Dawn's Early Light Podcast Episode 15: Senator Loren Lippincott

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to uh to come talk to me. Um sorry that Caleb couldn't make it. He he had a resting heart rate of like 135 yesterday. Um so yeah, he's really uh going through it right now, but he's feeling better today. So um I'm glad that he's doing good. But it'll just be you and I today if that's okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Absolutely. Poor guy.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Where are you guys located? So we're out of Omaha, Nebraska. Um I live in Fremont, but uh Caleb lives in, I believe, Benson or Ralston, one of the two.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Okay.

unknown 0:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Do you guys do this full-time, or what do you what's your full-time business?

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Uh my full-time job is I I work at a church in Elkorn. Um it's where I'm at actually right now. This is my office. Um, I'm at Lutheran um on 204th in Maple. And uh I am the production coordinator, so I'm in charge of all the tech, all of the I just make sure all the buttons get pressed and the lights are on, you know. Good for you. Yeah, absolutely. And Caleb is a fireman um in Ralston. Yeah, he's a he's a fireman for the Ralston uh fire department. Outstanding. Absolutely. And it's it's my understanding that you were uh you served in the Air Force, is that correct? I did. Thank you for paying your taxes. I appreciate it. Hey, you're very welcome. Um so I that's kind of something that I was interested to talk to you about, is um is your experience with the Air Force. But before that, would you just like to introduce yourself to um to all of our uh listeners?

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Absolutely. Um I am my name is Lauren Lippincott, and um I grew up on a farm halfway between Central City and Fullerton in Nebraska. Uh went to a one-room country school, went into uh Central City Public High, graduated there in 1973. That would make me about 71 years old. Um went to school to University of Nebraska, graduated. I actually graduated with broadcast journalism. So that's kind of right down your stream. I did work part-time at a uh Christian radio station while I was in college. I did that for four years as a disc jockey, and uh also got a job working at KLN TV, it's a CBS affiliate in Lincoln, Channel 10. And I did that for three years, and actually I did that full-time one year after I graduated from uh college at the University of Nebraska. And again, my degree was in broadcast journalism, speech communication. I do have a teaching degree in speech. After that, then I uh always wanted to get into flying, thought that flying fighters would be absolutely spectacular. And uh as a backdrop, my mom and dad were both pilots. They had a little Cessna 182 when I was growing up. So I would go and fly with my dad all the time, and he taught me, not officially, but unofficially, taught me how to fly airplanes. My mother also got her license. And I always like to add a little footnote to that. Uh, my dad was a standard farmer in Nebraska, and one day they had some friends come out from town, and they were sitting around the table, and my dad leaned back in the chair and he said to the his friend, he says, You know what I've always wanted to do? I've always wanted to learn how to fly airplanes. And the other guy, who's actually a medical doctor in town, he said, Yeah, me too. So, what my dad did is he pursued a dream. He challenged himself with a new skill, and uh he took a chance, he risked. Uh so both him and the other guy, they got their pilot license. And then also my mom and the other lady in the couple, uh, they thought, you know what, maybe we should at least learn how to land the airplane in case something happens to our husbands while we're out flying around. And so both of those ladies, my mom and the other lady, they took flying lessons. They soloed out and they said, you know what, this is so much fun. I think we'll just continue. And uh they both got their licenses. So my mom, when she was age 35 years old, she got her flying license. So that's kind of how I got my background on that. Um, I uh went to uh college, like I said, and I had a great job. I loved being a disc jockey at the radio station. I loved being on TV, that was wonderful. And um so, but I always had in the back of my mind a desire to be a fighter pilot. I mean, which what kid would not want to do that? Yeah, and so uh I took a test to uh try to get into the Air Force and um it's an AFOQT test, like everything in the military or government, lots of acronyms. And but it's it's a test to see if you know if you're able to think and um all that stuff. So I took that test, and it just so happened that the Air Force did have a need for pilots. So I got my commission to be an officer in the military. You have to have a college degree, number one, right at that at that time, and then uh you also uh have to get your commissioning from one of three sources. You can either go to the Air Force Academy or one of the other military academies, like Annapolis or West Point. That's one. Number two is to be an ROTC in college, and number three is OTS, officer training school for the Air Force. In the Navy, it's OCS, officer candidate school. So I did the OTS thing, got my commission as a lieutenant, and then uh also went through a flight training uh program, which lasted for six weeks. So even though I knew how to fly with my dad, I did not have a pilot's license. So before they put you in jet aircraft, they want to make sure that you know how to fly, you know, basic principles of flying. Yeah. So I went through that and we had about a 30% washout rate, even in the flight screening program, which consisted of flying uh Cessna 172s. And then I went to pilot training. There were 63 of us that started in our pilot training class, and we ended up with 39. That's a 42% washout rate. So pilot training is tough. Um, but uh I went through pilot training at Vance Air Force Base, Inid, Oklahoma. That was a year long. And then after that, I did stay on at the base as an instructor, uh flight instructor uh for three years at Vance Air Force Base, flying the T-37, which has since been retired. And um then I flew F-16s to Rammstein, Germany, and I did that for almost four years. So that was really it was really great. It was fantastic. The F-16 still today, and this was back in 1985 when I first started flying F-16s. Um that airplane today is still a fantastic workhorse. The airplane has a greater than one-to-one thrust ratio, which means it can accelerate going straight up.

