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An old man used to say in an old-man-wisdom sort of way, “Ah Lord, a lot see but a few know, a lot start but few go.” See it. Know it. Start. Go.

Donald Trump recently raised eyebrows with a classic “mean tweet” by suggesting the US should consider taking back the Panama Canal. You might wonder what all the fuss is about. Why would Trump say something like that about a mere canal? The answer is a tale of a time when visionary American leadership knew something, started something and changed the world.

History is filled with legends of those willing to step out into the unknown and just start as opposed to being stuck in a siege mentality. A siege mentality involves cowering down, barricading the gates, and fretting over your resources.  In a siege mentality it’s all about preserving the status quo. It’s hard to start anything hunkered down in a siege mentality.

Ronald Reagan said “tear down this wall” and soon afterward the Iron Curtain came down. Bill Gates decided to start a little company called Microsoft in his garage and it became a world leader in technology. A little-known company called Sun Records changed the world of music by taking a chance on a young guy named Elvis Presley. In every one of those moments someone had to get out of the siege mentality. They had to start, never knowing if it would work.

One of my favorite passages in scripture comes from 1 Samuel 14.  The passage tells a battlefield story of heroism against the odds. It illustrates what happens when a leader will see it, know it, start something and go all in.

The Philistines were at war with Israel. King Saul’s army was outnumbered, poorly led, and despondent. But Saul’s son Jonathan couldn’t abide by what he was seeing. Looking across the valley at the Philistines Jonathan got a notion, turned to his armor bearer, and said, “lets go over to those uncircumcised and see if the Lord will work for us. For God is not restrained to save by many or by few”.

What it boiled down to was Jonathan saying “I have an idea. Let’s go pick a fight and see if it works.” Two men went up against an army, not even sure yet if they fully understood the outcome. But they started.

The story goes that teeth and hair were soon flying as Jonathan and his aide wiped out the entire garrison of Philistines. The ruckus caught the attention of Saul who could see and hear the fight across the valley. The victory galvanized the nation of Israel whose army rose up with a renewed sense of purpose.

The broader victory was huge though the outcome was originally uncertain. The desire was great, the talent was strong, the need was there, but it all originally made no sense. The difference between Jonathan and everyone else in the entire nation of Israel was that he was bold enough to see it, and just start.

And that my friends is what happened with the Panama Canal. President Teddy Roosevelt had a notion. Congress, the press and the public all thought it was crazy. The French had already tried to dig the canal and lost an estimated 22,000 men during their failed attempt.

The debate raged. Roosevelt said that he knew that if he gave the project over to the debate of the naysayers, it would 50 years before dirt was moved. He determined to start the canal and let the naysayers debate him instead. He could see it, and he started.

5,609 men died during the American construction of the Canal. The US Government spent $375 million to build it, making it the most expensive project in US History to that time, and the equivalent of $15.2 Billion in today’s dollars. The outcome was uncertain, but they started.

Today the Panama Canal is the gateway to commerce in the Western Hemisphere. It is so important that the shipbuilding industry uses the scale of the Panama Canal to determine the ship size using a standard known as “Panamax”. Six percent of all global maritime trade travels through the Panama Canal with Seventy-three percent of that to and from US ports. Forty percent of all US shipping goes through the canal. Over $270 billion dollars of cargo transits through the canal that was started by a crazy idea from an American President.

The Panama Canal has become the world standard. It changed global commerce by opening up trade and removing barriers. For nearly a century the United States built, paid for, and maintained the Panama Canal. It all happened because Roosevelt just started.

But in 1977 US President Jimmy Carter agreed to give away what had been built by the US. In 1999 the canal zone had been turned over and within a few years China began initiating the next phase of its “Belt and Road” initiative with new port operations, infrastructure, and influence. In recent years the US Navy and commercial shipping have been forced to pay exorbitant fees for rite of passage through the canal that we built – even going so far as to auction entre to the highest bidder.

Trump’s “mean tweet” is a leader putting the world on notice that we will not be taken advantage of. Not in our own back yard. Not in the canal that we built. Not in a way that impairs our economy and impedes our military. He is absolutely right. We started it. We went there. We built it.

Sometimes in the midst of the siege a leader has to step out and see what happens. It might mean going across the way and getting skin’t up a mite. But in the seeing, and knowing, and starting and going that leader might get neck deep and find that God is in it. The people might get roused up from their siege mentality. It might just change the world.