SUPPOSIN': A BIG CLUE TO OUR PROBLEM

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

It seems to me, as a cultural economist, that there is ample evidence in ancient manuscripts, contemporary writings, and anecdotal traditions, to make a strong case for an economic model based on abundance, choice, and accomplishment, rather than scarcity, choice, and cost. If that is a possibility, then why is it that we have a natural propensity to base our daily decisions on a fear-based model of insufficiency, lack, and shortage? Let’s do some exploring.

When you were born, you came equipped with an amygdala (a-mig’ dala) as standard equipment. Aren’t you happy for that? In fact, you came equipped with two amygdalae and didn’t have to pay extra for either one. As an owner, that should really make you twice as happy . . . or maybe not.

The amygdala is an almond-shaped mass of gray matter in the front part of the temporal lobe of your cerebrum that is part of the limbic system and is involved in the processing and expression of emotions, especially anger and fear. It has a lot to do with the flight-or-fight response. It also plays a pivotal role in triggering a state of fear based on the formation and storage of memories associated with emotional events. Because of that, there may also be a link between the amygdala and patterns of extreme anxiety.

I like to think of the amygdala as the Rottweiler of your brain. It was born and bred to be the ultimate watchdog, assigned to your personal survival. As standard equipment in your brain, it is your first line of defense and a warning system that is expected to always be hyper-alert and seek out any and all danger. It never sleeps and never slumbers and its growl and bark sends instant messages to the heart, the lungs, the nerves, the skin, the eyes, the ears, the memory chips, and even prepares the muscles for instant action.

This Rottweiler of the brain is always looking for something to fear . . . and will always find something to bark about. The more barking, the more he is considered successful. He is always looking for something that is negative and is never patted on the head for discovering something positive. And, as you might expect, if the watchdog ever gets hold of something that has agitated him, it is possible that he will never let it go.

Now, with the Rottweiler in mind, let’s ask the questions again: Why is it that we have a natural propensity to base our daily decisions on a fear-based model of insufficiency, lack, and shortage? Why is it easier to believe something negative than something positive? In order to get higher listener and viewer ratings, wouldn’t the newspaper, television, and computer outlets cram the airwaves with negative stories as opposed to any positive stories? Why would we always have the feeling that we are under siege? Why is it so lucrative to sell pessimism and fear? Why don’t potential dangers ever go away?

The simple answer is, because we have allowed the watchdog to run amuck and have rewarded him for his incessant behavior. We have developed and encouraged a messed up watchdog that possesses an insatiable appetite for the negative, the fearful, and the insufficient.

So, what are some methods to modify the out of balance behavior, other than selling the Rottweiler, buying a Golden Retriever, and moving out of the dangerous neighborhood? Realistically, how do you ratchet down the fear and insecurity mindset in order to make room for the alternative of hope and confidence? Let’s brainstorm:

• Limit the tsunami of negative media flow into your conscious and subconscious mind. Just say, “No thank you” to 90% of the news.
• Try to remember that the fear of scarcity can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• Quit rewarding the watchdog when it barks at its own shadow.
• Train your watchdog to perceive that the person approaching may not be an intruder, but may be your best friend.
• Dare to investigate the idea of My God shall supply all your need . . . (Philippians 4:19).
• Try to remember that the attitude of shortage is bondage. The attitude of abundance is freedom.
• Begin to delete the information on the memory chips of your amygdala to replace it with new and positive information on sufficiency, abundance, and accomplishment.

It is true that your personal model came equipped with a left and right amygdala. They were designed and installed as a benefit to you. But, you are the one in charge of your current model and have the responsibility of overseeing the use and discipline of the function of the amygdalae. Your new automobile also came from the factory equipped with two windshield wipers for your benefit, but you are in charge of turning them off and on at the appropriate times. If you find yourself with a complicated problem regarding your factory supplied equipment, it would be recommended that you contact the manufacturer of your model.

It is our choice whether we allow the information we receive into our human beings to affect and influence us negatively or positively. That call is ours. It is not the set of circumstances in which we find ourselves, but how we respond to those circumstances that makes all the difference in the world.

Next Week: Naughty Doggie

        (Research ideas from Dr. Jackson’s new writing project on Cultural Economics)

© Dr. James W. Jackson  

Permissions granted by Winston-Crown Publishing House

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com

SUPPOSIN': IN SEARCH OF A SOLUTION

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

I have had people in the past come up to me and say, “So, Dr. Jackson, just how did that relinquishment thing work out for you, where you and Anna Marie gave away your accumulated wealth and started over? Did you have to take out bankruptcy, or did God bless you for being a good guy and reward you by giving back to you a trillion dollars of real estate in return for the sixteen million you gave away?”