SPEAKER_02 7:43

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Um, yeah, it's a Mach 2 airplane, and uh it's just it's fantastic. It's got uh 20 millimeter Gatling gun, shoots 100 rounds a second, uh, carries air-to-air missiles and air-to-ground bombs, and it's a swing roll fighter, which means that it does air-to-air combat, plus it also does air-to-ground, uh both conventional and nukes. So it's a very versatile airplane, it's very comfortable to fly. It's a fan, it's a pilot's dream for flying, and uh it's it's very powerful. The newer airplanes that they have now, the F-22, which is an air-to-air, mostly air-to-air uh fighter, and then the F-35, which is the next generation airplane after the F-16, it too is a swing rule fighter. So I could sit here and talk all day about that, but they're fantastic airplanes. And um one thing I would just say to people that watch these podcasts, and that is the military really truly is a great way of life. Um, there's very high-caliber individuals uh in both the enlisted and the pilot uh group or the uh officer uh group, and of course pilots as well. A lot of the guys that I flew with in the Air Force, they did go on and got hired on with uh the airlines. For instance, like myself, I flew in the Air Force active duty for 10 years, then I flew at Delta Airlines for 30 years. Same thing there. Absolutely spectacular. Once you get to be age 65, you get the big boot from the uh government. They won't let you fly at age 65 and older.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

Really?

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Just yeah, just because they feel that you're starting to lose your edge, if we can steal a comment from uh Top Gun. And uh but the 30 years I flew for Delta Airlines, I flew to 53 different countries, all 50 states, uh five or seven Canadian provinces. So all over the place, great opportunity to see lots of different things, uh, see what's good, see what's bad in different parts of the world, come back here, and there's no place like home.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

That's right, no place like Nebraska.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

That's right. Well, thank you so much. So anyway, so so that was that was kind of my flying uh aspect. I'm sure your next question is is how did how did you end up in this uh the political arena? Well, again, going back to my mom and dad, both of them were very involved in politics. Um, in fact, they were involved in community service. Uh I remember my dad one time saying, and this was not he was not bragging or being boastful, he just very humbly told me, he says, you know, at one time I was president of five different organizations here in the county, you know, like the church board, the uh county fair board, uh the weed board, school board, um, the uh farm bureau board, the Republican Party Board, uh, all of these different things. And my mom really was the same way. In fact, I had it pointed out to me by one of our friends back home here, that my mom and dad were both type A personalities, but with them, it worked out. Uh, they were both very much service-oriented, so they worked hard at doing their jobs, whether it was farming or my mom working here at the house or um serving in different communities. So uh that I kind of got my uh my uh branding, so to speak, from my mom and dad. I went to college then, and all through college, I worked for the Secretary of State at the time, the Nebraska Secretary of State. His name was Alan Beerman. He was Secretary of State for 24 years. Uh, at the time he became secretary, he was the youngest Secretary of State in uh all of America and uh just an outstanding guy. He's 86 years old now. We're still very good friends, and you know, I check in with him monthly, really. And uh so he was really, he kind of discipled me regarding uh politics and just how things work and a mindset to it all. And then addition additionally, addition on to that, uh, when I was a junior and then a senior in college, I worked as a page in the legislature. And uh, pages, what they do is they just uh run around and do whatever they're needed, do uh photocopy stuff and hand papers out and do different things. But it is a fantastic opportunity really to see how the legislature works, and uh it was a great job. And I will have to say also that when I worked in the legislature, the state senator from my district, where I live now, his name is Morris Kramer, and he was in his 70s when I was a college kid. And Morris Kramer was probably the most godly individual I've ever met. Wow, he was just um a kind, wonderful, warm, caring, very smart, and a hard-working guy. He was just uh fantastic. And so I spent a lot of time with him, even though when you're a page, you're there to serve all 49 state senators and whatever their needs are. But uh we actually became very close friends uh outside of the legislature, even though I was just a runny-nosed kid back then and he was in his 70s. But um we really had a very close relationship. So uh he encouraged me to do this even when I was a college kid. So uh that's one thing that's kind of led me down this trail. It's interesting the other day. Uh I just completed my first four years, which is a full term in this position as a state senator, and I am up for re-election. In fact, we just had our primary on Monday, and uh there were three of us running, uh, me and another guy, uh, another guy that was registered Republican, and then another individual who is a registered Democrat. And the Democrat and I both finished one and two, so we will go on then to the general election in November. But I bring that up to say somebody asked me the other day, just off the cuff, they said, Well, you must enjoy this because you're running again. And I thought, this is what I told them. I said, uh, I don't really find this job enjoyable, but it is a duty. Yeah, it's kind of like digging post holes. Uh you need you need to do it, yeah, it has to be done, you've got to fix the fence. And uh, so duty calls, um, and I know I'm kind of uh filibustering here. Um then I'll I'll hush up and listen to your questions here in a second, but um, I was thinking about uh incumbents, people that are already in office and then they run again, and the the pros and cons of voting for an incumbent. Now, the person who had this position before me in this district, his name is Kurt Friesen, a great guy, lives to on a farm just to the east of Aurora. And um Kurt Friesen's a good guy. He actually ran twice unopposed, so he served for eight years. But the person before him, her name was and still is Annette Dubass. And Annette Dubass is from Fullerton, she's a registered Democrat. And so before I started all this four years ago, I got an appointment with her, and I wanted to see if she had any advice and wisdom to pass down to me. And I went to Fullerton to visit with Annette, and I thought it was going to be a five-minute little chit-chat, but it ended up being about two hours.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

