“‘And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:30-31
I believe Tupac Shakur explained the concept of “love your neighbor” very well when he said, “Just because you lost me as a friend, doesn’t mean you gained me as an enemy. I’m bigger than that, I still wanna see you eat, just not at my table.”
What if we could look at everyone around us and never see an enemy?
The Holiday Bureau would like to thank the following businesses and individuals for their generosity this year (2020).
The following businesses provided food for our volunteers during our Christmas toy give out: Big Ed’s Pizza, Outback, Applebee’s, Buddy’s BBQ, Papa John’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Subway on the Turnpike, and Starbucks on the Turnpike.
The following businesses and organizations collected or purchased toys for us this year: National Fitness members and staff, Kern Methodist Church, Cash Express, St. Theresa Church, Salon 327, Alignment Chiropractic, Bristol Park Apartments, Oak Ridge Police Department, Oak Ridge Fire Department, Little Miss Tennessee Helping Hands (Evelyn Wagner), and the Episcopal School of Knoxville first-grade class for a large U-Haul truck of toys they collected.
I had the honor to meet Shimon Peres, former prime minister of Israel, many years ago — he was 92 at the time.
Peres had a very fulfilling career, both in politics and as a public servant.
I asked him to describe his greatest accomplishment. He answered, “What I do tomorrow.”
Conversely, I asked what he considered to be his biggest failure.
He said, “That I didn’t dream big enough.”
Peres’ words inspire me today as much as when I first met him.
As we look to make this the greatest decade in University of Tennessee history, we must dream bold and big.
Our greatest accomplishment will be what we will do tomorrow …and the next day … and the next day …
Our dream of providing greater access to a UT degree took a major step forward when Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee included $5.1 million recurring and $1 million nonrecurring in his proposed budget to go toward UT’s successful acquisition of Martin Methodist College, the 150-year old private college located in Giles County.
