself. We are prone to pessimism. We are prone to make excuses.

Let me apply this specifically to the political world. As you shared the commentary across social media, I took note of the responses. One response that I saw more often than I liked was that it was “impossible” to defeat Sanford in this district.

Let me exhort you to make a choice to think and speak differently as we go into 2020. Will it be a challenge to beat Bishop? Absolutely. It is impossible? Absolutely Not!

The very first vote is your own thinking. When I hear “impossible,” what I am really hearing is, “we became like grasshoppers in our own sight.”

My exhortation goes beyond politics. A grasshopper mindset is one set on defeat before it even begins. That is not who we are as Americans. We are an exceptional and unique people as Americans and we have a winning world view.

The late Paul Harvey had a segment called, “The Rest of the Story.” Let’s look at the rest of the story with the nation of Israel.

The people of Israel saw an impossible obstacle. They refused to enter the Promised Land.

Forty years later, Moses died and now Joshua was the leader. A new generation, once again, stood at the border of the Promised Land.

Joshua sent two men on a reconnaissance mission. These two men met a woman named Rahab who told them of the perspective of the people in the Promised Land.

It was quite a contrast from them viewing the people of Israel as “grasshoppers.” She recounted the reports of God’s work bringing Israel out of Egypt. She put it this way, “our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you.” (Joshua 2:11)

The truth is that the people of Israel were not grasshoppers in the eyes of those in the Promised Land. They were grasshoppers in their own eyes. They defeated themselves without taking the first step.

In this New Year, join me to make the choice in your own mind. It is a New Year. We are not grasshoppers.

I appreciate you taking the time to read my thoughts. Help me get a bold, clear, clarion call for the people of the 2nd District to stand up. Even if you do not live in the 2nd District, I ask you to sign up.

I promise, you won’t get a bunch of junk and I will not share your e-mail address with anyone. When you get an e-mail from me, you can be assured that it will be easy to read, informative, and usually short. Thank you again for reading.

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