If Common Sense was Common Everyone Would Have It

For a number of years I was in business. Construction management to be exact. I did mostly high end residential construction, remodeling and built restaurants. The more complicated the better. For me it was just a matter of organization. Certain parts fit together in certain ways and particular sequences. It was, to me, just common sense. One of my favorite plumbing contractors was a guy named Frank and one of his favorite saying was, “If common sense was common everyone would have it.” It seems odd. Most people I think assume that everyone has common sense. I think Frank was right. Common sense really isn’t common and we can see that as so few seem to possess it. Take some of the news items from this week for example which demonstrate this.

William Campenni pointed out that the Financial Bust Connected to Illegal Alien Mortgages. Not to dimish the role of “greedy bankers” and the role of congress in pressing mortgage lenders to create the “liar loan” in order to get mortgages for those who cannot afford to pay them he makes a compelling case that without a large base of illegals to bring in to the scheme which all legal Americans would eventually have to pay for. William used a common sense approach”

It doesn’t take the research resources of the Federal Reserve or Fannie Mae or the Wall Street Journal to discover this linkage of the subprime mortgages to the illegal alien customer base. A few hours on Google will bring it out with startling clarity. The distribution of subprimes going into foreclosure in the 2005-2007 period that commenced the current collapse closely matches the concentrations of illegal aliens — Southern and Central Valley of California, Nevada, Texas, the southwest border states, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, and metro areas like Denver, Chicago, and Cleveland, and the Washington suburbs. The matches correlate to the ZIP code, or even more accurately, to the neighborhood.

Proverbs 6:32 says:

The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense;He who would destroy himself does it.

This leads us to the next examples of a lack of common sense. After being arrested, pleading guilty and agreeing on a sentence (an unbelievably light sentence) film director Roman Polanski fled the U.S. and has been living abroad. He has had a U.S. arrest warrant outstanding since 1978, and an international arrest warrant since 2005. In September he decided to go to a film festival to receive an award for his film ”The Pianist.” He was arrested and the U.S. is working on getting him extradited. He is seeking to be released but for the moment it appears that Roman Polanski Will Remain in Swiss Prison. The utter lack of common sense in so many areas and by some many involved with this is beyond absurd. Drugging a 13 year old girl and sodomizing her, then fleeing the country to avoid punishment, successfully avoiding punishment for 30 years and deciding to go to a nation where he could be arrested in order to get an award stretches my brain about the lack of common sense. But that is often the case. Selfishness seems to cancel out common sense. Then we see Hollywood elites (over 100 so far) signing a petition to get Polanski’s release. Why? Because, as Whoopi Goldberg put it, “It wasn’t rape, rape.” Huh? Is that like Clinton’s oral sex isn’t real sex? There is no common sense here to be sure.

David Letterman revealed on the air that he has been having sexual relations with his female staffers. CBS producer named Robert (Joe) Halderman allegedly attempted to blackmail Letterman. Among Halderman’s list of achievements is his Emmy award winning programs on crimes and as the Daily News put it, “boneheaded criminals.” Again, all of this defies common sense in so many ways. For David Letterman, who is abundantly aware of the scrutiny public figures live under to compromise himself and his marriage, especially after the sexual fopahs in his comments about Sarah Palin and her daughter earlier this year, lacks common sense.

Ecclesiastes 10:3 could easily have been written for Halderman:

Even when the fool walks along the road, his sense is lacking and he demonstrates to everyone that he is a fool.

In light of his work on criminals and the millions of ways they can get themselves caught Halderman should have had more common sense than to attempt to blackmail David Letterman. Instead he went for immediate financial gratification.

Solomon writes in Proverbs 14:12 & 16:25, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” Immediate gratification and self satisfaction have a price to pay. They cause individuals to make short term decisions without consideration of the long term effects. The individuals lack common sense. Sadly, many churches are in the same condition. Generating nickels and noses immediately through the best marketing and latest programs replace sound teaching and personal discipleship over a long time. The result is a lack of biblical literacy, spiritual relevance and power. The result is an increase in embracing all religions as equally true and valid. Parade Magazine’s article, How Spiritual Are We?

What Americans are doing today is separating spirituality from religion, with many people disavowing organized practice altogether while privately maintaining some form of worship. The old terms—“atheist” and “agnostic”—are no longer catch-alls for everyone outside traditional belief. In fact, 24% of respondents put themselves into a whole new category: “spiritual but not religious.”

That phrase means different things to different people. Some may be members of traditional religions but want to signal that they aren’t legalistic or rigid. At the other end of the spectrum, “spiritual but not religious” can apply to someone who has combined diverse beliefs and practices into a personal faith that fits no standard definition.

Going back and instilling common sense in church leadership may be a good starting point.