The simple answer to that is, “neither.” God is way more creative and intelligent than that, and he has way more integrity than that. We didn’t give to get. That is, we didn’t give away our things in order to manipulate God into giving more back to us in some sort of quid pro quo game of economics. We gave those things away because that was what we felt we ought to do, and we never suggest that anyone else should ever necessarily follow suit. We needed to push the restart button of our lives and get our priorities straightened out. I personally needed to break the dangerous addiction of wealth accumulation and simply stop it!

I don’t have anything against wealth or people accumulating wealth. But I certainly wasn’t seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness . . . and I needed to do that. Relinquishment was the lesson I needed to learn, and spending my life and energies in helping other people be better off was to be my future involvement.

Now, to the reality of what actually happened: everything that we would have spent the accumulated wealth on to buy, we now have in abundance. I’m still not sure, however, just how a thing like that happens. All I can attest to is that, like the widow from Zerephath when she obeyed Elijah’s challenge to her, all of our needs have likewise been graciously met. And then, on top of all that, we were allowed the indescribable privilege of seeing Project C.U.R.E. start from absolutely nothing and grow like a seed from the ground into an entity that has enriched the lives of hundreds of thousands of people around the world. A handful of relinquished goods has miraculously become a multiplied resource for spreading health and hope in over 130 countries.

Allow me to pose this question: Why is it so difficult to base our lives on the possibility of abundance rather than on the basis of insufficiency, lack, and shortage? Why do we base our entire economic system on the trilogy of scarcity, choice, and cost to the exclusion of the serious possibility of abundance? Is there a chance that we are cheating ourselves and our culture by not pursuing the possible?

I’m not into dreams, or illusions, or strange things. I’m a rather concrete Scotch/Irishman. But sometimes I slightly awaken before the alarm goes off in the morning and I review a reoccurring apparition dancing in my mind. It can’t be more than twenty years in the future. I am in heaven (I like that part!) and God is giving me a tour, much like I would give someone a tour of one of our warehouses.

He is so excited telling me about never ending space, and interplanetary travel, and earth, and growth, and life, and chemicals, and systems, systems, systems. “Do you have any idea what you are going to get to do forever and forever, and how much exciting knowledge there is for me to share with you? I could hardly wait to share it with you. You are going to absolutely love the adventure and the knowledge and wisdom available to you forever . . . and you will know even as you are known. 

“There was so very much more I wanted to share with you and other humans on earth. But, you didn’t listen. You didn’t stop to hear. You were so preoccupied with arguing and fighting wars over who was going to control the oil reserves, the fresh water, coal, precious metals, and all the other things you thought were scarce. I designed the earth with sufficiency enough to take care of everything and everyone I ever allowed to live there.

“Some people, however, slowed down, unplugged their ears and listened. I was able to share insights and wisdom with them that began to grow exponentially. That pleased me, because there was so much more I was eager and willing to share that would have solved so very many of your problems and puzzles.”

It’s always about that time the alarm sounds and the music box stops. I’m left with the rest of the day to think about all we have missed and how much is right now available to us to see and hear and learn.Next Week: 

Supposin’: A Big Clue to our Problem

(Research ideas from Dr. Jackson's new writing project on Cultural Economics)

© Dr. James W. Jackson  

Permissions granted by Winston-Crown Publishing House

  
 

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com

SUPPOSIN': A PERSONAL CHOICE

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

It was a beautiful March day in Israel. My son Jay and I were traveling with Shaul Amir, an executive of the large Assaf Harofeh Hospital in Tel Aviv. Shaul wanted to introduce me to some of his close friends who were very important Israeli government people in the city of Haifa. We drove north, with the Mediterranean Sea on our left and the Jordan River to our right, to the base of Mt. Carmel, and then on toward Sidon. Before we reached Haifa I, spotted a signpost that pointed to Zarephath.

“Shaul,” I excitedly asked, “is that the same Zarephath that is mentioned in the Holy Scriptures when they talk about Elijah and wicked King Ahab and how God made it not rain for three years?”

“How would you know anything about our old prophet Elijah?” Shaul inquired with a bewildered expression. “How would you know anything about Zarephath? You know I grew up just over there on the side of Mt. Carmel. I rode horseback all over this area when I was young.” We had a marvelous conversation as we drove on. I told him all I remembered about the story and he filled in the local color.

