\u201cWe are deeply grateful for Jeff Bezos\u2019 generous $100 million contribution to Feeding America\u2019s COVID-19 Response Fund. This donation, the largest single gift in our history, will enable us to provide more food to millions of our neighbors facing hardship during this crisis. Countless lives will be changed because of his generosity.\u201d <\/em>That is so good!]<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut all that to say that my desire this day is to make a stronger, more concise point\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What we need right now is unity, community, and shared purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What we don\u2019t need is blame, partisanship, and social media rants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Turn the news off perhaps. Is the news you watch encouraging unity, community, and shared purpose? Or is it encouraging increased blame and the pointing of fingers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dare I say: if the latter, that\u2019s not helpful, wise, nor good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week I heard a wise man say (who has never voted for the current President):<\/em> \u201cI don\u2019t care who you voted for four years ago. I don\u2019t care if you voted for Trump or can\u2019t stand him. Right now, we should all be rooting for him to succeed.\u201d We need each of us to be at our best right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHence, this isn’t about Trump nor any other party or politician. This is about what’s best for all humankind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let me not diminish the valid concerns many of us have in all proverbial partisan aisles. Let me not validate nor invalidate the concerns reasonable, good thinking people have in regard to our leaders and those who desire to lead. Let me not even validate or invalidate disagreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But let us stand for something bigger and more.
Let us stand for solution. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nFor compassion. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd let us stand for the awareness that the COVID-19 impact and response is bigger than any human political agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is big, friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Take some time to process what\u2019s happening. Take some time to recognize this is all so out of our control; man is so incapable. Is it any wonder that Google searches for \u201cprayer\u201d have skyrocketed over the past two weeks?
My sense is people recognize there is something bigger and more; this isn\u2019t all there is.
I pray we seek what\u2019s bigger\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2026 what comes next?
… what comes after this?
… and how do we proceed more unified and together than before?
Let us start by proceeding with first best steps now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Respectfully\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AR
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today was one of those days I actually scrapped our planned post in the eleventh hour. Make no mistake about it. And no apologies either. It\u2019s not that the planned post wasn\u2019t encouraging, insightful or good. It simply didn\u2019t say enough for this poignant moment in time. I have a sincere desire to maximize the … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “seeking what’s better & good”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10529"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10541,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10529\/revisions\/10541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}