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Whether brain or brawn—there are two worldviews about where strength comes from.

Some believe strength is arbitrarily bestowed from above. We are on the earth are mere objects of favor and misfortune. Those with more stole it from others in this grand, zero sum game called Life. Only the poor understand wealth.

Others believe strength comes from hard work and choosing battles wisely. Working people are strong in mind or body or both. Peaceful people don’t deplete themselves of their energies and are fierce when roused to arms.

Both have unfair advantages to exploit and hard choices to make.  · · · →

We would think that someone who accurately predicted a future event should be the talk of the press. All the pundits should want to pick his brain. All the major media anchors should want him as a guest on their shows. Right?

But, the dirty little secret of the news industry’s intoxicating power is its power to create news, not report it. If you predicted an outcome different from the mainstream, you don’t know more about events than the pundits; you are their enemy who shaped events how you wanted them, rather than letting them shape events how they wanted.  · · · →

Brothers can’t give each other justice. They just can’t, no matter how much they try, no matter how much they want to.

Brothers may be slightly older or younger, slightly bigger or smaller, but they come from the same stock, the same species, the same branch. They are very much alike—so much alike that what helps or hurts one brother has a similar effect on the other brother.

Justice must come from above. It can’t traverse brothers.

For punishment or reward, opportunity or confinement, brothers can’t find justice between each other separately. Brotherly justice can only be achieved together.  · · · →

Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan as an irony. Originally, like busybodies, the Samaritans complained when King Cyrus ordered Jerusalem’s temple to be rebuilt. King Darius, who came a few years later, ordered the temple to be completed anyway and for the Samaritans to pay for it.

The Samaritans brought trouble on themselves. Had they not tried to have a “better” idea than the king and just gone about their business, they wouldn’t have had to pay for Israel’s temple. In the end, they only lost.

Be a Good Samaritan. Help the injured, then mind your own business.  · · · →