You see, King Ahab was the most wicked king Israel had experienced to that time. And his foreign wife, Jezebel, was twice as evil. God got their attention by sending Elijah to the king so he could tell Ahab that God was going to stop the rain until he sent Elijah back to see him later. Jezebel and the king didn’t like the message, so they decided to kill the messenger (nothing new in history).

Eventually, God had to send Elijah to the village of Zarephath, where he arranged for an old widow to hide him and take care of him until the rains started again. When Elijah arrived at the edge of the city, there was the old woman gathering sticks to build a fire. “Please bring me a glass of water,” requested Elijah. As the woman turned to fetch the water, Elijah called to her and said, “Oh, yes, and while you are at it, please bring me some bread, also.”

That was enough to trip the trigger of the old widow. She was thinking what a stretch it was to even consider getting the old man some water, since there was almost no water available because of the imposed drought. But now he was asking for some bread! She replied, “I don’t have any bread, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son that we may eat it – and die.”

Elijah responded, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land.’ ”

The woman went away and did what Elijah had told her to do. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family, for the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry as the Lord had said through Elijah. (I Kings 17:7-16)

Shaul, Jay, and I had a spectacular time discussing the story about the village of Zerephath on our way to Haifa. Whether we risk our life on our belief in the economic concept of scarcity, insufficiency, and lack, or dare to believe in the possibility of abundance, is really and finally up to us. . It is our call. It is like what my old dad used to say: “Be alert to the image you hold in your mind, because you ultimately become what you think about all day long.”

Many times as I would be in flight somewhere on the millions of miles I have flown in the past thirty years, I have thought about the strange and glorious adventure Anna Marie and I started on when we decided to risk our lives on this call to obedience and abundance. At the beginning of the adventure it looked more like “de-abundance” than abundance. We had spent our life radically accumulating wealth for ourselves that would last us until we died. We had worked hard and acquired sixteen times more than I had thought we would ever have in our entire lifetime. But, it was not satisfying. We were doing well, but we were not doing good. We were not happy, and as I looked around none of our friends who were addicted to accumulating more and more were happy, either.

After a lot of discussions, we decided to give away what we had accumulated and start over again. Perhaps we needed to learn that God couldn’t trust us with heaven’s riches until we could be trusted with no riches. I never suggest that anyone else do just as we did and give away all his or her accumulation. But for me, I had to break the radical accumulation addiction and I needed to do it cold turkey. I needed to change from a person who was bent on getting to a person who was bent on giving.

A mental and spiritual disposition of getting springs from a fear that there is only so much available in the scheme of things and we must hoard, covet and redistribute what someone else has for our own taking. The doctrine of shortage promotes bondage; the doctrine of abundance promotes freedom. After all these years I have come to believe that it is through relinquishment that you come to true abundance. To have relinquished the old paradigm and embraced a new and different concept of abundance was the best business deal I ever made in all my life. But the choice to move from a paradigm of scarcity, choice and cost to one of abundance, choice and fulfillment is a very personal decision.

I have often thought how Washington Carver must have felt in his experiments with the lowly peanut . . . we are merely scratching the surface of the scientific investigation of the possibilities of sufficiency and abundance. Our new adventure required us to purposefully let go of those things that we had considered as our security blankets, but were in fact items of bondage. We then had to allow a new image of trust and expectation to become our security. We kept focusing on My God shall supply all your needs . . . (Philippians 4:19). In starting over we had to push to the edge of the cliff, and then walk over the edge, expecting that there would be something beneath our next step or else we would be taught how to fly.

Now, some forty years after that decision and launch of the adventure, some of the results are being tallied. Over one billion dollars’ worth of medical goods have been donated through Project C.U.R.E. into over 130 countries around the world. Because of the help of over 16,000 volunteers and staff at Project C.U.R.E., literally tens of thousands of people are alive and economies are stronger. We had purposefully chosen to take our hands off the things that would last for a short time so that we could lay hold of the abundant things that would last forever. The best business deal we ever made was to choose, along with the old widow from Zarephath, to exchange what we could not keep for the abundance we could not lose.

Next Week: Supposin’: In Search of a Solution 

© Dr. James W. Jackson  

Permissions granted by Winston-Crown Publishing House

 

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com

SUPPOSIN': A POTENTIAL RESOURCE

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

The itinerant rabbi told the people that there was no shortage, insufficiency or lack. He told them that they could risk their lives as individuals, as families, and as a nation on the abundance of their God. He told them that if one of the foreign soldiers commanded them to carry his munitions backpack down the road for a mile; they could carry it for another mile as well. If someone asked them for their coat they could give them their topcoat also. When other people are in need you can help them be better off because you can afford to give to them out of your unseen abundance. Then he told them, freely you have received; now let us freely give. (Matt. 10:8)

Most of the people who listened to the rabbi as he spoke could neither grasp nor process all that he was saying. They had been taught the logic of the limited rather than the ability of abundance. So, he resorted to telling them a lot of stories and amazingly performed lots of miracles to help them understand and believe. More than once large crowds of people came to hear him teach and stayed right past their mealtime. On one occasion there was a gathering of five thousand men, plus women, plus children. Only one young boy had prepared for lunch by bringing five small barley loaves and two small fish.

