Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers host Pantsuit Politics podcast, featured in the New York Times, the Atlantic, and named by Apple Podcasts as one of the Best Shows of 2021. They are also the authors of I Think You’re Wrong (But I’m Listening): A Guide to Grace-Filled Political Conversation (2019), which was featured on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, received starred trade reviews, and continues to be in demand with readers, book clubs, and libraries. Sarah and Beth speak frequently to universities, businesses, and civic organizations about improving political dialogue.

Both Sarah and Beth attended Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, and then received their Juris Doctors (Sarah from American University and Beth from the University of Kentucky). Sarah began her career as a congressional staffer, campaign aide, and blogger and social media consultant. She lives in Paducah, Kentucky, where she served a term as a city commissioner and volunteers as a Court-Appointed Special Advocate for children.

Beth has practiced law and served as an human resources executive and business coach. Beth lives in Union, Kentucky, and serves on several local boards of directors. Sarah shares life with her spouse, Nicholas, and children Griffin, Amos, and Felix; Beth with her spouse, Chad, and children Jane and Ellen. Sarah’s dog, Cookie, and Beth’s dog, Lucy, are beloved (and involuntary) contributors to their work.

Sarah, Beth and Stuart have an inspiring conversation regarding politics, today’s political climate, and helping the next generation of leaders be leaders worth following. This is a great listen!

Acclaimed author James Fenimore Cooper once quipped that “History, like love, is so apt to surround her heroes with an atmosphere of imaginary brightness.” It’s true. The older we get, the better we were. The more time passes, the larger the conquest, the more significant the victory. It is the nature of history. But what now stands as epic and historical was frightening and intimidating in real time. Heroes in their prime weren’t heroes. They were common, ordinary people with a resolve to do something hard… because that something hard was the right thing to do.    

I often find myself in awe of the courage of those before us. I am a sucker for any and every book, story or movie that depicts uncommon courage in harrowing circumstances. Probably explains why my favorite movies are epic stories like Gladiator, Braveheart, 300, Saving Private Ryan. These are the stories that kickstart my heart, that move me to action. 

The afore mentioned 300 movie is a story that has intrigued me from the very first time I heard snippets of its details. Years ago, in the middle of a brutal workout, my friend Rick mentioned to me that I should read a book entitled The Gates of Fire. It was novel depicting the historical account of the Battle of Thermopylae, where three hundred of Sparta’s finest warriors, led by their King Leonidas, held back thousands of the invading military might of the Persian empire and valiantly gave their lives in the selfless service of democracy and freedom. I was riveted the moment I picked up the book. The movie was simply icing on the cake. And the courage and honor birthed and nurtured within the Spartan culture inspires me to this day. 

Spartan warriors really loved their shields. Along with being a weapon and symbol of strength, shields were more often than not family treasures. They were passed down from father to son, and it wasn’t uncommon for a soldier to beat an enemy to death with the same shield his grandfather had used. 

It also wasn’t uncommon for Spartans to decorate their shield. This served two purposes: it helped the individual Spartan be identified on the battlefield, and it looked intimidatingly dope. 

I recently came across one particularly amusing story concerning the shield of a Spartan. History (or legend) relays that an unnamed Spartan soldier spent many hours painting a life-sized fly onto his shield. This annoyed his peers, who accused him of cowardice (because his enemies wouldn’t be able to tell who he was) and of complete idiocy to boot.

The young Spartan then stunned his peers by explaining that the fly would be the size of a giant when he smashed it into his enemies’ face. The Spartan warrior is said to have declared “It will be the size of a lion when i bore down on my enemies.

Many different versions of the quote exist, but the overall gist of what the Spartan was trying to say is clear. “I’m going face to face with these fools… and I will shield-punch these guys so hard, my future family will get paid royalties from the Captain America movie franchise.”

It will be the size of a lion when i bore down on my enemies.” I stood up on my chair after reading this the first time screaming LET’S GOOOOO! 

It was this kind of mentality that fueled 300 warriors to give their lives in a narrow Greek mountain pass, in the face of insurmountable odds, for the sake of freedom. Today a simple engraved stone marks their burial ground. And in their prime, they didn’t see themselves as heroes. They certainly didn’t realize just how far their courage would stretch.

Yet their courage stretches to you even as you read these words…

How, you may ask?

Historians believe that the Battle of Thermopylae was the birthplace of democracy. It is cited as the first time a people group withstood dictatorship and tyranny. Thousands of years later, in a small room in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, fifty-six men would sign what is now known as the Declaration of Independence, declaring a new nation’s independence from the tyrannical rule of Great Britain. Two of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, would cite Thermopylae as a model for thirteen colonies standing up to King George the bully.

Interesting that two hundred plus years later, you read these words while living in a free country. Every year, on July 4th, you eat burgers, shoot fireworks, and celebrate the courage of our founding fathers. Their courage has stretched to you…

And I would add the courage of 300 Spartans as well.