Well, Annette has had a job being a lobbyist, and she's a great person, um, she does a good job. And after my uh at toward kind of toward the tail end of my first year, Annette was in one of the hearing rooms and doing her lobbying business. And after the hearing was over, I went over to Annette. I said, Annette, I said, how how long was it before you felt like you had your your C legs, before you felt uh competent in what you were doing being a state senator? She says, it wasn't until after my first term. And I says, Do you mean after your first year? She says, No, after my first four years, my first term. Well, at that time I didn't really believe her because I thought I knew so much. But uh after four years, what she said is very true. It does take you a while to learn how things work. And I remember uh thinking back in aviation, um, you know, you don't just simply hop in an F-16 and just take off and and uh soar the the uh blue skies. It takes a while to learn the airplane. And I remember thinking this, and I thought this at Delta Airlines also, it takes about a hundred hours in an airplane before you start feeling really comfortable. And it's kind of like it's not like you're getting in the airplane, it's you're wrapping the airplane around you. You know, you actually feel confident, yeah, comfortable, and you know what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

That's about a hundred hours of your capabilities in a way.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

That is exactly correct. That's right. That's a good way to put it. And so, and you know, one day I remember a co-pilot and I were talking about this at Delta Airlines, and uh it's like the frog in the boiling water. You know, you don't really realize what's happening while it's happening, but then after a while you look back and you think, golly, gee whiz, I've actually learned a complete new language in aviation, for instance. Well, the same is true in politics. Uh I thought very stupidly that I knew a little bit, having been a page for two years. And I I thought that I knew where all the bathrooms are located. Well, no, I really didn't. I didn't really learn anything. Um well, caveat that. One uh duty that you have as a page in the legislature, and this is very important, this is an important principle. This is the reason why I'm sharing it with you. Uh, one of the jobs as a page is you sit up next to the lieutenant governor or whoever is presiding over the legislative body at the time, and you sit to their right and you run the microphones. So when uh Senator Billy Bob wants to talk, you turn Billy Bob's microphone on. When he's done, you turn it off. And so it does give you an opportunity to sit there and actually listen to the debate. And I will never forget this. One day I'm sitting there and I'm listening to the debate, and somebody stands up and they introduce a bill. And I think in my little 20-year-old brain, this is gonna be a no-brainer. This is gonna pass, it sounds like a great idea, and this is gonna sail right through. Well, then a few minutes later, one of the opponents, somebody who was against the bill, they stood up and talked. And I thought, uh, this is not as simple as I thought. Well, the truth of the matter is there's always two sides or more to almost every issue. And one thing that I've really learned uh since going down to Lincoln is this the preacher man says that there's two pillars to maturity discipline and restraint. Discipline to do and restraint to keep from doing. And when they're motivated by a love for God, it's called self-control, which is one of the fruits of the spirit. Yeah, yep, that's right. So the one thing that I've really learned is to engage these more than this more ears, less mouth. And I have found that the more I listen and be quiet, the more actually gets things get done. Um, so that has it's kind of a a paradoxical uh thing, but it really works. Oftentimes in life, and I'm sure you would agree with me on this, we tend to be more reactive than proactive.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

And so being uh exercising restraint helps you to not be reactive and to put some thought into things.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Absolutely. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for sharing all of that. I I I wanted to kind of touch on your transition from aviation into politics, particularly maybe with the military. How has your experience in um in the cockpit in in the military and in um at Delta, how has that shaped your kind of outlook on doing your civic responsibility, doing your duty by serving in politics?

SPEAKER_00 22:36

That's a great question. Uh one thing that I've really noticed in the legislature, during the first 10 days of a session, whether it's a 60-day session, which we had this year during an even year, even numbered year, or an odd numbered year, which has 90 working days, it's during the first 10 days of the session that's when you hand in bills. And so any state senator can uh introduce up to 20 bills. So it is very uh normal to have up to 700, almost 800 bills that will be in the hopper that will be turned in in the first 10 days. Then they go through hearings, through a committee, and then eventually they get onto the floor of the legislature. Hopefully, not all of them do, but a lot of them do. And so my point in saying that is this there's a lot of activity going on, and there is a lot of topics that go on. For instance, I was in aviation for 40 years, like we talked about. Well, how many of those 800, those 700 or 800 bills have the word aviation in them? Maybe one. So my point here is that I have a lot of catching up to do, just like all the other state senators, with what's going on for the day or the week or the session. So there's a lot of learning that goes on. So your your question as to how has aviation plugged into politics, it would be this it's a multitasking environment. In aviation, obviously, you're moving, so you can't just stop and think about something. You need to be ahead of the ball game or ahead of the airplane and always be thinking ahead. And it was interesting, whether it was in the Air Force or at Delta Airlines, we would have simulators. You've heard of those, and I'm sure you've seen those on TV. And obviously, whether it's in the Air Force or at Delta, you want you're hoping for a very vanilla flight, a flight that's very mundane, it's safe, it went as planned, all that stuff. Something you will not remember, correct? And you would just as soon not have engine fires and have a hydraulic system go out, pressurization fails, all that stuff. But in the simulator, you get all of those things. And that's important for two reasons. Number one, it's important to build memory muscle so you work through like an engine fire, for instance, so you know exactly what to do. So you don't have to sit there and be reactive, you can be proactive very quickly. So uh that is important, but also, and this is probably even more important, and that is this when you're in the simulator, you will almost always be overwhelmed. You will have more things to do than what time you have to do them. So, what that means is, and we would use this little catchphrase at Delta and I think in at uh in the Air Force also, and that is this to load shed. Now that's kind of an electrical term. You know, if you've got a circuit that's being overloaded, what you do is you load shed so that that circuit will not blow its fuse. So in the simulator and in flying, it is important to be able to take what is important and put that front and center, and what is not important, that needs to go uh to the aside. Sure. And the same exact thing is true in the legislature, and I think it's also true in in business and and um commerce as well. Just like life in general, really, I think that's a good principle that is true for all walks of life. That's that's correct, and certainly even in the ministry, it's true. Yeah, yes, so often, yeah. Oftentimes what we do is we get caught up in just uh stomping out the little brush fires here and there and everywhere. And instead of really looking, and this would be true in ministry, looking for the root causes, which causes this the symptoms that we're seeing, but the symptoms are just going to keep popping up someplace here or there. But oftentimes it's the root problem that's that's the issue that needs to be addressed. I read this little this little observation a while back, actually, it's been 20 or 30 years ago. I I read this, and it really kind of shifted my paradigm, and that was this. The preacher said, most marital problems, but I would say business problems and just adult problems in general, any conflict that we have is created by uh created by unresolved conflict before age 11.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 28:29

