Unfettered . . .

There has been considerable news coverage over recent days about a 17-year-old girl out near Los Angeles who called police to report that her parents had been holding her captive. When the police arrived at the home, the grizzly discovery was made that the girl has 12 siblings, ranging in ages from two up to twenty-nine, who were all malnourished and chained to their beds. Can you even imagine what it took mentally and emotionally for that young girl to call the law on her mom and dad?

The story is tragic. I am often troubled by how much pain and suffering humans heap upon one another, but this is a new low . . . parents doing this evil to their own children, in their own home? The terribleness of it all just sucks the breath out of me.

The police cut the fetters from those abused- and neglected-siblings and sent them off to the hospital for medical attention, but the kids will carry unseen chains, scars, and stains from this abuse and neglect all of the days of their lives.

As this story was surfacing, I was studying and preparing my lesson on the subject of “Value all.”  This is the week SBC leaders set aside annually to focus on the tragedy of abortion and to stand for the ‘Right to Life’ . . . and remind worshippers that abortion is sin.

As I examined the ways that some ignore other’s value, my study led me to the terrible issue of human-trafficking. I had no idea that it is now being described as ‘a multi-billion dollar per year industry’ and that it is believed there are some 21-million victims across the world. Reports are that much of it involves women and young girls being used in prostitution.

I know that as God . . . who is defined in Scripture as “Love” looks down on it all, it must surely break His heart . . . I know it breaks my heart, troubles my mind, and unsettles my soul.

A lawyer once tried to fence with Jesus and asked “What is the greatest commandment?” to which Jesus answered, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

It Seems to me . . . that our world is far off course from what the Master called. The truth is that many totally disregard His instruction . . . and do so ignorantly . . . failing to grasp the truth that His words were not merely a suggestion. Those words were and are His law . . . He is coming back and will make it all right! Woe unto evil doers . . . woe unto those who abuse the weak and vulnerable.

 

Confusing . . .

Yesterday . . .  January 15 . . . is set aside by our nation to honor the birthdate of Rev Martin Luther King, Jr. In truth, it is much more than simply honoring the date of his birth . . . it is to remember in appreciation what he did to help a good nation become a better nation as he helped us see the light on something about which we had long been blinded in darkness by history, prejudice, evil, and hatred.

You can be certain that MLK as a young child never once looked up at his mother from the merry-go-round in the park in Atlanta and said, “Mommy, when I grow up I want to be a man who calls a nation out and challenges it to repent of its great sin, and in doing so, to personally become a person to whom much hate and bitterness is directed, and that will ultimately result in my being murdered before my 40th Birthday!”

The truth is that he was a simple Baptist pastor of a small, southern church and was called to rise to the moment. It was clearly not a task he sought, but to which he was drawn. No intelligent person can listen to the powerful, passionate, and brilliant speeches he delivered and even remotely believe that all came from him. It is clear that it was a matter of a humble man delivering a message he had received from the Lord Himself, just as had the Old Testament prophets delivering calls to repentance to the wayward nation Israel, and warnings to her enemies.

A really baffling thing to me is that the great resistance to Dr. King and the plea of Black citizens for equality and fairness was completely led by Southern Democrats in elected office across the Deep South. It was those local and State leaders who ordered the marchers to be attacked by publicly-owned and operated fire trucks. It was those men who ordered attack dogs released upon peaceful citizens exercising their constitutional right to assemble and be heard. It was those very officials who called out the National Guard to stand in the way of those who marched peacefully. Today, using smoke, mirrors, an end around move, and some razzle dazzle, the DNC presents itself as being the champion of Black folks, and tragically the majority of Black folks fall for the lie. Thankfully, there are more and more who are having their eyes opened to the lies of the DNC (just as many of us in my generation had our eyes opened to the lies they told us about Black folks back in the ‘60s).

History shows that pretty much all of the cities that have been under Democratic control over the past 50 years are now in serious trouble and the Black folks who live in them are the real victims. The current real-time situation in those cities is poor quality housing, frightening crime, terrible neighborhoods, high unemployment, abusive local law-enforcement, and failing schools. Every bit of it is exactly the economic shackles against which Dr. King waged his peaceful battle.

Even more confusing is the truth that the great issue/concern for the DNC today is what is being called the DACA program . . . a program seeking to grant citizenship and financial aid to young adults who were brought here as children by illegal aliens.