C.S. Lewis once stated, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.” Yours is a generation who grow fearful, who bow out at that testing point. In matters of faith, family, relationships, choices, courage gives way to mediocrity, to hesitancy, to compromise. But what would your life look like if your heart were bolstered by courage? Since Jesus raised Himself from death and conquered sin, doesn’t it make sense that He intended His followers to live a life of unquestionable courage? What happens when those who should have the most courage whimper into the shadows?

The Scriptures have much to say about being brave. David encouraged readers in Psalm 31:24 to “Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.” The phrase take heart translates have courage in Hebrew. And David qualifies who should be strong and full of courage – people who have placed their hope in God. So here is what I want to ask you: In what area of your life do you need to be brave? 

One day someone may cite a decision you made in the prime of your life, a decision that you never considered within the realm of heroism. A choice you made that was hard at the time but the right thing to do…

And you have no idea how far your courage in that moment will stretch. 

Let’s discuss this in the Circle…

Several years ago my wife and I had an emotional conversation with our 8th grade daughter. She was expressing the intense, sometimes overwhelming pressure she feels (you do too) to compromise all that she deeply desires and values. As tears flowed and her heart boiled over and out, I made a passing comment to her to just BE YOU. The next morning, on our way to school, I glanced down at her hand. She had written BE YOU in bold letters on the top of her hand: a simple reminder of perhaps the most courageous thing a student can do: to BE YOU in a world that is constantly trying to challenge and change you.   

Our daughter is not an anomaly. You are no different. Thousands upon thousands of students who know Jesus personally, love Jesus deeply, want to be the extraordinary, unique version of themselves that God created them to be. 

Straight up: you want to be great. In every area of your life, there is at least a tinge of desire for being more than average. All of us have this inkling, this yearning, I think, because of what Solomon in Ecclesiastes declares about eternity being branded in our hearts since the beginning of our existence. That means, among many things, that a very, very vast longing (eternity) is at work in a world that offers a ton of small, counterfeit satisfactions. And something has to span the chasm between being like every other teenager on planet earth and being the masterpiece, the image bearer, that God created you to be and demonstratively declares you are.

That something is courage.

C.S. Lewis once stated, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.” In other words, courage is the substance of greatness. Yours, however, is a generation of students who grow fearful, who bow out at that testing point. In matters of faith, family, relationships, choices, courage gives way to mediocrity, to hesitancy, to compromise. 

But let me lay down a funky beat for you real quick: What would your life look like if your heart were bolstered by courage? 

Think about the regrets, great or small, that you have in life. Wouldn’t courage in a moment of choice made a huge difference? 

Consider the paths underneath your feet right now: If you don’t have courage, what path will you choose? 

Isn’t it true that what separates you from who you were created to be, want to become, what you want to do, where you want to be is something really hard? And isn’t equally if not even more true that what you need to bridge that separation is courage? 

But how do I become more courageous? I am glad you asked…

Dive into the Scriptures and see just how often God’s people needed to be encouraged. You will find that courage is a prerequisite for greatness. You will also notice that those who bowed out when they should have bowed up live in infamous obscurity. The Bible screams that greatness and courage are best friends. BFFs. Homies. Buzz and Woody. Jay Z and Beyonce. You get the idea. 

Trash the idea that to be courageous means you are never afraid. Fear is a prerequisite for courage. If you were not afraid, why would you need to be brave? Most of us never exercise courage because we think “I am afraid. I can’t.” No: Because I am fearful, I must. Fear is the indicator that courage is required. Fear is your cue that courage is due. 

I JUST WENT SNOOP DOGG RYMIN’ ON YALL FOOLS!  

Never underestimate how far your courage will stretch. You think that living courageously doesn’t matter? You are creating a legacy for your future, your future spouse, your children, your children’s children, the world by the courageous life you display today. You have no clue what hangs in the balance of whether you will act courageously. Consider the stories coming out of Ukraine of a Ukrainian woman who knocked down a Russian drone with a jar of pickled tomatoes… or the Ukrainian woman who told Russian soldiers to put sunflower seeds in their pockets so that flowers can grow when they die. Do you realize that without the courage of a Jewish orphan girl who became the Queen of Persia and risked her own life for the sake of the Jewish race some 470+ years before, there would have been no Jesus born to a Hebrew teenager? Read the book of Esther. Courage is elastic. Courage stretches.     

Pump the brakes comparing courage. I like to race senior adults that speed walk in the mall. It makes me feel Usain Bolt fast (just like bathing with those little bars of hotel soap makes me feel like I have huge muscles). All kidding aside, imagine just how much courage it takes for that senior citizen to get up every day and “attack the track” inside the Mall of Georgia. Courage is relative. What may seem minuscule, easy to you is enormously hard for someone else. You just be brave enough for you. Bulletproof vest testing is not necessarily necessary.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to change you will be your greatest accomplishment. 

BE BRAVE. 