Yeah. So what happens is we have emotional trauma when we're young, and that gets carried into our adult life, producing insecurities or bitterness or whatever it is. But to a large degree, it could be because of not having a loving mother or an unloving father, and those kinds of things then can have some real impact on our psyche and our soul for years down the road. So uh I'll never forget uh flying at Delta Airlines. Obviously, we're working with flight attendants, most of which are female, and I'd come to work, and sometimes the the flight attendants before the passengers got on, they would be a little grumpy. And so uh they would take their grumpiness out on the pilots, me. And um, so I would uh get a little bit sideways about that because they're not treating me with respect like they should. And when I heard that little observation about um people having issues before their age 11, and they take that into their marriage or the workplace, it helped me to see this is very basic, and I'm sure you know this already, but oftentimes people take these things to work or into relationships, and it's not you, you're not the problem. They've got unresolved conflict in their own lives that they have not handled, and so yeah, baggage, correct. And so I kind of took it upon myself to say, um, you know what, it's gonna be my job to try to put a smile on her face. I read this little caption in a um in a uh little devotional a while back, and it said this remember today everyone you meet are fighting their own battles. It's true, yeah. And you and I both know you and I both know in our Christian lives, uh, and you see this throughout scripture, you're either going into a storm, you're in a storm, or you're coming out of a storm. And that's all by God's design, because what that does is it keeps us connected to Him.

SPEAKER_01 31:10

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 31:10

You know, one of my favorite, my favorite verses back in the Old Testament is the one that says, It's not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord God Almighty. Uh, I saw you had a podcast with Brian Harden. Yes, and Brian is a very close friend of mine. And Brian, as you know, he's a he was a full-time minister a few years back. And Brian told me he prays more now than he ever has in his life, and I would say the exact same thing. Why? Because we're out of our comfort zone. We are we are hiking across unlevel ground, unknown territory, and quite frankly, we just can't do it on our own. And so you're constantly asking for wisdom, guidance, help, strength, uh, and also just for love of your neighbor. You know, uh, this has been two or three years ago. I was invited to uh talk in front of a group of students. It was the whole senior high and junior high.

SPEAKER_02 32:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:32

It was in Palmer, Nebraska, night school, super school. And uh I gave my little dog and punish show, and then at the end, uh we opened up for questions, and one kid he puts his hand up and he said this. He says, What's the biggest thing you learned this past year? And you know, from time to time, God actually does give you answers. Not always, but sometimes he does.

SPEAKER_01 32:58

Yeah, sometimes you're just like, a little help here.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

