Everybody's crazy.
Things are just out of control and crazy, and I have to go, it may seem like that, but
there are so many good people in America.
Hi, I'm Amy Stevens with Empower You.
You know, I'm listening to a book by former Congressman Jason Chaffetz.
He actually retired fairly recently, but he was head of the House Oversight and Government
Reform Committee.
So if anybody's had a beat on what's going on in our government and in Congress, it's
certainly Jason Chaffetz.
You'll find him also, I think, on Fox News sometimes as a commentator.
But the book that I'm reading is called Puppeteer, the People Who Control the People Who Control
America.
And I'm going to put it up on our site as a recommended reading.
I think it so really aptly captures what's going on today with our government.
And the premise really is that behind the scenes, in a way, behind the people who lead
departments really are the bureaucrats and the people called the B-team.
He calls it the B-team.
And it's really kind of funny because he says the B-team are the actual bureaucrats that
you can't fire who run the show.
And they tell you, the political boss hired to do a president's agenda, they say, look,
we be here before you.
We be here after you.
We be the ones who really set the rules.
And we be the ones who actually really give out your tax dollars.
And that is the absolute truth.
It's what I found when I was in Washington, D.C. at the Administration for Children and
Families.
I would try to find and get things done.
And I literally would have, we called at the time, called them careers, careers who would
just fold their arms and look at you like, you know, really?
And you really had, it was like playing a chess game.
You had to be really adept and wise at what was going on because people just would flat
out say, oh, I'm sorry, I'm not going to do that.
And so you had to really figure out how you were going to get things done.
And Chaffetz, I think, aptly nails that.
Pastor Steve has been talking in the Book of Romans about the kingdom of God revolution,
the idea that we have to learn to live with the uncomfortable.
And that essentially, that we're now in a post-Christian era, which I would agree with,
and that we really today are missionaries back to America.
And when we see swaths of people, you know, rounded up and being sent to trial because
they question the results of an election, no different than the losing party for the
last 20 years, it's designed to stop people from asking for election integrity.
It's designed to shut you down.
It's designed to work on your mind to not even think of questioning an election.
We've always had the ability to question that.
I can remember even back to the year, what, 2000, 2004, there was huge upsets.
But today the message is, you question an election, we're rounding you up.
When we see a pro-life sidewalk counselor whose home is busted into in the wee hours
of the morning with his six kids screaming, and he's hauled off and arrested, the idea
is to shut you down, really mentally also, sending the message that you shouldn't even
think of engaging in pro-life activities.
When you see laws from back in the Civil War used to prosecute someone who was not even
at a protest rally, but a judge gives him 22 years, you have to go, the whole thing
is designed for you to not even engage or think about even a peaceful protest of your
government.
These things are mentally all designed to wear us down.
Eric Metaxas in his book, The Letter to the American Church, so well describes this.
And he describes it, of course, during the days in Germany in World War II.
He would say, well, these things are absurd.
All of us look at the absurdity of these kind of things going on.
And so did the people during World War II within Germany.
They saw the absurd, however, turn into really a death, I would say, things that would bring
death, when the Jews were hauled off.
And people couldn't understand what was going on
until people said, wait, this is so wrong.
We're gonna protect the Jews to their own peril.
That's where all this stuff kind of leads.
If you lose your courage in this hour
and you don't go, wait a minute,
people are trying to discourage me
from my freedom of speech, from my freedom.
They're trying to discourage me
in all different kinds of ways.
And this is where Steve, Pastor Steve,
is really teaching us about learning
to be comfortable with the uncomfortable.
Now, what do I mean by that within Romans?
As Pastor Steve's series on Romans really lays out for us,
that we're not called to live in a daze.
I've had people say, you know,
I've seen a lot of people, they're depressed,
they look like they're in a daze.
Pastor Jack Hibbs out of California,
he's been doing a teaching on a daze of being deceived.
And really these are the days
in which we really have to pray for discernment.
Discernment really is the word of the hour,
how we live, how we function,
whether we become discouraged.
And this is where I think Pastor Steve hits it on the head.
We were recently talking and he said,
you know, in Proverbs, we talk about without a vision,
the people perish and that's exactly right.
Particularly, I think in this day,
if you're running for office
or you're trying to make your point,
you have to give people a vision of where they're going to.
For example, we want safe schools
or we want wonderful student achievement in our schools.
I talk to a lot of people,
we have a couple people that I know
who are running for school board
and they really are trying to put together a vision
of where we want to go.
Something that encourages and excites people
rather than when we just keep hearing,
oh yeah, you know, people are just trying
to take over the schools, this, that.
That can be overwhelming
and we have an overwhelmed nation right now,
a really tired and I would also say
probably wounded in many ways
and shocked nation as they see the absurdities
of things that are going on.