I would argue that it would serve as an act of Love if Democrats, liberals, and the media had just one half as much concern for the Black kids trapped in ghettos, failing public schools, crime-ridden neighborhoods, and entrenched poverty. How about amnesty for those Black kids . . . amnesty from those life-restricting forces and conditions. How about taking the money the DNC wants to spend on the DACA recipients and using it to help our own kids who are helpless victims of conditions created by Democrats and their foolish policies.

I am even further confused over the need to publicly debate all of these crazy issues of immigration when we have properly enacted laws on the books which address the issue. It Seems to me . . . it is pretty much the same as if a couple dozen goofy folks surrounding a stop sign at an intersection and stood debating the merits, effectiveness, and need for such a warning for drivers.

Do you know that the DNC has done a complete 180-degree about-face on immigration in the past 30 years? They resist any efforts to enforce our current laws and policies. They resist efforts to cut the cost of and drain upon the treasury of illegals living here (estimated to be some $90 billion annually). They resist any reasonable effort to require verification of status at the voting booth.

I would argue that if we could somehow get the Democrats to quit using all of their energy on illegal aliens, wholesale abortions, same-sex marriages, and the like and just work half as hard for Black folks, we could get a serious recover taking place in the inner cities. I just saw a report that in a short span of one year, under President Donald Trump’s policies and leadership, the economy is going gang-busters and Black unemployment is now at the lowest rate since such records were created. I would argue that is part of what Dr. King was seeking . . . a level field for every American . . . and an opportunity to succeed. Tragically, there are those today trapped in the current situation who are limited in opportunity regardless how smart they are or how hard they work . . . their situation is beyond their ability to overcome . . . and that is tragic.

Would You have a Message?

Earlier this week I posted a question on FaceBook . . . I was pretty surprised at the responses.

The question posted was: “If you have been invited to appear at Boston Hall to deliver a speech of your own choosing . . . to the most cultured, sophisticated, and educated of Harvard, MIT, and Boston Medical . . . of the City and of the state of Massachusetts . . . what would be your message?”

It Seems to me . . . that there are so very many challenges facing us personally, as well as collectively with our cities, states, and federal government . . . that there would be an endless list of topics on which to speak.

I recall years ago visiting the Fine Arts Museum in Boston one afternoon with a small group from my seminar. As I strolled along with the group, we came upon a rather peculiar painting. The painting was long in length and narrow in width, a panoramic view that showed a large assembly of people standing alongside a river. The folks depicted in the painting were of a variety of colors, cultures, ethnic groups, nations, and time periods as reflected by their attire. There were three questions under the mass of humanity, which asked:

  1. Who are we?
  2. Where did we come from? and
  3. Where are we going?

I believe that those three questions might be a terrific subject for one’s speech to the crowd described to be gathered in Boston Hall.

I will teach Acts 17 this Sunday morning. It is in that chapter we find the Apostle Paul in the city of Athens, Greece. He was obviously there without his missionary team as they had remained behind to continue the work that that been started (but Paul had been sent ahead to protect them from the angry mob). It is believed that Paul had never visited the ancient, historic city prior to his arrival there in Acts 17. I am pretty sure that Paul was like most of us when visiting places we have heard about for much of our lives, and he was excited to go out sight-seeing and experience the city. It is quite likely that he intended to just relax, rest, and wait for the rest of the mission team, but we are told that the Holy Spirit spurred him to action as he made his way around town and encountered all sorts of superstitions and idolatry. Being confronted with all of that foolishness, Paul was compelled to speak out in truth to a culture consumed with foolish philosophical beliefs. Paul’s message was always simple and straight-forward . . .

Man was created by God . . .

The reason? . . . to live in relationship with God . . .

The problem? . . . sin and rebellion placed a barrier in the way . . .

The solution? . . . Jesus Christ . . .

The way? . . . belief in Jesus as Lord and Savior.

As Paul spoke that message, he gained both the interest and attention of the Philosophers. In that era, folks gathered in public places and listened to the smart guys debate various and sundry issues of life. The Philosophers invited Paul to speak at just such a public gathering. The location was called the Areopagus at Mar’s Hill. As Paul looked about, he discovered a wide assortment of shrines, temples, and pedestals upon which rested pieces of art believed to represent each of the gods the Greeks believed existed. Either tragically or comically, they had an empty pedestal marked as ‘To the unknown God’.  Of course, it was their feeble way of trying to cover all bases. Wise fellow he was, Paul jumped right on that and announced that he had come to introduce them to that ‘unknown God’!

Paul’s message and delivery serves as a model for those who seek to witness to others about the Gospel.

