The Guarantee of Happiness

"He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich (Proverbs 10:4)."

"The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute (Proverbs 12:24)."

For some of you the title of this article may be misleading, especially in this age where rights trump responsibilities, the individual stands in the shadow of the collective, and freedom of speech and religion bows to political correctness.  If a victim of public education, some may even think that this is a quote from America's historic Declaration of Independence.  Sadly, they would be mistaken.  If I was to give this phrase a designation, it would have to be this generation's call for a new Declaration to fit our modern Nanny State. 

No longer is it sufficient in America to live out the legacy of our Founders who called for a "Pursuit of Happiness."  No, the time has come to forsake our heritage of freedom and embrace a government sponsored "Guarantee of Happiness."  Why bother with equality of opportunity, in which a free people can grow, learn, gain wisdom, and prosper when you can have equality of outcome, which forges government control over every aspect of our lives?     

Under our watch, we are raising a generation far removed from the hearty stock of Pilgrims who established the home of the brave and the land of the free.  Gone are the days when our ancestors promoted high purpose, godly ambition, daring enterprise, aggressive moral courage, and action.  In fact, some in modern America are embarrassed by these manly virtues and have no qualms renouncing our heroes of hardihood, who valiantly tamed the wilderness in the New World.  Perhaps, their inner child suffers grief that our ancestors accomplished so much without government interference, bailouts, welfare, or other socialistic programs.

Jeff Ziegler, in his book The Republic Restored, describes the Protestant work ethic and Biblical Worldview that laid the foundation for American exceptionalism.

The colonial period in America was a distinctly religious time. Christianity dominated New England and the basic worldview birthed by such convictions formed an economic ethos that exploded into unprecedented material prosperity and political freedom. The cornerstone of this worldview was a belief in the transcendent nature of God as the creator and governor of life. Under this belief system man created in God's image was handed the earth to dominate and to become productive. This productivity and "fruitfulness" was to then be utilized for the expansion of Christianity and its message. The colonial "Puritan" understood this Creator-God to have given gifts, talents, opportunities, and spiritual blessings to each of the faithful in order achieve prosperous ends. At no time was the Divine seen as the direct dispenser of wealth. Each individual was responsible to use whatever talents they had to achieve as much they could for a greater end. Therefore the average colonial American saw striving for mastery and victory in commerce as a matter of eternal weight and significance. The ideals of excellence, craftsmanship, the accumulation of wealth, of leaving an inheritance and building a family legacy, of material and territorial expansion, all were generated by this religious fervor. Indeed, all of life was considered a gift from God, and man had the responsibility to preserve, develop, and rule the creation.

Our Colonial Fathers believed that America provided them the opportunity to fulfill the Cultural Mandate enshrined in the book of Genesis:

God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.  And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. -Genesis 1:28, 29

In order to obey the Great Commission:

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Matthew 28:18-20

They took serious God's admonishment as it pertains to wealth and His covenant in the earth:

Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.  But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. Deuteronomy 8:11-18

Since much of America rejects a Biblical worldview (some Christians included) and seeks to rewrite history to reject our heritage, What is happening to our greatness, wealth, and standing in the world?  They deteriorate with each passing day.  In response to this horrid condition, I was moved to write a book to address this declension.  The book is called The Kingdom Leadership Institute Manual.   The following is a quote, which reveals the stark contrast between our education and training of children as compared to those who went before us.  I wrote:

During Colonial times, children would be up at four in the morning to help with chores; spoke only when spoken to by an adult; and by the age of seven or eight, boys had chosen their craft or trade and were ready to become apprentices. What a contrast compared to the unruliness, laziness, and lack of direction that characterizes many in this generation.  

One liberal, leftist who reviewed the book took issue with this observation.  She said, "One can only wonder about the regimen imposed on the good reverend's 13 children and two grandchildren.  This is child abuse, child abuse in the name of God.  And it is abhorrent!"

One wonders how this woman would react to David Barton and his booklet, Education and the Founding Fathers.  He writes of two vivid examples (many more could be cited) of children's accomplishments at our founding.  No doubt, the pampered, self-indulgent, whiny and self-centered child experts of this day would consider this "child abuse" as well.  Back then, however, it was considered the pursuit of excellence.  David Barton wrote:  

Or consider further John Trumbull: he was protégé of John Adams (learning law from him in 1773), was very active in Connecticut politics, served on the Supreme Court of Connecticut, was an ardent patriot during the Revolution, and helped Noah Webster with his dictionary. When John Trumbull was four years old, he had already read through the Bible for the first time; at the age of six, he won a Greek contest against his local minister; when he was seven-and-a-half years old, he passed the entrance exam to Yale! His parents decided to hold him out of Yale until he was thirteen (the age at which many entered college); nonetheless, he passed the entrance exam at the age of seven-and-a-half!

