Russ Ewell
Yeah, interaction with elements, atoms, and everything. So here’s why that’s important. Let’s say you look at the world today and probably one of the things that causes people that I talk to the most stress is the political environment in America. And everybody’s probably waiting for me to make a political statement. I’m not gonna make a political statement. What I’m gonna tell you is that that’s chemistry.
When I took my first political science course, because I started college being political science major, then went to econ, and then when I became a Christian, decided to go into ministry, went to religion. But I wanted to do econ, because I thought it was a combination of how to make money and how to be political.
The professor, this was not that long, ten years or so after Watergate. And he came in and he said, what’s the definition of politics? Or what do you think of politics? And we all said corruption and all these different things because we all were relating to what we had seen as little kids growing up about Nixon and all that he had done.
And he said, no, politics is how people work together. That’s what politics is. And so when you’re looking at the world and you’re getting stressed out about politics, you have to see the chemistry, and spirituality allows you to understand it.
And so one of the things I think that I look at in my life that’s caused me lot of challenges and a lot of grief and caused a lot of mistakes in my life is selfish ambition.
when you look at the Bible and you read it. And this is actually what I’m working on the next Chemistry Lab newsletter about. When you look at the Bible and you read it, it answers the question about what corrupts the chemistry of people working together. It’s selfish ambition.
So, when I talk about being able look at the world from a spiritual point of view, you’re able to look at people, let’s just assume people are atoms, they’re elements, get your periodic chart out of people, what kind of personalities they have. And so, when you have people who are great at working, with people. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I know this is going to maybe inject people with the, you know, the sleep serum again. But I’m telling you right now that it is impossible to have a conversation with non-religious people if we don’t familiarize ourselves with something other than pop culture events. Now, I think it’s good to know who Taylor Swift is and that she just bought back all of her original music and that she is doing something that is groundbreaking for young artists and I admire her on so many levels. I think it’s incredible to listen to Anderson Paak, who’s my new favorite, and the way he puts music together and know who he is. And I think there’s so many pop culture things that are important to know.
But what you ought to know is that FDR was one of the best people at working with the chemistry of people. And that’s why during the Depression World War II, he was able to leave the country successfully.
Abraham Lincoln, another masterful, high emotional intelligence leader who knew how to interact with people on a level that we know this from Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. He selected all the guys who tried to beat him for the presidency to be his team to lead America through the Civil War. How was he able to do that? He understood the chemistry of people. He had a spiritual perspective and I write about that I think in the first or second newsletter about his ambition, his particular ambition.
So what does understanding the times mean? Understanding the times means our ability to look beyond what we see in the physical activity of human beings and look underneath it. What’s the motive of people? So if politics is driving you crazy, instead of getting mad at the policy people are choosing, try to look and go, what’s the motive behind this? Understand that every individual who leads has motives. And a lot of times in society, people say you shouldn’t question anybody’s motives. And that’s bled its way into the church. But the reality of matter is to understand the times you have to look at motives.
And the first motives you have to look at, Proverbs 16, I think it’s verse three, I’m probably wrong on the verse, it could be verse four, or two, but the bottom line is it’s saying God says I weigh the motives. You can do everything you want on the outside, but I’m weighing the motives. So if God thinks about that, 1 Samuel 16, I look at the heart. If God thinks about the heart and the motives, we should think about that too.
And so understanding the times isn’t just being able to say, oh wow. You know, down in Miami they have great beaches and it’s great places to go for spring break. Understanding the times is not just like, hey, Ukraine and Russia are fighting in war. Understanding the times is not like, well, Gaza is terrible and people are dying for whatever reason or whatever, let’s protest it. Understanding the times is going, when people don’t have God and they don’t have the Lordship of Christ over their life, if they don’t have someone they look to and says, this is the standard for truth and this is the standard for righteousness, this is the standard for justice. If they don’t have that, then it becomes very difficult to tease out what’s really happening.
And then we get caught up in fighting for causes, being angry at people, because we’re not looking at it through a spiritual lens. It’s interesting in the life of Jesus, 33 years of living, you don’t see him involved in a single political battle. Although some people would say he was fighting a political battle with the Pharisees. He wasn’t really fighting a political battle with the Pharisees. He was diagnosing, if I can use a word here, prophetically what was wrong with the Pharisees’ culture that they were building that it wouldn’t lead to God.
And so, understanding the times and seeing with the spiritual lens is getting our heart, our mind, our soul, our body aligned in a way that we can look at the world and say, I’m not gonna be fooled by how people act on the outside. I’m gonna understand how they’re operating on the inside. And I’m also not gonna be fooled by how I act on the outside. I’m gonna look at the inner character of my life and make sure I’m aligning what’s going on inside of me with God in a way that manifests outside is good.
And so I think a lot of us will have a lot more impact on the world, we’ll have a lot less stress, we’ll have a lot less tension, we’ll have a lot less frustration if we look with that lens at everything from business and corporations to money to housing to expensive where you live. Everything should be looked through the lens of God. And remember, God’s ultimate purpose is to make our lives better. It’s the long-winded answer to that question. Sorry about that.