It Seems to me . . . that none of us have either the right, nor the reason, to embarrass the Gospel. Sadly, that does occur when folks behave foolishly, and speak foolishly. I occasionally encounter individuals who tell of a person who grossly offended them about things spiritual. Sometimes I am able to help the person understand that a person’s status before God should not be decided by the actions of others. Sometimes, I simply have to leave the person with the question: “Are you willing to let that goofy person’s words or deeds sentence you to hell?”

 

 

Old Dudes Rock . . .

Hurricane Harvey blew a couple oak trees down in our yard . . . more accurately it snapped one about 2-feet above the ground. Interestingly enough, that one was an 8-inch tree alongside the driveway. As we assessed the hurricane damage, Chris requested that we widen the driveway. We decided to extend it 5-feet on each side, thus the fallen tree needed to be removed. The contractor hired to do the work tore up two pieces of his equipment trying to remove the stump. He finally gave up. I then engaged a fellow with a large rubber-tire hydraulic backhoe to remove the stump. After a half hour of trying, he gave up and left. The crazy thing about it is that native live oaks along the coast are known to have a shallow root system and high winds often knocks them over with the root-ball intact, but not this particular tree. There were much larger trees (18-24 inches) at the apartments that were blown over and the root-ball was mostly out of the ground.

As we looked over the mess in my yard that had been left by the guys and their equipment, David said, “I will get it out!”  I chuckled and asked how he proposed to do that? To which he replied, “The old fashioned way . . . the way folks removed stumps before all of this equipment was available, the way folks did it before they had money to hire it done . . . with a shovel, pick axe, and a chopping axe!”

David worked patiently most of Monday and did a bunch of digging and root-chopping. It has been kind of fun to watch that hard-headed, determined old rascal challenge the task that defeated three pieces of earth-moving equipment. I believed him when he told me, “I will have it out on Tuesday.”

Old dudes do, indeed, rock . . . but the sad thing is that there are not many others out there quite like my friend David Hembree. He is as tenacious as a pit-bulldog. The experts report that a pit-bull is peculiar in that when he bites down on an object, he simply cannot let go until his teeth come together! That pretty much describes David. If that rascal showed up at the Kentucky Derby with a sway-backed mule and said he could compete with the thoroughbreds, I would bet a few bucks on the rascal to at least ‘show’!

Mission Accomplished!!!

A W Tozer — A Man of God . . .

I have been studying the life and teachings of Mr. Tozer, who I would argue was very wise man who was far ahead of his time. He clearly understood God, mankind, and the assignment of the New Testament Church. He also clearly understood the dangers and struggles of the Church going forward.

Born into poverty in 1897, he was a self-educated man who taught himself what he missed in high school and college. 1950, he received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Wheaton College. He became a great preacher.

Over the years, he grew increasingly troubled over the world’s increasing influence upon the Church. His belief, always unwavering, was that the Church was intended to influence the world and argued that failing to do that indicated the Church was failing in its mission.

His last message, The Waning Authority of Christ in the Churches, printed in the Alliance Weekly and dated May 15, 1963, was published three days after his death. His biographer James L. Snyder suggested that “In a sense it was his valedictory, for it expressed the concern of his heart.” Tozer said, “Among the gospel churches Christ is in fact little more than a beloved symbol . . . The Lordship of Jesus is not quite forgotten, but it has been mostly relegated to the hymnal where all responsibility toward it may be discharged in a glow of pleasant religious emotion.”

There are more than 60 books that bear his name, many of which were compiled after his death from sermons he preached and articles he wrote. Two of those works are regarded as Christian classics: The Pursuit of God and The Knowledge of the Holy. Many of his books impress on the reader the possibility and necessity for a deeper relationship with God.

He argued that “The church that cannot worship, must be entertained and men who can’t lead to worship must provide the entertainment!”

Mr. Tozer died in 1963 and it is actually quite remarkable that a half century ago he had the vision to be able to see the struggle of today’s Church when so many preachers today don’t have enough snap to even realize that a struggle exists. I am troubled when I enter a sanctuary and the altar of the Lord looks like the bandstand of the honkey-tonks where I once hung out. I am deeply troubled when I hear music coming from that once reverent altar that sounds like it would be better suited in back those honkey-tonks.

 

Terrified . . .

I just spent a most restless night. About 11:00 pm I learned that my dear friend’s beautiful daughter had gone missing. She is a sports reporter in the Houston area. The report was that she had been reporting on a football camp in the Houston area. Afterwards she went home and then left in her car.

