{"id":6442,"date":"2016-07-19T06:23:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-19T10:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=6442"},"modified":"2016-07-19T06:23:00","modified_gmt":"2016-07-19T10:23:00","slug":"watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=6442","title":{"rendered":"watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"photo-1444062069505-351e1ed9eae7\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I find myself pondering last week and the weeks ahead\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026 the racial tension\u2026
\n\u2026 the intentional ambushing of police\u2026
\n\u2026 the Republican and Democrat national conventions\u2026
\n\u2026 the attempted coup and crackdown in Turkey\u2026
\n\u2026 more details surrounding the terrorist attack in France\u2026
\n\u2026 the continued\u00a0evil acts of ISIS and lack of containment\u2026
\n\u2026 the awful rhetoric justified on our airwaves\u2026
\n\u2026 the people who go after each other in social media\u2026
\n\u2026 all who want to tell us how unethical\u00a0Hillary Clinton is, ignoring any \u201cunethical\u201d in Donald Trump\u2026
\n\u2026 all who want to tell us how\u00a0unethical\u00a0Donald Trump is, ignoring any \u201cunethical\u201d in Hillary Clinton\u2026
\n\u2026 the tension\u2026
\n\u2026 blinders\u2026
\n\u2026 grief\u2026
\n\u2026 and great strife\u2026<\/p>\n

I find myself sitting here thinking we are focusing too much on too little. We get so caught up in an aspect or angle, and then such becomes the only thing we can see or think about. It becomes the only thing that\u2019s important to us. And thus, respect, listening, healthy dialogue, etc., they get thrown way behind on the priority back burner.<\/p>\n

Let me be clear. By no means am I suggesting that any of the above are unimportant. Of course not. Each deserves our time, attention, reflection, and prayer. What I am instead posing is that sometimes we become so wrapped up \u2014 even in one thing that\u2019s important \u2014 that we allow all else to crumble to the ground\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026 We unfriend people\u2026 after a heated exchange, we suggest \u201cwe never knew them\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026 We justify insult\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026 We say we don\u2019t care who we hurt\u2026<\/p>\n

And then we do. We hurt other people. It\u2019s the whole \u201cmad as hell and not going to take it anymore\u201d attitude. (Note: such attitude tends not to do well on the “winning friends and influencing people” idea. Just saying.)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On my recent birthday, after years of desire, I was given a long coveted watch. It was significantly pricier than most, but it was a splurge by my spouse wanting to honor me in a thoughtful, unordinary way. Three days after his gift, still moved by my hub\u2019s generosity, I dropped the delicate timepiece in the wrong way at the wrong time at the wrong place, immediately smashing it into countless pieces. I was shocked\u2026<\/p>\n

I was shocked and mad and teary and upset, and I couldn\u2019t believe what had just happened. I craved that for so long!!<\/p>\n

And then I lost it.<\/p>\n

After an extended gasp and a quick call to my spouse, he (demonstrating one of the multiple, wonderful reasons why I married him),<\/em> immediately reminded me to keep what\u2019s most important, most important\u2026 Don\u2019t let it take on a life all of it\u2019s own\u2026 Don\u2019t let it totally derail you\u2026 Don\u2019t let it cause you to lose sight of all else.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, I am understandably very sad about my once new watch. Even though material, it was important to me. I don\u2019t know if we will replace it.<\/p>\n

But such circumstance and all the justified, accompanying emotion will not stand in the way of those many other important things…<\/p>\n

… that still deserve my time, attention, reflection, and prayer.<\/p>\n

Respectfully\u2026
\nAR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I find myself pondering last week and the weeks ahead\u2026 \u2026 the racial tension\u2026 \u2026 the intentional ambushing of police\u2026 \u2026 the Republican and Democrat national conventions\u2026 \u2026 the attempted coup and crackdown in Turkey\u2026 \u2026 more details surrounding the terrorist attack in France\u2026 \u2026 the continued\u00a0evil acts of ISIS and lack of containment\u2026 \u2026 … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “watch”<\/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-6442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6442","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=6442"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6447,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6442\/revisions\/6447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}