Remembering that it's all designed to depress you.
It's all designed in a way to keep you from engaging.
It's all designed to make you afraid to speak up
or afraid to not participate.
And so those are the things as Steve says
that we have to remember,
that we have to remember where we're going towards.
I prefer to take it one step simpler.
You've heard Steve and me talk about
the big important little things.
I'm gonna stay on this bandwagon for quite a while
till I think we all get it.
But what we're really looking at here.
So for example, we're at the beginning of the school year.
Can we take five minutes to send our coaches
or our teachers a card?
Hey, thank you.
Thanks for teaching my kid.
Really looking forward to the school year.
Five minutes out of your day.
We can do that.
You have people running for school board
here throughout El Paso County.
If you agree with them,
can we take an hour and hand out their literature
to our neighbors and say,
gosh, I really support this person.
We can do that.
That's a big important little thing.
The other thing, can you take five minutes
to really pray with parents for your kids
for the beginning of the school year?
We can do Zoom calls with parents
and really cover our children in prayer
or gather here, gather at our church.
We can do those things.
Those are the big, important little things.
I had a girlfriend the other day.
It's so funny.
Liz was, our pastor Liz was talking and saying,
hey, can you come on Tuesday night?
She said, oh gosh, I can't.
I can't come Tuesday night.
My kids are playing soccer.
I've got two kids and two different soccer things.
And she said, I would love to,
but I can't join the women's meeting on Tuesday night.
She really, actually, I'm proud.
She drew a boundary.
She knew where her priorities were.
And of course, I don't have that issue right now.
And so I can step up and help in a table
with the women's ministry.
But I said to her, you know,
these are the big, important little things.
Your kids are gonna remember
that you were at their soccer game.
They're gonna remember that you were engaged in their life.
And so as we look at the big, important little things,
every day, every time we do those things,
we are not only building our courage,
we're building the courage of those around us.
We need to applaud what is right.
We need to applaud when people get engaged.
But it's not, these are not overwhelming things.
You know, again, I think I said with Steve,
I cannot change what the World Economic Forum is doing.
I can take responsibility for myself.
I can bank where I think I feel safest.
I can do those things that I think
are going to protect myself and my family the best.
Those are the little things that we do every day in our life
to create freedom.
And again, where there is a vision, people perish.
And so it's up to you and to I to actually
be those kind of missionaries in our community
as we share hope, we share truth, we share a vision,
we share what we believe is going to be the best
thing for El Paso County.
You know, when I talk to people, very often,
it's become kind of almost a cliche.
People go, oh my gosh, everybody's crazy.
Things are just out of control and crazy.
And I have to go, it may seem like that,
but there are so many good people in America.
There are great people in America.
There are giving people in America.
There are patriots in America.
There are people who love freedom just like us
in America.
And we cannot believe the old media that
doesn't report on actually anything good, anything right,
anything encouraging.
But they are there.
They are out there.
They're using alternative media.
They're communicating in ways that you and I
can take courage from and that we can actually say, yes,
there are people doing the exact same things as me.
I think one thing for policy engagement
that we're going to be doing is we're
going to be posting helpful tools, helpful tools
for family, helpful tools.
Entrepreneurs are rising up everywhere.
I don't know if you've heard of Public Square.
They tout themselves as an alternative to Amazon.
They have some great things on their site.
I'm encouraged by that.
There are entrepreneurial opportunities there.
Other things for parents to take a look at,
we're going to be posting as your child starts school.
What are things that we want to be looking for?
We had Debbie Chavez on one of our podcasts
to talk about that.
But we have more tools that are coming out.
These are the things we want to avail ourselves of,
that which is good, that which is right,
that which is peaceful, that which creates discernment,
that which helps families.
I just heard Dr. James Bradley, if you haven't heard of him,
he's out of King College.
I was at a policy conference the other day.
And it was just fascinating.
He said, listen, a father that rough plays with his son
or sons every day, even whether it's 10 minutes,
contributes to their son's emotional intelligence,
to their IQ, to their ability to be stable.
That's powerful.
Who would think 10 minutes, minimal, a day
of just roughhousing and having fun, but connecting.
You see, we got a lot of great things under the hood.
And I don't want us to get discouraged
by what we see by these things,
because really sincerely,
God has so much more good for us than against us.
And we're really called to be that light.
And so as Steve talks about us being missionaries,
missionaries to our own nation, that's where we are now.
And I want us to take courage from that.
I want us to be encouraged
because that's what Empower U is all about.
I hope this has been helpful.
Look on our site.
We're going to have Jason Chaffetz's book up there.
We're going to have some other tools for you.
And again, be strong and courageous.
This is the hour to be that.