She was supposed to meet her roommate later Saturday evening, but sent a text message saying that she was afraid and was being followed by a guy in a truck. That was the last word from her. During the night the Houston P. D. located her car in the parking lot of the Galleria. Her purse and phone were found inside the Galleria . . . but not her. On Monday morning about 9 am I received word that she had been found alive. She is in the hospital, but is believed to be okay.  Her parents are driving to the hospital as I write this. Her Dad just called . . . terribly emotional and praising God! We live in a dangerous and troubled world.

The Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians (chapter 6) warns us of this truth as he informs that such evil is all part of a spiritual army that is organized and established into ranks—and under the headship of Satan, the devil, who comes against us with his wiles.

Welfare Reform . . .

The Trump economy is strong. The stock market is at record highs and the unemployment rate is at a 17-year low. This is thanks largely to the Trump Administration’s aggressive regulatory reforms and the passage of historic tax cuts. Business after business is celebrating the passage of Tax Cuts and Jobs Act by announcing new investments, bonuses, and pay raises. But despite soaring business confidence and a strong economy, businesses are scrambling to find workers to fill six-million open jobs. And now, their primary challenge is to get people who have been sitting on the sidelines back to work.

President Trump knows our broken welfare system is a major barrier to achieving this goal, and he has vowed to tackle welfare reform next. And it’s a good thing, because welfare definitely is, as the President put it, “out of control.”

In 2000, over 17-million Americans received food stamps, officially known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. That number has swelled to more than 42 million today. As a result of Obama Administration’s policies, the number of Americans on food stamps is now greater than the population of Canada.

The sad truth is that many have elected to exit the workforce and to live a shallow life on public assistance. I regularly encounter basically healthy people who are living at the bottom of the food chain because they simply don’t want to work. As an example, I recently learned of a 50-year-old fellow who lives with his aged mother, and has not been gainfully employed in several years. Actually, one of my employees goes to Church with the guy’s mom and she asked my employee to see about helping her son get a job with us . . . the only problem—the dude doesn’t want a job. He is perfectly content to get food stamps and a welfare check (and of course, live rent-free in mom’s house and mooch off her and her little Social Security check).

Here is the blunt, honest truth: there is something seriously wrong with a man who consciously chooses to live in that manner! Here is a second blunt, honest truth: there is something seriously wrong with a system that rewards such laziness! We have strayed far away from Cap. John Smith’s declaration, “If you don’t work, you won’t eat!”

I grew up in a low-income family with eight kids. We pretty much always lived below the poverty level, but we never even considered going on the dole. Most of us kids started working early in life . . . boys mowing yards, shining shoes, selling newspapers . . . girls baby-sitting, housekeeping, and such. The truth is that has served us well, and we all have been successful adults. I read recently that under the Obama Administration the USDA issued regulations that prevent kids from working on the farm . . . even if they are the children of the farmer.

I recently saw a poster that sums it up pretty well. It showed a little girl of perhaps 10- or 12-years with a puzzled look on her face, with the caption being, “You mean if I get a job, the government is going to take taxes out of my paycheck, but if I refuse to get a job, the government will send me a check and provide me with coupons for free food?”

The Department of the Interior posts signs in federal parks prohibiting feeding the bears and explains the danger of the bears becoming dependent on handouts and the danger of them not feeding themselves.  I wonder why it is that the folks in government get it about the bears, but can’t apply the same logic to people.

It has become a regular sight to see someone standing at a traffic signal holding a sign pleading for financial help. It is common place to encounter a panhandler in the parking lots of stores and malls.

Forty-two million folks drawing food stamps . . . six million open jobs and no takers? I think I can see a pattern here. I am all for helping the needy, but it is just jacked up for healthy, able-bodied people to just live off of the system. It is a social illness which must be addressed . . . and the sooner the better!

It is a good and healthy thing for folks to be productive . . . it increases self-esteem and that is something seriously needed in this culture.

Challenges . . .

Sometimes life puts challenges before us. While at the pool in Burnet, the lifeguards at the YMCA put a bracket on Ali & Abi indicating they had to be within an arm’s length of me.

Ali challenged that decision, took the swim test, and aced it. That blue bracket is the result of a girl responding to and overcoming! She feels a great sense of accomplishment. Rightfully so . . .

You go, Ali!

Family Time . . .