BE YOU. 

As a next generation leader worth following, courage is a downpayment for influence. It is nonnegotiable. It comes with the territory. If you do not want to be brave, you do not want to lead. Better stated, if you want to be a leader, you have to be courageous. 

All of us are always being brave in some way or another. How have you recognized this to be true in your life or the lives of those around you? Can you see it in your choices and actions over the past week?

For most people you know, what would you say appear to be the most common objects of their bravery?

Let’s dive into this in the Circle…

We asked you to watch the epic film Dune. Oscar nominee Denis Villeneuve directs Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ Dune, the big-screen adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal bestselling book. A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive. Villeneuve directed Dune from a screenplay he co-wrote with Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth based on the novel of the same name written by Frank Herbert.

It would be easy to simply raise our hands and thank God that Christ’s death and resurrection sets us free from the communal sins and systemic evils of our time. Paul, Jessica, Leto, and the rest may be captive to some form of naturalistic determinism, but we are free to choose a better way.

But do we?

It would indeed be easy to characterize Herbert’s universe as nothing more than a stark and depressing depiction of a world without a true savior. And yet our world does have Christ and isn’t remotely free of the evils Herbert so vividly portrays. 

The Crusades were driven by priests, not pagans. The antebellum South was professedly Christian. And if you rifled through your closet, you may find more than one tag reading “Made in Bangladesh.”

The processes of disentangling our curriculum, politics, infrastructure, denominations, and supply chains from the perpetual sins of greed and power-mongering would be no easy or simple task. Nor, candidly, should we presume to understand these dynamics well enough to chart a course for such an enterprise. Yet one could confidently argue that such a task would begin by admitting such ills exist.

Herbert’s story is not a particularly happy tale, nor is his world an especially hopeful one. Yet it is beautifully, painfully, and inescapably honest.

Are you? When considering the culture you live in, the country you live in, what is true? Where are the roots of evil in your world? Read Luke 3:8-14. What does John challenge us to consider repentance to look like?

Let’s discuss this in the Circle…

We asked you to read New York Time’s article I Followed the Lives of 3,290 Teenagers. This Is What I Learned About Religion and Education.

A sociologist of education and religion followed the lives of 3,290 teenagers from 2003 to 2012 using survey and interview data from the National Study of Youth and Religion, and then linking those data to the National Student Clearinghouse in 2016. He studied the relationship between teenagers’ religious upbringing and its influence on their education: their school grades, which colleges they attend and how much higher education they complete. His findings are insanely interesting….

Dr. Horwitz writes that “Theological belief on its own is not enough to influence how children behave. Adolescents must believe and belong to be buffered against emotional, cognitive or behavioral despair… (religion) offers them the social capital that affluent teenagers can get elsewhere.” What is your immediate reaction to that idea? How does belonging impact you personally?

Time to dive into this in the Circle…

We asked you to read The Christian Century article It’s Time to Reimagine the Church Parking Lot.

Churches survived, succeeded, and even flourished 1,900 years before parking lots ever existed. Even most city neighborhood churches never had parking spaces when they began. The need for church parking lots emerged only after most of the members moved to the suburbs, away from the city neighborhood church, and drove in for Sunday worship services. Before they drove and parked, most church members walked, biked, or took public transit to church. Contemplate a parking lot for a moment. It’s a flat, impervious surface with a single purpose: the temporary storage of automobiles.

Ok. Let’s think creative: what are viable ways your faith community’s parking lot can be used for the common good and flourishing of others? What needs to be done to make this happen? 

Let’s discuss this in the Circle…

We asked you to watch the TED Talk by Keller Rinaudo titled How We’re Using Drones to Deliver Blood and Save Lives.

Keller Rinaudo asks, “Who is going to be creating the disruptive technology companies of Africa over the next decade? Ultimately, it’s going to be up to these kids. They are the engineers of Rwanda and Africa. They are the engineers of our shared future. But the only way they can build that future is if we realize that world-changing companies can scale in Africa, and that disruptive technology can start here first.”

Let’s think: what is one problem in your sphere of influence that needs to be solved? What issue bothers you? What have you done about it?

Let’s dive into this in the Circle… 

We asked you to read the Christianity Today article titled $100M Ad Campaign Aims to Make Jesus the ‘Biggest Brand in Your City.

“He Gets Us,” an effort to attract skeptics and cultural Christians, launches nationally this month. But Christians still have questions about how the church markets faith.

Market research, McKendry said, found skeptics were more likely to be convinced their values lined up with Jesus’ than with other religious figures like Mohammad or Buddha. In your opinion, what is the most effective way to “raise their level of respect for Jesus” in our culture? Is a marketing campaign the correct move?

Let’s dive into this in the Circle…

Disclaimer:

INFLUNSR’s mission is to fuel the next generation of leaders worth following and to help students learn how to think, not what to think. Any articles posted and questions asked are intended for that sole purpose.

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