Mark

Everything about our company is new.  We have new ideas, structures, people, logos, and most of all attitudes. I hope the enthusiasm, commitment, and sense of what might be prevails.  At the same time, I hope the fears, uncertainties, and doubts decide to go on holiday.  Given my experience, I have no idea what will happen.  Groups are what they are.  The magical combination of individuals with their values, priorities, and energies always merge in unique ways that cannot be controlled by any single individual.
This is not the first time that I have witnessed dramatic change. I always wonder what the long-term legacy was and will be.  Many of the people working in Chennai have no idea who the names are the wall plagues are.  Our names have been lost to history.  Only the veterans remember and even those memories are beginning to fade. 
I look at life differently compared to my younger days.  I always threw myself into life with total abandon.  Noting mattered except the goal.  As I have aged, I look at the future with an eye towards the finish line.  The comment of one that preceded me shows the irony of the world we live in.  “They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man, even though he'd never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn't true.”  (Isaiah 53.7) 
Today will be another step in the path that will determine your mark on life and mine.  We may never be rewarded during our lifetime for truth.  We may never find the world’s reward amidst acts of compassion.  Even acts of mercy may be met with pain and anguish.  Yet the possible outcomes do not need to determine our choices and decisions.  We can stand up for truth, knowing we are fighting hand in hand with Divinity.  We can live with others, engaged in our communities because we know we are all part of God’s family.  We can be a difference in the world we find ourselves in.  God will do the same.