A number of years back there was a TV-series about a sweet mountain family . . . the Waltons. The family was poor and the series depicted an era when the nation was rather poor as well. The Waltons were a large family with three generations under one roof. Each weekly program showed the family in some sort of struggle and taught an important value-lesson about life, choices, and behavior. Each week’s program closed with the lanterns being dimmed and the family saying: Grandpa: Good night, John Boy John Boy: Good night, Grandpa and Grandma and that would go on for a while as all family members chimed in and wished each other sweet dreams as the camera faded away.

New Year’s Eve in our house, as we were trying to go to turn the lights off and go to sleep, the conversation went like this: Chris: “Good night Nana and Pappy,” as he started up the stairs. Ali: “Can I play with someone’s iPad, please?” Abi: “Hey Dad, please bring my book ‘Paw Patrol’ up here so I can read some.” We ain’t the Waltons, but we sure are entertaining. I recently read that grandparents try to relay some family history to young grandchildren, but soon learn they are not much interested. However, years later when the grandparents have gone on to the next chapter of life and the grandchildren are grown, they really wish they had listened and learned about the family’s history. That is part of what I am trying to do with my musings in this blog.

Ali and Abi: This transpired on New Year’s  Eve 2017. You girls had spent about a week with us at the family home in Aransas Pass. The house had been seriously damaged by Hurricane Harvey and we had just completed the repairs, so we all felt we were in a completely new place. We had watched the New Year come in and were headed off to bed as the above-described conversation occurred. The comical thing about it was that we had just taken the tablet from Ali and shooed you off to bed, and at that time in her young life Abi could not read anything except her name . . . Abi (age five—recently turned) had no interest in learning to read. For her, the alphabet consisted of three letters – A B I. Abi, when I would question you about learning to read, you would shrug your little shoulders and say, “Pappy, I will learn to read later.”  You were such a sweet, sassy little gal. Did y’all even know you captured my heart? I delighted in being your Pappy. I would hold Abi and say, “I love being your grandpa.”  Abi would smile sweetly and reply, “I love being you grandpa, too!” You were at an age where you loved to perform for Nana and Pappy and would ask me to “underduce” you before you came out on stage.  Your stage names were: Crystal, Elsa, and Anna, and you “just flew in from”: Oklahoma or sometimes Louisiana. Another one of your mispronounced words was “hanentizer.”  While in the store with Nana, you saw the hand sanitizer and asked Nana to please buy you some “hanentizer.”

And Ali, you had grown into a real beauty . . . charming and sophisticated. You spent some time rolling your eyes and taking deep sighs at your little sister’s being sassy and seeking to be the center of attention. You loved playing on the iPad and it wasn’t long after being awakened in the morning before you were asking for one.  We, of course, wanted to limit that playing time, as we wanted your attention . . . and you were zoned-out from the world around you while on the iPad.  However, you were very helpful when asked to help with every type of chore!

Happy New Year!

Winners . . . and Losers . . .

After the 13 & 3 – 2016 Dallas Cowboy season ended abruptly, while disappointed, we Cowboy fans had high hopes for the 2017 season, and that was the first time in a long, long time that we had any measure of serious hope. Folks even spoke of another Super Bowl. There had been two great new players added to the roster: Dak Prescott as QB (to replace injured Tony Romo) and big, strong running back, one Ezekiel Elliott. Those dudes were amazing rookies who made the future look bright. But, just when we thought they had cracked the code to find their way back to the winner’s circle, the 2017 season started and our high hopes come back to earth with a thud.

Personally, I was never a fan of Tony Romo as QB but I hated to see his career end because of a serious injury. I thought he was a good and decent man and a very good QB . . . my struggle with him was that I simply did not think he was a winner. The dude posted some monster numbers personally (and broke a number of long-standing records), but he just could not lead the Cowboys to victory. Truth be told, the NFL is all about winning . . . it just doesn’t matter much about personal stats (except when negotiating a player’s new contract). There have been darn less talented guys play the QB position who were just simply winners . . . meaning they found a way to win when the odds said “unlikely.”  One such guy was Terry Bradshaw, another was Joe Namath (he had terrible knees with limited mobility), but both of those guys found a way to lead his team into the winner’s circle. Such guys are far-and-few in-between.

On a side note: As a comparison (and in a different sport), Larry Bird played for the Boston Celtics (NBA). The chuckle was that he could neither run nor jump (both of which are viewed as critical skills in basketball), but none of that really mattered when it came to this guy . . . he was a fierce competitor and just found a way to put the ball in the basket at the critical moment to win the game. He grew up a really poor kid from French Lick, Indiana. When he was drafted by the Celtics and went to play in Boston; he was referred to as “The Hick from French Lick.”  However, a few years later he retired as “Larry, the Legend,” a man loved and admired by an entire region.