Yeah, right, exactly. But this this time he he really did. He gave me an answer right off the bat. And I said, I'll tell you what the most important thing is. Now, there's 49 state senators, 33 Republicans, 16 Democrats right now. Obviously, not everybody is sitting in Kumbaya, right? And certainly not in rounds. Yeah, yeah. But um anyway, the biggest thing that I learned is to keep the issues out at arm's length and to keep the relationship intact, keep the issues out here, relationship intact. Yeah, and it's very easy because you know, most of us are, you know, when you run for these jobs, you really have some very strong beliefs on different things. And so you can get emotionally tied to things, but like we talked about in flying around airplanes, you have to become emotionally detached because you can't try to solve a problem being in an emotional frenzy when you're trying to put out a fire or whatever it is. So, again, the biggest thing I really learned is to keep relationships intact, and that's really, really important. And it's just it's really important to be humble, and that whole humility thing. Um, I've got two boys that are grown up now, but I've always told them uh one of my favorite verses is Proverbs 22:4, which says this it says, humility and the fear of the Lord bring wealth and honor and life. Now, everybody wants wealth and honor and life. Everybody wants that. But then what's this humility and the fear of the Lord? What's that mean? Well, fear of the Lord means walking before him in reverence and obedience. Very simple. But this humility thing, how do you do that? Do you go down to the grocery store and buy a bag of it, you know, in the produce department? No. Uh-uh. And you can't really grunt and groan and strain and produce, I'm gonna be more humble today. Yeah, I'm just gonna really, really try really hard today to be humble. It doesn't work that way. And so I have found the best way to do that is say, dear God, humble me. Just humble me. Now, a number of years ago when I was living in in Atlanta, Georgia, flying for Delta, I was in a little men's group, little accountability group. Wasn't a Bible study, wasn't a prayer group. It was it was all pilots, all male. We all set around in the living room. And it's like, how's your relationship with Jesus this week? Uh and you know, even though we did that every week, it was it was actually humorous, funny, that guys would say, Well, my wife, you know, she's got these kind of problems, and well, my kids, you know, they didn't get an A on their last test. Uh, that wasn't the question. How was your relationship with Jesus? And uh it would take individuals a while to uh uh skin the onion, you know, and get past a few outer outer ranch layers, correct. And as a matter of fact, Brian Hardin, he's got a great little saying. He says, small talk leads to big talk. So yeah, so what yeah, so what what needs to happen is there needs to be a little small talk first, yeah. But anyway, I say all that to say one day we're talking about, and I bring up the whole thing about humility, and I said, you know, I just ask God, please humble me. And one guy says, Oh, I don't, I don't, uh, I don't know if I want to do that, because then lightning bolts, and and God will really, you know, bring horrible things into my life. And I got to thinking about this smart guy, and he's just voicing an idea that a lot of Christians have, I'm sure. But I said, you know, how we respond to that, asking God to humble us really tells us how we view God. And it's like scripture says, you think that if you ask God for a loaf of bread, he'll give you a stone or he'll give you a snake. No, he won't. No, he loves you better than your father here on earth by far. So he can be trusted, he loves you, and so when we ask God to humble us, you know, it's almost like there's two different avenues. You've seen these little dis decision trees. If you do this, you go that way. Yeah, yeah, yep, that's right. So when you ask God to humble you, uh, you can either be fighting and digging your heels in, and then oftentimes what happens is there will be some hardship, pain, and suffering that comes into your life. So uh, you know, that will build humility into your life. Or you can take the other branch on that decision tree and you can go peacefully, and then what happens is, and this this is the beauty of it all. Then what happens is your heart actually starts becoming more humble. Huh. Let me think about this. So it's it's a it's a good thing. Um so that's you know that and that that's something that uh we don't just well I'm now now I'm humble and you know now I can go about it. Yeah, now I can just yeah, yeah, right. Right. Uh uh. Yeah. As a matter of fact, it's interesting. I heard a preacher man, he said, there's only two characteristics or virtues that Jesus ascribed to himself. And it was uh he was uh humble and gentle, humble and gentle. And I thought, wow, we and then I heard another preacher, he said something, and this is very interesting. He says the most attractive trait in a man is gentleness. Yeah, and lots of times we think, well, you know, we want to be like John Wayne and uh just give people a backhand. And actually, Jesus being, he was an example of a person who is meek. Now, meek oftentimes we think is being like a little mouse, but that's not it. Yeah, no, actually, meek is something in order to be meek. That is right. That's that's exactly correct. Yeah, he uh a person who is meek is controlled strength. And I mean, I mean, Superman is a great example of that. Yes, very good. You know, Clark Clark Kent, he is meek, mild-mannered, but yet he's got superpowers. Yeah, and then so we've got Father's Day coming up. We all already experienced Mother's Day, so we talked about fathers, gentleness, but mothers, the most attractive trait in mothers. Um it's not gentleness. It's do you have have any idea what the most attractive trait in a woman is? I would gratitude. Gratitude. Oh, gratitude. Yep, uh-huh. They both start with G, so they're very easy to remember. Gratitude, gentle gentleness for men, gratitude for women. And of course, we all know, you know, when you want to really say something bad about a woman, you use the B word, right? That rhymes with which. Yeah. What's the opposite of the B word? Gratitude.

SPEAKER_01 41:37

Yeah, that yeah, that's exactly right.

SPEAKER_00 41:39

And and you know, a person, a man will jump over tall buildings in a single bound when his girl is grateful. Yeah. He really will.

SPEAKER_01 41:49

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 41:50

Uh this this is this is very, very funny. Uh, I just heard this just this past week on one of these Christian radio shows. There was a female went into the divorce attorney, and she said to the divorce attorney, I want to divorce my husband. But before I do that, I want to really teach him a lesson. In fact, I want to hurt him. I want to ruin him. I want to just, I want to just destroy my husband. Can't stand him. And the attorney, he sits back in his chair and he says, okay, you want to really destroy him, huh? She said, Yep, sure do. All right. Here, here's what you do. For the next six months, I want you to treat him with unbelievable respect. I want you to praise him for everything that he does. I want you to honor him, to worship him, to just really, really uh be very respectful and honoring to him. And after six months, we'll get the divorce papers and we'll serve the divorce papers to him. It will just completely surprise him, catch him completely off guard, and uh this this will really, really fix him. Well, about seven months went by and the attorney had not heard back from the lady. And so the divorce attorney calls the wife and says, It's been seven months. What's up? Are you still gonna go through with this? She says, Are you kidding me? Our marriage is completely transformed. We're more in love now than we've ever been. No way, dude. I I'm I have fallen in love again. The point in telling all of that is this, and this is true. Well, it's true in politics, but it's true in our everyday relationships, and that is this actions will produce feelings. Actions will produce feelings. Oftentimes what happens is we wait for feelings to produce a desired action. Don't work that way.

SPEAKER_01 44:11

No.

SPEAKER_00 44:12

Uh-uh. No. So, I mean, just take a look at God. God created us. He did an act of kindness. I mean, the whole salvation thing is an act. Uh, scripture says that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

SPEAKER_02 44:30

Right.

SPEAKER_00 44:31

So it's just the whole idea that sometimes we need to do things because it's the right thing to do, and we know it is. And oftentimes we are being prompted by the Holy Spirit to do something, and we don't do it to our chagrin, not good, out of dis disobedience. But when you when you have actions that are loving, that will produce emotions that are loving, that will catch up. And you will see that that theme throughout scripture. I've read through the uh Bible every year since 1975, not to thump my chest, but you know, all Christians should do that.