Remember John Quincy Adams? When he was fourteen years old he received a U.S. Congressional diplomatic appointment overseas to the court of Catherine the Great in Russia as secretary to the ambassador! Such an act would be unthinkable today, but that act was not so unusual in the educational system of our Founding Fathers.

Until recent decades, this was the American ethos that met every challenge and overcame every obstacle our nation faced.  Men like Theodore Roosevelt preached the virtues of pursuing a strenuous life.  In his famous Strenuous Life treatise of the same name, he stated:

In the last analysis a healthy state can exist only when the men and women who make it up lead clean, vigorous, healthy lives; when the children are so trained that they shall endeavor, not to shirk difficulties, but to overcome them; not to seek ease, but to know how to wrest triumph from toil and risk.

The man must be glad to do a man's work, to dare and endure and to labor; to keep himself, and to keep those dependent upon him. The woman must be the housewife, the helpmeet and the homemaker, the wise and fearless mother of many healthy children.

In one of Daudet's powerful and melancholy books he speaks of "the fear of maternity, the haunting terror of the young wife of the present day." When such words can be truthfully written of a nation, that nation is rotten to the heart's core.

When men fear work or fear righteous war, when women fear motherhood, they tremble on the brink of doom; and well it is that they should vanish from the earth, where they are fit subjects for the scorn of all men and women who are themselves strong and brave and high-minded.

This Christian philosophy of life embraced in our history has fallen into disrepute in these days.  Thus, the blessing of God has turned into the curse of God.  The majority of Americans no longer believes, thinks or acts in a manner worthy of our Christian forefathers and mother's legacy.  In fact, it is interesting to note, the more the elites prosper by those who went before them, the more they despise our heritage and agree with our enemies.  The Hollywood crowd is a prime example of this tragic irony.

As a result, the moral principles of God have been inverted.  Fools are now considered wise.  The lazy are rewarded, while the diligent are punished.  Those who keep the rules are considered more of a danger to our nation than those who break them. To get ahead, one must lower his standards.  Traitors to our nation's survival are considered patriotic, while true patriots are suspect.  The immoral are considered enlightened and living up to the American ideal, while those who cling to Christian morality are mocked and censored.  Most of this generation denounces what made America great and celebrates what is destroying us from the inside out.  

Using our tax dollars, our government promotes the "Guarantee of Happiness" mentality that weakens our nation's resolve for its own survival.  Government bailouts, welfare, and socialistic programs have removed important life lessons of a free people.  We lost the importantance of failure that serves in many cases as the backdoor to success.  We lost the understanding of adversity, which forges character.  Calm seas do not make great sailors.  We have chosen instead the path of least resistance, which makes both men and rivers crooked.  We look to remove the consequences of bad choices, foolish decisions, and wicked behavior, which guarantee fools that rage against God's reality, will never recover and become wise in this life.  

Proverbs 19:19 states, "A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment: for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again."  How many parents suffer from this reality?  Proverbs 14:16 records, "A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident."  America is raising a generation that expects something for nothing and must be bailed out time and again.  In their sin, rebellion, and immorality, there is a fierce confidence, which barring a miracle of God's intervention, practically ensures their destruction.  American children raised by parents who cater to their selfish, sinful natures ensure they will not be able to successfully negotiate through life's challenges.      

This generation values a government guarantee of security, more than freedom.  They seem content to become fat slaves on the federal plantation, rather than remain skinny freemen. This generation expects all the triumphs of life with the least effort in life.  Our government through heavy taxation, distribution of wealth, and socialism removes the importance of failure, adversity, and the challenge to overcome life's obstacles, which forges a national character worthy of freedom.

Nowhere was this more evident than in the Katrina disaster that struck New Orleans.  People needlessly died because they expected the government to come to their aid and rescue them.  Most of them weaned on government assistance refused to take the initiative to save their own lives.  They just sat there and were swept away into eternity, bound for glory or hell. 

To sum up the essence of this article The Guarantee of Happiness, the technique to capture wild pigs will prayerfully suffice:

A chemistry professor in a large college had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Professor noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, 'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?'

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke. 'You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.

Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America. The government keeps pushing us toward socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. While we continually lose our freedoms - just a little at a time.

Thomas Jefferson stated it best, "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have."  This is the reality that we face today.  Our government, schools, churches, media, and culture have failed in safe guarding our liberties.  Thus this generation has become a nation of Esau's.  We have exchange our American birthright of freedom for a mess of humanistic pottage and government "free corn" that is slowly, but surely forging our bondage and miserable future that we are bequeathing to our posterity. 

God willing may those who survive the brunt of our idolatry and foolishness, learn from our betrayal.  May they return to the God of our Fathers and the Biblical principles, which made America the most prosperous and freest nation in the history of the world.  May they relearn the virtues of diligence, perserverance, prudence, discretion, work ethic, wisdom, personal integrity and godly character.  These attributes do not promote child abuse, they help guide children. And it is much better to train children rather than fix men and nations who seek The Guarantee of Happiness.