They Think You're Stupid (23 page)

I called Steve Moore and told him I had reconsidered and was going to put together an exploratory committee. He was happy to hear that and pledged his help, which he subsequently provided big time, and said he would arrange for me to present to the Club for Growth for consideration of financial support. The Club also came through big time.

My call to Steve Moore happened about a week before I was supposed to give my speech at the Crystal Cathedral's International Men's Conference in California. As I discovered later, my speech at the Men's Conference was on the same weekend as the 2003 Georgia Republican Party statewide convention.

I received a call from someone active in Republican politics who had heard I was running even before I had made the decision to do so. Now that I had decided to run, he suggested I should cancel my commitment at the Crystal Cathedral and attend the state convention. I said absolutely not. I do not break commitments unless I'm severely ill or there's a personal tragedy. More than I could have ever anticipated, that was the right decision.

My next two calls were to Steve Caldiera and Tony Fabrizzio. Steve had worked for me as vice president of communications at the National Restaurant Association when I was president and CEO from 1997 to mid-1999. Tony was a mutual friend and well-known political consultant I met in the early 1990s as chairman of the association. Steve and Tony both asked (in separate phone calls) if I had lost my (expletive!) mind. I met the two of them in Washington, D.C., in mid-June 2003, and when they understood that I had to do this, they offered their help and assisted me in putting together a game plan. The election was only thirteen months away. Thirteen has always been a good number for me because I was born on the thirteenth.

My speech at the Crystal Cathedral was extremely well-received. I spoke on the subject of leadership as discussed in my then-latest book
CEO of Self.
The invitation to speak came as a result of meeting Dr. Robert Schuller through the Horatio Alger Association and through having been his interview guest several times on his weekly
Hour of Power
television program. Dr. Schuller was there for the speech that night, which had a more than normal spiritual tone, since it was in one of the most inspiring spiritual settings I have ever experienced. Until that night, Dr. Schuller did not know that I was also an associate minister at my home church in Atlanta, Antioch Baptist Church North.

About a month later, Dr. Schuller called asking me to give the morning sermon for one of the Crystal Cathedral Sunday services in July while he would be on vacation. The sermon would be broadcast nationwide in August.
Wow!
I thought to myself. It had been an awesome experience just to attend one of Dr. Schuller's Sunday services and then to be his guest for an interview several times over the years. Now I was asked to deliver the morning sermon! I felt humbled, inspired, and challenged. What an honor.

As we talked, Dr. Schuller gave me the date and said he sincerely hoped I could say yes to July 20, 2003. I looked at my calendar, saw that I was available, and immediately accepted his invitation. I was so excited that I did not realize the date was exactly one year prior to the 2004 primary election date for the Senate race I had just decided to enter. Though I had already heard God loud and clear, He was still talking to me.

I was prayerful for about a week as to what I should preach about, and yes, I planned to preach! What message could I deliver to such a vast and broad worldwide audience? Soon the inspiration came. As I prepared that sermon, I knew it was for me as much as it was for others who might hear it.

The sermon was titled "Your Purpose in Life." I delivered it for both services, and it was broadcast around the world in August 2003. The sermon is in the appendix section of this book, and you can hear it on www.hermancain.com.

Little did I know how many people all over Georgia would be watching my sermon that Sunday. It turned out to be thousands and thousands of people, because as I campaigned for the Senate people would constantly remark that they had seen me on the
Hour of Power
from the Crystal Cathedral.

As I said earlier, it was absolutely the right decision, and in retrospect for a whole lot of reasons.

My Senate race was another example that "the bend in the road is not the end of the road" in life. My father would probably have added, ". . . if you don't miss the curve." Finishing an impressive second place in the 2004 Republican Senate Primary was just a bend in the road, and I was not about to miss the curve.

Throughout the campaign I felt like I was running at 75 miles per hour, 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week. One of our campaign mottos was, "They will not outwork us." I believe we lived up to that motto. In fact, a field staffperson for one of my opponents asked me one day, "Are there two of you?" I said no, I'm just faster than a speeding bullet.

Election night was exciting and emotional. After all the hard work by everyone on the campaign team, the volunteers, the donors, and sacrifices of so many people, it all came down to this night. Watching the election results come in was one of the biggest thrills of my life. But around 9:30 p.m. my campaign manager concluded that we were not going to force a run-off like we had hoped. It was time to concede.

Although I was disappointed and, by now, extremely exhausted, I was not devastated. We had worked as hard and as fast as we could. We were proud of our second place finish, knowing that many political pundits did not think I had a chance at all. More than twenty years ago, Reverend Alexander preached another sermon that I never forgot. It was titled "When one door closes, another door opens," and its message applies to me today.

When the Senate race was over, I knew I had to slow down and reevaluate, regroup, and refocus. Since that time, new "doors" have opened, and unexpected opportunities are constantly coming my way. Becoming a United States senator would have allowed me to be a catalyst for aggressive change in Congress. That did not happen. Instead, a new foundation, opportunities for radio, television, Internet, and print media have emerged as a new and exciting phase of my life's journey. I do not know where these endeavors will ultimately lead, but I know I know "Who" leads the way.

Stay tuned. I didn't miss the curve!

• I had always been goal oriented ever since I wanted to help Dad with his night janitor's job to make some spending money. The concept of decades goals had to be God-inspired to keep me focused, because I realized long ago that God put me on a fast track of success for reasons that are still unfolding. Sometimes those reasons include the unanswered question: How do I make this a better world?

• I had been extremely blessed with a great life and many talents that I was about to park on a golf cart three times a week. And now four events had said NO to that scenario; Celena's birth, Steve Moore's call, when I dropped my Bible, and Reverend Alexander's sermon on "A Calling."