SPEAKER_01 45:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:17

Uh only 9% of American Christians read the Bible, which is that is embarrassing. It's horrible, it's nasty. The preachers need to stick their finger in the chest of people and encourage them to read the scripture. Absolutely. But the average American home has 4.4 Bibles in it, but they all have dust on them. So only 9% of people read the Bible, and only 3% of Christians have actually read from Genesis to Revelation. Not good. And the Bible is what produces our our uh our our bubble. It's our measuring stick, it's our compass. It points north. Recently uh I was chatting with some people and they asked, uh, well, how do you know what to do? And you know, different things. And I said, Well, you know what? Scripture, all 66 books uh making up the Bible, it covers everything. Well, uh, it doesn't talk about marijuana, it does in principle, it talks about these things in principle, and so what you do is you use God's word and his principles, become my principles, which produces my policies, which becomes my politics.

SPEAKER_01 46:39

Right.

SPEAKER_00 46:40

Very easy. It all starts with a P.

SPEAKER_01 46:42

Yeah, but turn it around and force it the other way and try and correct into what you think is right.

SPEAKER_00 46:49

That is exactly correct. And we all know a lot of people, you know, which way is the wind blowing? Uh, what what and I heard Chuck Swindahl say this uh several years ago, which I kind of thought, is that true? But then once I thought I thought about it for a while, mm-hmm, it's true. But Chuck Swindahl's observation is this he says, we are what we think other people think we are. Okay, yeah. And so obviously, it's very easy for us to get wobbly knees if we run around thinking of ourselves about how other people think of us. Because you and I both know, we know Jeremiah 17:9 is true. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart and examine the mind to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve. Now that's what God says, that's what the prophet Jeremiah says. So we are easily deceived. And I think of it like this Adam and Eve, they were born in perfection, both of them. Yeah, they didn't have navel buttons either, you know, no belly buttons.

SPEAKER_02 48:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:15

And they lived in perfection in the Garden of Eden, everything was perfect, and they were being discipled by the Lord Jesus Himself, the pre-incarnate Jesus. Walking with them in the garden. That is correct. So with that in mind, if Eve can be deceived by the serpent in her perfection environment, plus in her, if she can be deceived, I can be deceived.

SPEAKER_01 48:43

I can too, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:45

Yeah, correct. Right. So what we do is um we need to go to the word of God. I'll never forget this, and I know that you're young and I'm old, but a long time ago they had a show called Gun Smoke.

SPEAKER_01 48:57

My grandfather watched Guns, it was on the TV all the time.

SPEAKER_00 49:01

Yep, I love Guns Smoke. Yeah, so do I, yeah, with Marshall Matt Dillon and uh Doc Adams and all those people. Well, one day, and I remember this, I was in junior high or high school, I was watching Gun Smoke with my dad, and um uh Doc Adams, the doctor, he was on a train, you know, like a choo-choo train. And he was sitting as a passenger on the train, and um he was reading the Bible. I've actually looked for this on YouTube, I have not found it. But he was reading his Bible. I remember this clearly. And the conductor or one of the other characters on Gunsmoke came by and what are you doing, Doc? Reading the Bible. And the doc says, I make it a habit to read through the Bible every year. And the guy says, Well, isn't that like pouring water through a basket? And doc says, Yeah, it is, but you end up with a really clean basket.

SPEAKER_01 50:04

That's good.

SPEAKER_00 50:04

Now that's pretty simple, and that you know, I liked it was a little simple, simple high school kid, yeah, you know, that stuck with me. But uh, I heard a preacher say this recently, and like I said, I flew for Delta, and one time I was on a layover in Memphis, Tennessee, and a friend of mine picked me up and we went down to the Mississippi River. Now we all know about the Missouri River, that's right there in your neighborhood in Omaha. Mississippi River, even a little bit bigger, wider, flows faster, big, deep, it's mighty, the mighty Mississippi River. Yep, correct. So I was standing right at the edge of it, and of course, I really think pretty highly of myself regarding my athletic abilities because you know, I think, well, I could just jump in there and swim across the Mississippi River. Yeah, no big deal. But then I get right next to the Mississippi River, and I'm thinking, maybe I'm not as tough as I think I am. But anyway, the point is this. The preacher man said that Mississippi River is like society. It's like our environment, it's like our neighbors, it's like our state, it's like our country and the world. That is society. That's the river. And you get in that river, and if you're passive, if you don't do anything, you're gonna go downstream. So you're gonna get carried downstream with all the deception, lies, and all the different things that this world has to offer, and you're gonna get swept downstream. But going through the Word of God, being surrendered to the Lord Jesus in your prayer life and in your soul, that is what helps your little boat, that little raft that you're on in the Mississippi River, that produces that has the gas for the little powered motor on the back of your raft, so you can at least stay where you are in the Mississippi River, and maybe you can even get upstream. And I never forgot when the preacher said that, I thought, man, oh man, that is that is so true because it is so easy. You know, obviously, you know, we step into the arena of ideas, whether it's in the legislature, in the business place, or in church, and we think that the way we think on things is true, right, noble, honorable, and on target. That's what we think. Yeah, and I will tell you, um, there are some, as I said, Democrats, there's Republicans in the legislature, and there are some really intelligent Democrats. That's true.

SPEAKER_02 53:05

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:06

They're smart, smart. They can put words together, they speak in complete sentences, the whole works. And I can just I can sit and listen to them, they can talk about stuff. But if you don't have your, as we talked about, God's principles, my principles, my policies, my politics, if you don't have it grounded in truth, you're gonna get swept down the Mississippi River.

