Images of America, Biltmore Estate

If you had over $4 billion dollars and 125,000 acres, what would you do with it?

George Vanderbilt, the grandson of railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt "The Commodore", knew what he wanted to do. His father, William Henry Vanderbilt left a legacy of over $200 million dollars in 1885 when he died which is the equivalent of $4 billion today. In the 1890's George began buying land outside of Asheville, NC, that soon amounted to over 125,000 acres and expanded into 3 counties. There, he built the largest privately owned home in America called "Biltmore."

I have visited the estate on a few occasions and I'm always fascinated by the house and the Vanderbilt family's way of life. Having lived in the greater Nashville area for the last decade, I've also adopted Vanderbilt University as my SEC favorite. Combining these two interests, I'm making it a point to learn more about the Vanderbilt family. I've started with something light.

Ellen Erwin Rickman's Biltmore Estate (Images of America: North Carolina) was a fun book. Full of old pictures, each caption gave a wonderful history and glimpse of the Vanderbilt family, their values and the culture they created. It also gave good insight on the construction of the Biltmore Estate and how it took a village to run the place. The only thing it was lacking were modern day images for comparison.

If you want to learn some history and prefer books with pictures...this is it.

Pray Big, Serve Small

I was challenged a few months ago to pray bigger. I've never really thought much about about the size of my prayers, but I think there is some merit to praying bigger and serving smaller.

Image by frozenminds via Flickr

Pray Big
When people ask for prayers, how often do they request on a global scale? For example, think of the last time someone asked you to pray for an individual who was sick with cancer. Now think of the last time you prayed for a cancer cure so that everyone with cancer is healed. I'm guessing most people haven't prayed for the latter.

Are our prayers to selfish? If all people adopted a "pray big" model, what implications would it have?

Serve Small
I also wonder if there is a temptation for us to make up for our small prayers through serving big. Obviously, there are advantages to connecting with ministries that have a global impact. When we help, we want to help big. We want to see change on a large scale. We want our efforts to produce fruit at the same rate we pour ourselves into a project.

Some people have a gift to run and manage ministries that serve big, but all of us have the ability to serve small. You may only be able to serve one cancer patient, but you can pray for all cancer patients. If everyone served those in their vicinity, think of the impact it has globally.

There's nothing wrong with praying small and serving big, I just wonder if we have a good balance of both.

Routine

Growing up, there was a lot of frustration in my heritage with worship services being too routine. People would often suggest switching around the various elements of worship to spice things up a little. You know, crazy stuff. For example, instead of 2 songs and a prayer to start things off, maybe they would start with a prayer and 3 songs.

I suppose when innovation is completely lacking, the only available ideas can seem innovative when they're not.

At the end of the day, I think we like our routines. It doesn't mean they're bad, nor does it mean we don't like things to change every now and then. Still, we may not think about just how routine some of our actions are. Good or bad, it's eye opening how easy it is to fall into routine without realizing it.

When it comes to branding, Patrick Hanlon's Primal Branding would call it "ritual". If you can create a good ritual, people will stay with you and your brand longer.

Charlie Brooker's generic news video kind of proves the point, in my opinion.

Redistrubution of wealth

The people I know who are wealthy, are also very generous people. They give in abundance to others. There are also those like myself, who are labeled as middle class. Obviously, individuals in this class can't give in the same measure, but the heart and desire to give to those less fortunate still exists.

It seems to me, both the upper and middle classes both look to bring the standard of living up for the lower class, but I wonder if there is a better way. Would change happen faster, if the upper class would focus on helping the middle class and the middle class focus on the lower class? Would the trickle down effect work?

I can only speak from the experience of middle class, but it would seem to me that my goals and dreams inspire me to pursue the things that will catapult me into the upper class, so that I can in return, bless the lower class. Even though I attempt to help the lower classes now, my focus is divided in terms of money. As for my time, I can give to the lower class. Is that the same story for the upper class?

Imagine for a moment, that the upper class began paying off mortgages and debts of the middle class. Would that open the door for the middle class to bless the lower class more abundantly and provide a more hands on approach to their giving? Would the lower class be inspired more from receiving from middle class, because to them middle class is a more realistic dream at the moment. For the lower class to receive from the upper class, I wonder if there is a great divide, that prevents inspiration from crossing over.

It's a theory I'd like to see more research on.

Remembering the Battle of Franklin

Every day I drive through the American Civil War battlefield in Franklin. At the time of the battle in 1864, it was just as much a town as it was a field. As one of the bloodiest battles, thousands of lives were lost as the South continued to push the North all the way back into Nashville.

Image via Wikipedia

Even though I make the drive regularly, only on occasion do I reflect about the significance of what took place nearly 150 years ago. I imagine I'm not the only one. In fact, it's not uncommon at all to meet Franklin residents who have never stopped to learn the first thing about the Battle of Franklin.

How can that be changed? I have one idea that might get some attention. Even though much of the hand-to-hand combat took place just south of the square and main street, keep in mind that today, Franklin's downtown area is full of visitors and foot traffic. Imagine if for the month of November leading up to the anniversary of the battle on the 30th, those pedestrians saw chalk outlines of hundreds of fallen soldiers who gave their life for our country.

Even then, it couldn't possibly compare to the site a small number of locals beheld when they stepped out of their homes on the morning of December 1, 1864 and laid eyes on the aftermath of over 9,000 casualties.