Why you never want to be lukewarm
Tuesday night, at one of my California meetings that I regularly hold, a man came and told a story of a “Let’s Go Brandon” sign.
These meetings are the most awesome display of heroism and storytelling. The stories of regular people standing firm on their values comes out. You find non-establishment tales that you will never find in The New York Times or on Fox News. The meetings are unlike any meeting I have ever seen. Regular people gather together and share extraordinary stories of success from their lives as they stand firm against the tyranny in their midst.
The man who spoke about the Let’s Go Brandon sign, let’s call him John, volunteers at the local Republican headquarters.
In the last month or so, 3 guys have come in making a scene about the Let’s Go Brandon sign that they have in the window of their headquarters.
There are some things I personally do not like about the Let’s Go Brandon sign, but that will not silence my compliments for courageous folks like John:
***He is so clear about his views that he makes people decide about him. ***
That is one of the secret ingredients to life.
When you do that: Some people will like you. Some people will dislike you. That’s life. We accept it and move on. That is how free people operate. That is how successful cultures function. That is a key ingredient to peace and prosperity. That open, honest, sincere clarity you allow another to have about you is one of the most powerful gifts you can give to this world and a building block of a free people.
The problem comes in those who will not accept it.
That is where the spirit of control enters in — “the Jezebel spirit,” as some call it. That is when another person claims dominion over you. You know that type of person. Their topic of conversation is always about your behavior. How boring. There are a million other meaningful things to talk about, and for whatever reason, your behavior is the only thing that ever seems to come out of that person's mouth. Everyone else in your life is so often on the same page as you, but that one person seems to have nothing else to say other than what is wrong about your behavior.
Spend too much time in the presence of that and your soul will shrivel.
That Jezebel spirit likes to do what tyrannical regimes have done since before the word communism even existed — they like to conduct “struggle seasons.” A struggle session is repeatedly exerting pressure on a dissident until he cracks.
In the story of the Let’s Go Brandon sign, the local woke Democrat machine was doing what woke Democrat machines always do: seeking compliance. They got a group together and someone said something like this, “The Republicans have always been pussy cats. I’ll buy a steak dinner for the man who gets those fools to bend the knee to us and take down that Let’s Go Brandon sign.”
And then in true political hack fashion, instead of offering John half the value of the steak dinner or some other negotiation in exchange for taking down the sign, they do this: 1.) they walk in weaselly, 2.) pretend they fit in, 3.) act like a friend for two or three minutes, 4.) pressure, 5.) pressure, 6.) pressure you to take down the sign, and then 7.) explode before the conversation has lasted even 10 minutes.
Three guys pulled the same move on John. How unoriginal. I grew up in the Chicagoland Democrat Machine, which has given me a little experience with these types. I suspect there are another 30 who will come in and pull the same move.
That’s just how some people interact with the world.
Over and over and over for years that same thing happens until you give in. That is a struggle session: just get the person to bend the knee, whatever that looks like. Pressure, pressure, pressure until you bend the knee.
The Let’s Go Brandon sign has not come down.
John’s job, your job, my job, as people of virtue is to make sure the proverbial Let’s Go Brandon signs in our lives never comes down because of pressure from thugs.
It is no surprise that John also stood up at the meeting to point out a revelation that came from him answering the question: “Who owns your body?”
The answer is him.
He owns his body.
It is a question many people have a hard time with. If you own your body, you have authority over your body.
Knowing that, John stopped wearing a face mask in all places. And though I did not ask, as a result of this revelation he probably made many other changes in his life as well.
You get a certain number of days in life, a certain number of minutes, a certain number of breaths. Make them count.
Each moment you clash with a person is a moment you are not harmonizing with some other person.
And don’t get me wrong, life calls on us to fight the good fight. But if your life is all fight, there’s something wrong.
When you run for office, one of the best favors a person can do for you is to tell you exactly what they think of you as quickly as they can. Their sincerity gives you clarity and preserves your precious resource of time. “I hate you, I’ll never vote for you!” is a bigger blessing than “Come in for a slice of pound cake and let’s talk about you for 3 hours before I let you know that I can not even legally vote and have no intention of supporting you in any other way, but I will sure be very nice to you as I waste all of your time.”
Many in our snowflake era would prefer the pound cake.
Don’t be that snowflake.
The ideal is this: you are brazenly and openly yourself, the other person is brazenly and openly himself. You get along, or you don’t, but you give each other the clarity that comes from being sincere.
A book that is the opposite of a book for snowflakes says:
“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”
That’s the way to be. At least that's what the Bible says.
I want people to feel compelled to spew me out or to love me. I don’t want the lukewarm around me. They are a passionless waste of time.
If you hate me, now is a great time to unsubscribe. It’s the only way to shut me up.
But if you love me, share this with your friends, send me money to hire more staff, post my work on social media, buy my books, come to my meetings, look for my videos, tell your favorite podcaster to interview me.
Those are ways to get more of me.
But it’s not just about me. It’s about you. What can you be doing in life that is as hot or cold as possible? What are the things that need spewing out? Who are those people who need spewing out?
Spew them out. Be hot or cold.
Chase the lukewarm from your life.
Life is so very short. Live the life that is spent joyfully with the people you vibe with and that is spent as far away from the lukewarm as you can get.
In there we have an example of why a Jezebel spirit is so awful. It is not just the tyranny it inspires. It is also the sense of control one claims over another.
When a person does that, that person steals precious life from this world. Each moment trying to please a Jezebel is a moment you spend not pleasing the influences around you that matter. That may be your creator, that may be yourself, that may be the people in your life you are hot about.
Spit out the lukewarm.
Embrace that which you love.
To the lukewarm among you, you know how to find the door.
For the supporters — here’s your link to help me provide more of me to the world.
Thank you so much for your boldness in life.
Thank you so much for your support of my work.
Allan Stevo