It’s been said that the average person has five senses— touch, taste, sight, smell and hearing—but the successful individual has two additional senses: horse and common.

Perhaps the latter faculty of common sense is the most uncommon sense of all. How the headlines of the world, or our own personal daily headlines, would be different if we used common sense rather than being pulled under by the riptide of emotion, hearsay, gossip and peer pressure. Perhaps there is nowhere on earth more in need of this basic element of success called "common sense" than the world's most geopolitically complicated piece of real estate—the Middle East. In an area which many consider an archaic backwater of political development, one man is speaking sense in a senseless neighborhood.

Recently, Los Angeles Times staff writer Robin Wright wrote an intriguing article, which appeared in the May 12, 2002, issue, entitled "Jordan's Transformation Is a Victim of Mideast Turmoil." Wright spotlighted the reign of Abdullah II of Jordan. After three years of ruling the Kingdom of Jordan, he is beginning to step out from the long shadow of his famous father, King Hussein. What is emerging is worth noting, with perhaps an even longer view to the future.

Leapfrogging into the future

Abdullah is trying to "leapfrog" his country forward by aggressively pursuing numerous dynamic internal changes for his kingdom. Several years ago, he was known for his "Arthurian" style of slipping out of the palace in disguise without the trappings of royalty, and visiting medical, educational and government institutions to see for himself the service granted the average individual. Perhaps one of his more telling exploits was walking in and out of his country's Internal Revenue Service with several files without being detected or hindered. This kind of innovative leadership gave him high marks with his subjects. But that was yesterday, and time is a precious commodity in the turbulence of Middle East politics.

This king recognizes peace is an imperative. Perhaps more than most Middle East leaders, he is focused on the future and the need for internal growth because his "oil-less" kingdom cannot rest on its present petroleum-based financial reserves. Necessity truly is the mother of invention. To him, it's common sense.

Reporter Wright brings out that "his agenda has included high-tech centers to teach Bedouin nomads and impoverished villagers, many of whom have never seen a typewriter, how to 'get wired.' The impact was soon visible as the government accelerated a painful and noisy transition. Jordan now brags to have more computer programmers than Ireland and its economic growth last year was 4.2%, which is the highest in the Arab world." Beyond the technological progress, the king would like to make further political changes in a region devoid of the democratic political process.

A chilling warning about extremism

But this 40-year-old "net-surfing" king and his fundamentally tribal society cannot help but feel the impact of the current Palestinian intifada. It's taking a personal toll on the king. Remember that the Kingdom of Jordan's population is by itself nearly 50 percent Palestinian. Jordan's 1994 peace treaty with Israel, which makes it one of only two Arab states with such a relationship, presses Jordanians to the limits due to the perceived plight of their ethnic kinsmen.

Recently the king's wife, Queen Rania, herself a Palestinian from the West Bank, led a peaceful march through Amman to express solidarity with the people of Tulkarm, her hometown, which was subjected to a recent Israeli incursion. With tensions running high, any future political movement has ground to a halt as even sterner measures have been put in place to maintain public calm. The pressures from America, Israel, his fellow Arab states, his own Palestinian constituency and the actions of his own wife place incredible challenges squarely on his shoulders.

But just as this young king dreamed big regarding material progress for his kingdom, he now dreams even bigger for a real peace for the entire region. But as reporter Wright carefully notes, "Abdullah is candid about the challenges and his response." In his recent 10-day tour to the United States, he stated, "I wanted the Americans to understand that whenever you have to be tough on your own society, you are paying a price you will have to deal with later."

It is a warning he wants the West to thoroughly grasp. He said, "75 percent of the Middle East's population is young and in the Information Age, and being saturated with images of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the venom of hatred. Without imminent resolution there's a growing danger of losing an entire generation to extremism, with a ripple effect that would spill beyond the Middle East's borders. Can you imagine the horror if we lose 75 percent of Arab population to extremism? Not only does it destroy my hopes for the future of my country, but it definitely will affect the future and interests of the West and the United States. I don't want to frighten people about September 11th scenarios, but if you have a militant region it's going to take decades to fix."

In this particular exchange he concluded with the chilling thought, "If I were Osama bin Laden now and I thought that I had originally lost, I'd be coming out of my cave and thinking, 'Ah, maybe I have a chance now.'"

A leader among leaders

Abdullah, as one of the United States' closest allies in the Middle East, is now a central player in any possible peace process for the region. According to Wright, National Security Spokesman Sean McCormick says Abdullah is "a leader among leaders in his work to bring peace to the region."