Last Sunday with everything to play for, this Cowboy team proved they cannot win a home game when really needed. Sure, they did have three home wins this season: in September, they defeated the New York Giants; in November, the Kansas City Chiefs; and then on the final day of November they beat the Washington Redskins.

Unfortunately, they also lost to the Rams, Packers, Eagles, Chargers, and now the Seahawks . . . all on their home turf, which meant they went 3-5 at home. Playoff teams almost never go 3-5 at home and the Cowboys insured that stat will be safe because they are not going to the playoffs. If you want to feel extra depressed, you should know that Sunday’s game was the 75th time the Cowboys have played a home game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, and during that period they are a mere 39-36 overall (including playoff games). Take away that 7-2 in the opening season of the stadium in 2009 (the final full season of Wade Phillips). Since the first year of the Jason Garrett era, the Cowboys hold a home record of 32-34. That would seem to be awfully problematic.

How problematic? Since 2010, the Cowboys rank 24th in the NFL in home-win percentage. They are only better than the Raiders, Bears, Rams, Redskins, Titans, Jaguars, Buccaneers, and Browns. But, when five franchises: the Patriots, Seahawks, Packers, Ravens, and Steelers are winning 70% or more of their home games, and we are winning 48% of ours, you see where the biggest issue sits.

The Cowboys have constructed the greatest, most impressive stadium in the history of the world and then has allowed their opponents to win more often inside it than they do. If any truth best describes the modern era of Dallas Cowboys football, this might be it.

Which leads me to what I believe to be the Cowboys greatest problem, in my humble opinion, relative to this matter of winners and losers . . . that problem is at the top of the food chain. Jerry Jones owns the team and has managed to accomplish some remarkable things in marketing the franchise, but he is a poor choice as the team’s General Manager. When he purchased the team, he brought in Jimmy Johnson as Head Coach, and Mr. Johnson demonstrated that he was truly a winner . . . at this level . . . just as he had been at the Division 1 level in the NCAA while at Miami. He coached the Cowboys from 1989 to 1993 and had a winning percentage of .875 and won two Super Bowls . . . 1992 and 1993. That success wasn’t enough for Jerry Jones . . . his ego demanded that he be the Big Dog. The story is that one night in a Dallas bar he picked a fight with Jimmy Johnson claiming the success was more a result of his ability and claimed he could have achieved the same success with Barry Switzwer as his coach. Jimmy Johnson chuckled at his ignorance, invited him to give that a try and walked out. The team Jimmy had built was so good that not even Jerry Jones and Barry could not foul it up for a couple of years . . . and the team won another Super Bowl in 1995.

Jerry Jones then ran through a number of head coaches after he sent Barry Switzer packing. He hired Bill Parcels . . . a head coach with a solid, proven history of winning, but as it turned out Bill was too strong and would not bow down to Jerry.  A string of less able coaches followed, but none of them hung around long. Finally, Jerry settled on one Jason Garrett as the head coach. I am not sure what it was that Jerry thought qualified Garrett as a head coach. The dude had never done much beyond playing 2nd string QB behind Troy Aikman, and he was mediocre at-best. He did act as a lower-lever assistant coach some, but nothing noteworthy.

I have been a Cowboys fan since before puberty, and I have always felt an ownership in the team, and loved them when they are winning, and that has been a considerable amount of the time.

After last Sunday’s loss, it seems that the organization will continue to wander in the wilderness for at least a 22nd season without so much as a trip to a NFC Championship game—let alone another Super Bowl. Jerry Jones has crippled the team with a poor quality coaching staff that simply is out-coached week after week, and has proven its inability to make necessary adjustments as the game develops. This is a game of:

  1. Here is what we are doing:
  2. Here is what they are doing;
  3. Here is what we are going to do; and
  4. This is how we are going to do it.

There is the truth that while the players may be great athletes, most of them are not very smart and need direction.

I would argue that in order for the Cowboys to once again become a great, winning team, a few important things must occur; those being:

  1. Jerry Jones must get out of the way and quit being involved in team operations; and
  2. A really good coach with a proven history must be brought in and given free-reign . . . because there is a strong principle employed by true winners . . . they refuse to be controlled by losers . . . regardless of how much money the loser might have.

These are my thoughts on a disappointing season. Will next season be any better? Well, there is an old saying that says if you don’t like what you are getting, then you must change what you are doing, because if you keep doing the same things, you will continue to get the same results.

Success . . . will demand change!