The rabbi seated all the people, blessed the meager bit of food, and his companions started handing out the bread and fish to everyone. They kept passing it out until everyone was completely satisfied. When the large crowd left, he sent his companions around to pick up the leftovers. They picked up enough to fill twelve baskets. It was an astounding feat. It was a miracle where the local people could participate and go away with their stomachs full and their hearts and heads believing. There was no shortage and there was no garbage.

In one of his teaching sessions the rabbi actually told the people to stop fretting about not having enough. He seemed to know that living a life convinced that everything was in very short supply, or else already all gone, was not a healthy way to live. That kind of thinking would lead to weird behavior and set into motion tragic consequences. So he instructed them: 

         Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink: or about your body, what 

         you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than

        clothes?Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns,            and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than                they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 

       And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do 
       not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was         
       dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field which is 
       here today and tomorrow thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, 
       O you of little faith?

      So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall
      we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows 
      that you  need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these 
      things will be given you as well. (Matt. 6:25-34)

So, wherever the rabbi traveled and taught, the people were challenged to recall that throughout their history they had experienced abundance commensurate with believing in and being faithful to their God. When they had depended on themselves and their own cleverness and greed they had repeatedly shut off the spigot of abundance and had lived with the consequences of shortage, scarcity and insufficiency.

While teaching, the rabbi began explaining very explicitly who he really was. He was not just an itinerant rabbi, but the promised son of God who had come to present and explain eternal truth to those who would listen. That was even more perplexing and difficult for the people to understand and believe than the stories he told and the miracles he performed. He explained that the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I come that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:10) He went on to explain that he would, of necessity, need to die to make provision for the promised resources and abundance, but would come back to life again to insure it.

I have personally witnessed how such things as this work. I have been a part of such miracles of abundance. While I was in Nagorno-Karabakh I saw the sad devastation in the country and the maiming and crippling of many of the victims. The constant bombing and the hidden land mines had left so many of the victims without arms or legs. Many others needed physical rehabilitation in order to be restored to health. I had promised the doctors and nurses that Project C.U.R.E. would help them establish a physical rehabilitation facility to be located in the city of Stepanakert.

When I returned to Denver from Nagorno-Karabakh, I had found out that we had sent all the rehabilitation equipment that we had collected in our warehouse inventory to a hospital in Turkey. What would we do? The time was quickly approaching when we had to ship the ocean going cargo container into Yerevan, Armenia to be transported by land to Stepanakert. Justin and his crew began to pray for the people in Nagorno-Karabakh, and that a miracle would take place allowing us to receive the needed rehabilitation equipment and prosthesis pieces. They kept the list of needed things for Karabakh right on their desk in the warehouse.

Then, one day our warehouse was notified that a large truck would soon be arriving at our docks. The truck was loaded with medical goods that had been donated to Project C.U.R.E. by a prominent medical company. But, Justin did not know what would be on the arriving truck. When the truck backed into the dock space, the driver hopped out and handed to Justin a manifest of all the donated contents in the truck.

“Jim, it was a miracle, an absolute miracle,” Justin said to me with tears welling up in his expressive eyes. “Jerry and I stood there, and I had the manifest of the new load from the truck that had just arrived in one hand and the list of needed equipment and prosthesis pieces for the Nagorno-Karabakh load in my other hand. The two lists were almost identical. Jim, it was a miracle,” he told me. “When we arrived at the warehouse this morning we didn’t have what we needed. Then within the next hour we had everything we needed to send. Now they will have almost everything they requested to complete the rehabilitation center, plus lots and lots more medical supplies than they even expected! We have just been a part of a miracle.”

I am learning that with God’s abundant resources available to us as a family, we can afford to give abundantly. I am learning that we can risk our lives on the enduring economic trilogy of abundance, choice, and accomplishment.

Next Week: Supposin’: A Personal Choice

(Research ideas from Dr. Jackson’s new writing project on Cultural Economics)

© Dr. James W. Jackson  

Permissions granted by Winston-Crown Publishing House

 

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com