Wright shares an "off the record" quote by one State Department official: "These guys have done more in the last two months than the entire Arab World did in the last 20 years." Recently when in Washington D.C. preparing to visit the White House, Abdullah heard the news regarding the pool hall bombing incident that killed 15 Israelis and injured dozens more. According to Wright, Abdullah threw his head into his hands and said, "Oh no, this is crazy!" He realized this would only reignite the cyclical nature of revenge between the Israelis and Palestinians. During the same trip, at Rice University in Texas, the king explained his vision for the region. The current crisis has left his region at ground zero. Both peoples are exhausted and are ready for peace that will allow an Israeli mother to send her child on an errand to the local supermarket without fear, a peace that will allow a Palestinian mother to deliver her newborn, alive, at a hospital and not at an Israeli roadblock.

How could this ever come about? Wright reports, "the King prescribes a global peace alliance to foster a new approach to settling the conflict." In the king's words, "Its goal is ensuring that the security, economic and political needs of both Israel and the Palestinians are met—and guaranteed to endure. The deal must aim for the finish line—at the halfway markers, not the rules for pit stops."

The glory of a king

Long ago, Solomon was quoted by scribes of Hezekiah as saying, "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter" (Proverbs 25:2). There aren't too many kings left in today's world, but this one seems to be truly searching for a key to peace. In countless interviews that I have seen, this king is not saying one thing in Arabic to the hometown crowd and another in English to get the West off his back.

Is he doing it for simply altruistic motives? Probably not. He has a throne to keep, and a kingdom to run, and he needs financial assistance from the West if he's going to get his increasingly computer literate population to the next rung of the competitive ladder. But he also dares to dream! Is he simply a dreamer in a nightmare landscape? Time will tell.

But dreams can take you all sorts of places, some high and some low. Just ask Joseph of the Bible. His dream (Genesis 37:5-11) took him into slavery, then into prison and ultimately to the seat of power as second in command of Egypt. But his dream never changed, only his interpretation and understanding of what God intended in the first place.

He would come to understand that it wasn't about him, but about others and what he could do for them. His brothers would ultimately be bowing to him, not out of duty, but out of respect for his forgiveness and generosity. Kindness and working with others, even those who have hurt you deeply, is far more important than incubating the cancerous germ of hatred.

Abdullah has proverbially "searched out" this matter correctly. No matter how big you are, or how important you think you are, or how right you think your cause to be; it is vital to connect with others, even those who might not see things quite your way.

Allow me to illustrate the importance of reaching out and striving to connect. Take the sequoia tree of California, for example. This monarch of the flora world can tower as much as 350 feet in height.

Strangely, these giants have unusually shallow root systems that reach in all directions to capture the greatest amount of surface moisture. Seldom will you see a redwood standing alone, because high winds would uproot it. That's why they grow in clusters. Their intertwining roots provide support for one another against the storms.

These giants of the forest offer us an important lesson in connecting with others.

Let My outcasts dwell with you

Prophetic scripture indicates that an even greater storm than anything we have yet seen is going to roar through the Middle East. Daniel 11 indicates that the Middle East is going to be the geopolitical crunch zone between two world powers symbolically described as the king of the North and the king of the South. In a conflict of incredible proportions, verse 41 clearly indicates the king of the North "shall also enter the Glorious Land, and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall escape from his hand: Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon."

Did you realize that modern-day Jordan, whose capital is Amman, likely occupies that which was once known as Moab?

But why might the Kingdom of Jordan escape? Long ago in one of the great prophecies of the Bible, God made certain promises to a faithful man named Abraham that also apply to his descendants. One of those promises, found in Genesis 12:3, states, "I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you."

One unmistakable present reality is that the king of Jordan is desirous of building a bridge to the present "outcast" of the Middle East, the Jewish state of Israel. The little "oil-less" Kingdom of Jordan could be used of God for a powerful purpose in the future.

King Hussein and his son, Abdullah II, are men who have dreamed dreams. While having made their mistakes and stumbled in the minefield of Middle East politics, these rulers of Jordan have sought to walk a kinder, gentler path than their Arab brethren. Is this just happenstance? Or is a powerful purpose being worked out here below? God does honor those who honor His people, whether they are the physical or spiritual descendants of Abraham.

The royal footsteps of one man's walk for peace reverberate with the echo of Isaiah 30:21, "this is the way, walk you in it." It's not easy to make sense in a senseless neighborhood like the Middle East. But that's what kings are made for—to "search out a matter" and make things happen.