SPEAKER_02 53:33

Right.

SPEAKER_00 53:34

And uh not good. In fact, I was just wrote a friend of mine and gave him a little quote from Mark Twain, and he said this it's easier to fool people than it is to convince them they have been fooled. It's easier to fool people than it to convince them they have been fooled. And the reason is because you grab on to a lie, and now that becomes your lie. Right, it becomes your truth. And uh humility takes her. Exactly correct. That's what I was just what I was gonna say. There's no humility in that. Correct. That's right. So anyway, it's uh it's uh it's quite a journey, and every single day there's opportunities to glorify God. You know, a couple of things that I've really tried to incorporate in my life while I've been in the legislature these past four years, and that is this. Number one, what's what's our mission objective here on earth? It's to promote the kingdom of God. What's that? The mission, the uh kingdom of God is the reign and rule of the Lord Jesus in the hearts of people. That means me. That starts with me. And then the other thing, and I'm very embarrassed to say this, like I said, I read through the Bible every year, and it just dawned on me this past year. Well, what's the greatest commandment of all? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, strength. And the second is like it to love your neighbors yourself. So the one thing that I've been asking God, and it never comes, it's not a routine, it doesn't become a habit. Every day you've got the Mississippi River going against you in this, and that is to ask God, Lord, put love in my heart for you. And we know that that's that is correct, that's exactly correct, and we know that that's his will, it's in his word, obviously. And uh so to ask him anything in accordance with his will, he hears it, and if he hears it, he's gonna answer it. So that's been something that I've really tried to be very disciplined about doing, and that is Lord, put love in my heart today for you. Yeah, that's a good one, and then also, yeah, and then also to look at other people, and you know, when I used to stand at the door and say hi to people coming on the airplane or getting off the airplane at Delta Airlines, there would be people that would be kind of uh grumpy, and there would be people that would be happy. And um, as a matter of fact, uh I'll share this with you. This is this is kind of this will sound a little bit weird. Uh one day we were passing through Atlanta, Georgia. It was mid-morning, and we'd just come from someplace, and we were staying on board the airplane, and we're gonna go someplace else. It was a 757 aircraft, so the exit doors that is called the two left door. So you've got you come on board the airplane, you turn left, and that's first class seats, you turn right, and those are all the coach seats. All right. So anyway, we're standing at the uh two-left door saying goodbye to the passengers. First class passengers are out. Now here comes the coach, and about one-third of the coach had deplaned, and then one guy was having a hard time getting his baggage out of the overhead compartment. So there was a little break in the action. I had a female flight attendant on my left, female flight attendant on my right, and so there's just a break in action. Well, the guy finally gets his luggage out of the overhead bin, puts it on the floor, and he starts walking toward me. And just as clear as this was audible, which it was not, but in my soul, the Lord very clearly said this to me I made this one for me. And I went, what? And I looked at him, I thought, what's so unusual or unique about this guy? Nothing. He was just a vanilla average guy, and then the next person was another couple of seconds behind him, and the Holy Spirit said, and this one, and then kaboom, light bulb went off. And the point was this this is important. God makes every single person unique, unlike any in all of history, yeah, for one reason to bring glory and honor to him. Well, not everybody's doing that. That is correct, they're not, and you know what? Maybe they need to have help in being pointed in that direction to the Lord, yeah, and so looking at the masses ever since then, you know, people walking up and down the concourse or, you know, in the legislature, whatever, yeah, it's like every single person has infinite worth and importance in the eyes of God. It's just that maybe they haven't uh seen the sun shine in their life, and maybe we should help them do that.

SPEAKER_01 59:22

Yeah. Yeah, that'll that recontextualizes anybody you meet right there. I mean bingo. Even uh even a terrible first impression. If you have that that kind of filter in front, it's it's just gonna it's gonna change it completely.

SPEAKER_00 59:38

Yes, it does. It really does.

SPEAKER_02 59:41

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 59:42

So that has been it's uh it kind of changes your paradigm on how you look at people, like you say, and it uh it helps you see them through the eyes of Jesus. That's pretty important.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:02

Yeah, yeah. If everybody could do that, man, this this world would be quite a nice place.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:09

Yeah, I mean that is that's the kingdom of God.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:11

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:12

Uh yeah, promoting promoting the Lord Jesus. So we all have opportunities um to do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:24

Well, yeah, uh thank you so much. And out of respect for your time, uh, is it okay if I ask you one one last question?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:30

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:31

Wonderful. Um, for for all of our listeners um who are are watching or listening right now, what is one lesson that you'd like to to give them to take away from your experiences in life? Um, whether that's something that you learned as a youth or through the military and in aviation or or in politics or or your spiritual growth with God, what's what's one lesson that you'd want to give um our listeners?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:56

Well, we have not been talking about um politics very much. So I do want to put a little plug-in for that. And that is this the Bible talks about a lot of things, talks about faith 500 times, talks about prayer 500 times, but it talks about money 2,300 times.

unknown 1:01:16

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:16

Whoa, that's about four times more than those other two topics prayer and faith. So money is important. Now, with that in mind, we think, well, golly, gee whiz, it's important for us to take care of poor people, for instance. Well, out of those 2,300 times, it talks about poor people 200 times. Oh, okay, that proves we should we should help poor people. Well, hold on now. We're talking about the government taking care of the poor. Out of those 200 times, it talks about taking care of the poor by the government three times. One, two, three. And all three of those times is to ensure that when the poor go to court, that they will receive justice for all. Like our state motto, equality before the law.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:12

