Skip to main content

Each of us matters. / #servantleaders #community #thisAmericanQuilt #Dallas





July 8, 2016

Life is precious. Each of us matters. Our worth as individuals is underrated. Each of us has the potential to be incredible positive forces for good in our community. 

Just this last Monday, on July 4th I was with my children in New York City. As we approached Central Park we came by a counter-terrorism police officer. I have seen him standing their before. My kids were just walking by him as if he was not there and I took the time to stop and greet him. I said, ā€œkids, this police officer is just standing here, but at a moment’s notice, he needs to be ready to spring into action and do his job to serve and protect us. You may think he does not look like a hero (he was a bit portly), but he is and he is here to protect us.ā€ My kids acknowledged him and he was very welcoming. Then we went on our way. Words matter. They fly through the air and land on hearts and minds impacting us in all sorts of ways.

Nothing justifies the murder of five police officers.

Four active gunmen unleashed hell fury indiscriminately in what was a peaceful ā€œBlack Lives Matterā€ protest. Five brothers gave up the ghost yesterday at dusk. Seven more lay bloody and injured.

How should we respond? Can we seek to understand the gunmen? Can we empathize with the people who vow to serve and protect us? Can we see beyond uniforms and civilian clothes and discern what the antecedents were that propelled these active shooters to slay our servant leaders and be okay with bullets possibly killing civilians? Are the answers so cut and dry or are their fundamental drivers that are fueling tension along racial, social and economic lines?

 Black lives matter… but so do white, brown and asian lives. We all matter. The men and women who serve and protect our community do so because they care about you and me. Day in and day out they do their job, stay on-call, and repeat the process again. These are the lions of America. These are the NURSES, the police officers, the firefighters, the medics, the EMS personnel and our teachers. They are our servant leaders, our brothers, our sisters.







Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Gaslighting of our Constitutional Understanding & The Original Purpose of the U.S. Government

John Adams   ā€œI have found by Experience, that in this Age of the World that Man has an awful Lot, who ā€œdares to  love his Country and be poor.ā€ Liberty and virtue! When! oh When will your Enemies cease to exist or to persecute! Our Country will be envied, our Liberty will be envied, our Virtues will be envied. Deep and subtle systems of Corruption hard to prove, impossible to detect, will be practised to sap and undermine Us and the few who penetrate them will be called suspicious, envious, restless turbulent ambitious—will be hated unpopular and unhappy. But a succession of these Men must be preserved, for these are the salt of the Earth. Without these the World would be worse than it is.ā€ Letter To Abigail Adams, from John Adams, Paris, April 16, 1783 Few generations, said George Washington and John Adams, are fortunate to produce brilliant minds and hearts that are selfless. How shall we fare in our present? What is the path of national political unanimity that ...

Graciousness Through Christ Jesus Who Is Written In Our Hearts

ā€œJesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines.For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.ā€ The Epistle To The Hebrews Chapter 13:8–10 Having Faith, hope in what is not seen; yet, through the Word of God, ā€˜faith’ having greater meaning, hope through the Word and the gracious power of the Spirit of the Word, Truth & Righteousness, brings one; that is to say, translates one, from the kingdom of spiritual darkness: a life, replete with an attitude, perspective, reasoning, and quality of life that is intrinsically a life of scarcity, vanity, gain & advantage, strife, and selfishness, into THE kingdom of God; the kingdom of Light; an abounding reality overflowing with God, and the fruit of his Spirit: joy, peace, faith, gentleness, temperan...

Being a Maverick Thinker with Your #ExecutiveFunction Skills

Once we understand what our executive function skills are, we move to streamlining how well we use them, how they show up/ don't show up in our life. As we move through our understanding of how to better manage our ideas, feelings and actions, can their be soft and hard forces which are orchestrated with the focus of instilling in us..how to think...how to act... how to respond? Or is 'man' so free in mind, so independent, and so ahead of these forces that he is not affected, not thwarted in his goals, and not redirected easily? If we are to polish and tone these executive function skills so that we can harness the ability of our mind (a tool) to facilitate successful outcomes for ourselves, should we not start by bringing a critical eye to why we think the way we think? Is this not metacognition, or how we use our thought process to approach the world?  Using systems theory, any system that is accepted into a larger system invariably begins to affect tha...