Hello, welcome back for Season 2 of the Excel Stillmore podcast.

I am your host, Chris Emerson, and I'm here to encourage you with tips and strategies

to help you deepen your faith, build stronger relationships, and do the most with your life in Christ.

Thank you for joining. Let's get started.

Welcome back. I hope that you are well and safe, wherever you might be today.

That is certainly just a pleasantry that has been said for years,

but in our current climate, I mean, really, I hope that you're doing all right. We have multiple

crises converging upon us at this hour, and I just pray for safety and well-being for all of God's people and really just everyone.

As you know, we've been battling this coronavirus business for, I don't know, 10 years now,

I don't know, a few months or something, but it has been dangerous. It has cost 100,000 American

lives. There has been a lot of disagreement, a lot of division,

and politically it's just taken what was already a mess politically, what a divided nation we have,

and has only made that even more apparent as you bring in the kind of rules that cost lives or alter livelihoods. It's

really scary stuff. And if that wasn't enough, two weeks ago on May 25th, police brutality reared

its ugly head again. Of course, it's been around for a long time, needs to be dealt with.

But George Floyd died. You know all about that. And we are two weeks into protests, some peaceful,

protests, some not, and just all-out riots. It's getting really scary across America. There was already this great divide,

a lack of communication, and just pure opposition. And now you add to that, this horrific

event and all of the things that have unfolded, everybody's angry. Everybody is frustrated

with how other people are behaving, no matter where you're standing,

or to whom you are looking. And I have to say, as we begin to zero in on where we're going

today, someone has to be the voice of Jesus. Someone. Someone has to be the voice of peace,

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