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Hello everyone, I'm Mark Foley, and this is The Journey. I grew up around trucks and equipment. My father owned and operated a truck fleet, and my earliest memories are playing on those old trucks, later working on them. I learned my way around tools, how they're used effectively and safely to fix an old 1970s model international harvester truck. And I learned a couple of things I want to pass along to you, should you ever find yourself needing to repair an old truck or something else far more important. First thing to remember, invest in quality. Never put your weight on a cheap knockoff. It'll break and leave you stranded every time, sometimes in dangerous situations. I observed the tools used by mechanics I admired, men who had been doing it a long time, guys with leathered hands and all their fingers in the right places and a little squint in the eye, you know the type. Their box contained specific wrenches with old foundry marks, clean, well cared for, had the look of long use, but none of the gimmicky fits all stuff. Quality tools cost more, sometimes a great deal more, and there's always an investment of time in learning to use them properly, but they last a lifetime, and you can depend upon their precision and their strength to get the job done. The second thing is to use the right tool for the job. To do otherwise is uh well, it's foolish. If my experience or instruction from one more experienced than myself made it clear that the job required a half-inch drive three-quarter socket, I'd look pretty ridiculous if I showed up with my favorite pair of pliers. The only predictable result would be a colossal waste of time, a lot of frustration, and a busted knuckle in that old truck would remain broken and unable to run. Bottom line, use the right tool for the job. And here's my point. If you listened to my last podcast, How Do You Turn a Speeding Train, you know that I view the American culture to be in a dangerous place and headed in in an even more dangerous direction. The current American culture compares to that of ancient Israel in the time of Isaiah. We, like they, are a nation in which the ideal of honoring God and living responsibly to his expectations, once a defining characteristic of the general population, is mostly gone. I believe that to be a fact that must be reckoned with honesty if any remedy is to be discovered. It is a spiritual problem that requires a spiritual solution. To ignore it, to discount it, or to attempt to fix it with the wrong tool is to seal the fate of that speeding train. Further complicating the matter is that most of the people riding that cultural train do not see the current direction as a problem and are not motivated to change. It has been called a moral inversion, and it has steadily and dramatically redefined American culture over the past sixty years. The one entity with responsibility to address it, the American Christian Church, is bewildered and declining, seemingly impotent, and has been unable to take any effective action. The old prophet Isaiah described moral inversion this way: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight. Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of his right. And that is where we find ourselves. But there is an option. This cultural train can be turned by simply and patiently laying new track in front of it. But let's step away from the metaphor and talk specifics. The moral inversion is an extension of self-entitlement thinking. It naturally extends further to lack of moral restraint, a condition already being seen in our land with frequency. So the challenge becomes how is responsibility-based thinking reintroduced to a situation in which the very concept of responsibility is rejected as contrary to right thinking in the inverted culture? There are three elements of responsibility-based thinking that compose a healthy society. Three elements that have become exceptionally rare in our culture. They are responsibility to God, responsibility for others, and voluntary sacrifice for greater good. The challenge is complicated, so let's park it for the time being. My intent today is to introduce you to the only tool that will successfully meet the challenge. If you're interested in learning how to reintroduce responsibility-based thinking into your family, your business, your community, your city, you're going to need the right tool. Now just stop a minute, stop, because some of you just reached for your favorite pair of pliers. Political action. I know. And to be sure, political action is a quality tool, a longtime favorite of the American church, but it is not nearly powerful enough for where we find ourselves. And it is not the right tool to reverse a moral inversion that is not even recognized by those experiencing it. Now don't worry, you'll get to use your pliers later, but not now. Dig deeper into your toolbox. The tool you're looking for is prayer, the dusty one in the back. If you're serious about turning this train, you will learn the great worth of prayer. Prayer is the one human act that God consistently and pointedly affirms and to which he promises his full attention. It is the active link, the conduit into his presence, man's connection to God, the most powerful of tools entrusted to mankind to be used on God's terms. So this is what I'll leave you with today. This new rare cultural track of responsibility is laid by prayer in faith, believing with confidence in the infinite ability, power, and intent of God. Prayer is the right tool. Indeed, it's the only tool for this job. Get that, and you've taken the first important step. So now you know the tool to use. Next we talk about how to use it. And there is a lot more to learn. Here's what Jesus said about it. And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you'll receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks finds. And everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. That's in Luke chapter 11, verses 9 and 10. There's a lot more to come, but keep listening. I'll see you next time on the journey.