• The last week in May of 2003 I decided to run for the United States Senate in Georgia.

• My Senate race was another example that "the bend in the road is not the end of the road" in life. My father would probably have added, "If you don't miss the curve." Finishing an impressive second place in the 2004 Republican Senate Primary was just a bend in the road.

Your purpose in life has two dimensions . . . finding it and living it. Finding
your purpose is a process. Living
your purpose is a decision. Jesus explained this to His disciples in Mark 8:36:
"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
Jesus had a divine purpose that He had to live out.

We all have purpose in life because God does not make junk. God created all of us on purpose for a purpose, which is revealed to us in phases throughout life, because life is a journey. Moses never expected his journey to take him back to Egypt to become the reluctant leader of the children of Israel. Ronald Reagan probably never envisioned his journey going from radio to TV to movies and then to president of the United States of America. I never imagined being a mathematician, then a corporate executive, and then a pizza company president and CEO. Life is indeed a journey.

Life is a challenging journey filled with complexity and confusion, which can blur our purpose in life and even get us off purpose. The words to the closing song of the 2000 Olympic games reminds us that

Life can be a challenge.

Life can seem impossible.

It's never easy when there's so much on the line.

But you can make a difference.

There's a mission just for you.

Just look inside and you will find

Just what you
can
do . . .

Our purpose in life is to do what we
can
do, no matter how big or small, using the God-given talents unique to each of us. Some of us were put on this earth to build a great Crystal Cathedral Ministry to provide hope and positive possibilities to millions and millions of people. Some of us were put here to bring a smile to the face of one lonely child.

I'm glad Jesus stayed on His purpose, which was to die for our sins to save the world. After being baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus went into the wilderness for forty days where he was tested by God and tempted by the devil. He withstood the test and did not yield to the temptations by the devil. When he came out of the wilderness he went on a recruiting trip to find the Twelve Disciples. Peter and his brother Andrew and the brothers James and John were among his first recruits. With the Twelve Disciples Jesus went about the land teaching, preaching, and healing. The disciples were constantly amazed as Jesus taught and performed miracle after miracle after miracle among the people.

Then one day, as documented in Mark 8:31-33
,
Jesus paused with the disciples to do a Bible study class with them. And in this particular Bible study session with His disciples, Jesus informed them of His purpose. He told them that the time will come soon when he will be rejected, he will suffer, he will die an agonizing death, but in three days (the good news) he will rise again. The disciples were disturbed to hear these things. So much so that Peter pulled Jesus aside and, as the Scripture says, "began to rebuke him."

My spiritual imagination and contemporary vernacular tells me that Peter might have said to Jesus, "Look Master, we have a good thing going on here. Your preaching is drawing huge crowds, four and five thousand at a time. And on top of that, you are able to feed them with just a few fish and some biscuits. Your miracles are healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, making people walk again, and I have never seen anybody walk on water until I met you. So why not just stay out of Jerusalem, skip the suffering and dying, and we can keep doing what we're doing."

The Devil was using Peter to tempt Jesus out of fulfilling His purpose. But then Jesus looked at his disciples and Peter and began to rebuke Peter, saying in the 33rd verse,
"
Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men."

Jesus teaches us that achieving fame and fortune and just enjoying our success is not our ultimate purpose. It's what we do with the fame and fortune and success that matters most in life. And if we acquire no fame and no fortune, and we can barely make it from paycheck to paycheck, it's what we do with the little that we have that matters. As the familiar hymn says, "Only what you do for Christ will last." The rest is just stuff!

The things that be of men can tempt you into thinking that the purpose of life is to achieve a "quiet prosperity" or a life of indulgence and excess, rather than the things that be of God. The Apostle Paul tells us that those things are faith, hope, and charity in 1 Corinthians 13:13
.
Purpose in life is revealed through faith
,
inspired with hope, and used to help others (charity). Purpose means doing the things you
can
do to
help
others on their journey.

Dr. Cameron Alexander, pastor of Antioch Baptist Church North in Atlanta, says you find purpose in life at the intersection of
talent
and
human need
. The apostle Paul calls this intersection charity . . . Corinthians (13:13), "And now abideth faith, hope, and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

Although my father, Luther Cain Jr., left home at the age of eighteen with just his faith in God, his belief in himself, and his belief in
his
American dream, he did what he
could
do. He did not know where his journey would ultimately lead him, but he knew he had to make that first bold step.

Living your purpose in life is uphill, uncertain, but it can be uplifting! When Jesus dragged that old rugged cross to Calvary, it was uphill. Each day of our lives is an uncertainty because tomorrow is not promised, it's a mystery, but we know who unlocks the mystery of tomorrow day by day. And we have the uplifting joy of knowing that Jesus fulfilled His purpose for us.

Four years ago I discovered my new purpose in life. I did not know which path it would take me down on my life journey, but God had made it crystal clear to me what I was supposed to be about for the rest of my life using everything I had achieved, everything I had experienced, everything I had learned, and some things I had not learned yet. The birth of my granddaughter, Celena, made me realize that I had not completed my purpose.

Finding
your purpose in life begins with the
things that be of God . . . faith, hope, and charity.
Living
your purpose in life will at times be
uphill, uncertain, but uplifting
at the intersection of
your talents
and
human need
. Just look inside the word of God, and you will find just what you
can
do.

The words of Dr. Benjamin E. Mays describe the tragedy of life without purpose when he said, "It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goals, the tragedy lies in not having any goals to reach. It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not dream. It is not a disaster to be unable to capture your ideals, but it is a disaster to have no ideals to capture. It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach."

Delivered at the Crystal Cathedral

Dr. Robert Schuller, Pastor

Garden Grove, California

July 20, 2003