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:13

Yeah. Yep. So one day I'm flying at Delta Airlines, and you spend about uh 20, 25 hours in the cockpit with a guy on a four-day trip. And so you obviously talk about a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:27

And I was a co-pilot at the time, and the guy was uh captain, he went to the Air Force Academy, he was a smart guy, flew F-15s, a talented guy. Then he flies for Delta Airlines, rich guy. And so his name is Jim, nice guy, and uh family guy, church guy. And um, I asked him, I says, Hey Jim, do you tithe? He says, Well, uh, not really. He says, I don't because I pay a lot of taxes and the government takes care of the poor people. And I thought he just admitted to what I have suspected. Now, there was a study done in 33 international countries that showed that as spending by those countries went up for taking care of the poor and social programs, church attendance went down the exact same amount. Wow. Interesting. And they they went on to say that when the church takes care of poor people, 70% goes to the poor people, 30% goes to pay the lights, the minister, and all those people.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:44

But when government does it, swapped around, 70% is mismanaged, only 30% gets to the poor people. That's not what government is intended for. Good old bureaucracy. Yeah. And I could go on and on, you're making it your last question, so I'll give you just the short answer to it all. Right now in Nebraska, for instance, the number one budget item, and I'm on the appropriations committee, that's money going outbound. Revenue committee is money coming inbound, like taxes. But appropriations, um, I get choked up when I talk about this. Just kidding. Um the biggest uh budget item on our state budget is HHS, Health and Human Services, and social services, like Medicaid, and it's 42% of our budget. Education is right behind that at 40%. So it's it's a lot. And uh just as Brian Harden told you on an earlier podcast, God has established three things to keep us from ripping each other apart, to keep law and order. Number one, the family, number two, the church, and number three, and just as godly, and that is politics, government. And I would really encourage church folks to get involved. We need people involved in these government positions, whether it's the school board, the city commissioners, the county commissioners, the legislature, all that stuff. We need God-fearing. As a matter of fact, it talks about it in Genesis 18, 21. There are four different criteria that it's the father in law of Moses, Jethro, he's juggling a lot of balls. Uh, Jethro says, Can't do that. You need to uh spread the wealth. So Jethro said, You need to find other people that can take the responsibilities off your shoulder. And the quality of the Individuals need to be number one, they need to be capable, they need to be honest, they need to fear the Lord, and they need to be trustworthy. Four qualities that men need to have before they are appointed or elected to different positions of leadership. And we need that. And the idea right now that um it's either one quarter or one third. I I think it's one quarter of all churchgoers do not vote. Wow. One one quarter, 25% of all people who sit in the pews in church do not vote. And in my opinion, that is reprehensible.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:45

Um, it is shirking your civic duties, and the pastors need to actually shake their finger and use a cattle prod or whatever it takes to get people to get out and vote. Yeah, right. And also, the pastors can talk about these things. You just can't go up there and just say, hey, folks, everybody needs to vote Republican. But what you can do is you can say, well, George Washington is pro-life, and Abraham Lincoln is pro-abortion. You can talk about those things. You do have First Amendment rights. So pastors should not be freighty cats about this. And you know, in this business that I'm in, and the one that you're in also, um, it was probably said best by one of the former prime ministers of Great Britain, Tony Blair, who said, every decision you make divides. And you know, the Lord Jesus, he said, Do you think that I came into this world to bring peace? No, I tell you, but a sword. That was in Matthew. And in Luke, I believe it was in Luke, he says, No, I tell you, but division. So we are, like we talked about the decision tree a little while ago, you and I. Well, our lives actually should be a fork in the road for people. Because the Lord Jesus was a fork in the road for people. You could not have any type of discourse with him and uh be willy-nilly or wishy-washy on it. Uh, he would bring you to a decision.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:39

Can't be on the fence because the devil owns the fence.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:41

Correct. That's right. The devil owns the fence. I like that. Never heard that before.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:47

So again, I would I would end by saying this. I would quote a Democrat president, Andrew Jackson, who says, one man with courage makes a majority. And so, yep, and so as you see with the Joshua, uh, be strong and take courage. One reason why we don't have courage in our parish, uh, in our churches, and with our individual self, is boldness and courage are tied to a clear conscience. If you do not have a clear conscience, you are not going to be bold with your faith. So, you know, it's just like taking communion. You need to make sure you have a clear conscience and you're squared away with the Lord Jesus. If you got sin in the cupboards and and uh the closets of your life, uh, it's like the preacher says the strength of sin is in its secrecy. So you need to expose it to the light, and um you need to get right with the Lord Jesus, and then lo and behold, you can proclaim truth, and you can be bold and courageous, and that's what America needs. That's what each of us needs to be.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:14

Yeah, I feel like now, uh, you know, more than ever, with kind of this this political divide that we're seeing, and um people um seeing each other as as less than human for being on the other side and all of this. Yeah, we need to be bold and courageous and and and and have that the strength of the Lord flow down from our our trust in Him and have that fill us. Um yeah, it's a wonderful, wonderful sentiment. Yep, it is. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:46

You bet.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:46

Okay, well, thank you so much, um, Senator. I really, really appreciate you taking time out of your day to uh to talk with me. Um I I think we had a wonderful discussion, so thank you so much. And um is there is there any any uh last bits you'd like to add? Nope. Okay, wonderful. Well, thank you, Senator. Um, hopefully we'll we'll talk again and um I hope you have a great rest of your week. Super, thank you. I appreciate your time, sir. Absolutely. Take it easy. You bet. All right, bye. Bye-bye.