Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:00:00]:

Hello again, good people, and welcome to the To Be Encouraged podcast with Bishop Julius C. Trimble. This indeed is the podcast where we look to offer an encouraging word to an often discouraged world. I'm your co-host, Reverend Dr. Brad Miller, and the host of our program is Bishop Julius C. Trimble. And Bishop Trimble, welcome to our conversation today. We're going to be talking about the elections.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:00:29]:

The midterm elections are coming up about 4 weeks from now. and the Golden Rule. So let's just start with the Golden Rule. How would you define that, and what is the meaning of that rule to you in your life?

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:00:42]:

Hey, greetings, Brad, and be encouraged to you and to all of our listeners as well. The Golden Rule is, as I understand it, the ethical principle of treating others as you would want to be treated. For those of us who are Christian, We find the basis in that in the Gospel of Matthew and Luke, which essentially says, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Treat others as you would want to be treated. Sometimes people phrase it from the negative perspective, but we like to phrase it from the positive perspective.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:01:17]:

Yes.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:01:18]:

Treat people the way you want to be treated. And to expand on that, just respect people the way you would want to be respected as well.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:01:28]:

Well, of course. And then the biblical foundation of that is clear, indicated by what you just shared there a minute ago. And yet sometimes, I don't know about you, Julius, but it seems like people seem to have forgotten the Golden Rule, especially when it comes to politics. What do you think?

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:01:42]:

What do you think this political climate is? Well, yeah, I'm just, yeah, yeah, I wondered if this is a seed. Maybe this is one of the things I think the voids that can be filled by the faith community is to remind people that we are all made in the image of God.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:02:00]:

Yes.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:02:01]:

And it's been said that, you know, in everyone, I know it was Augustine, whoever said that, you know, there's divinity in all humans who've been created by God. And so any injustice or any denigration of human dignity is really an injury to the image of God. So—

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:02:22]:

Wow.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:02:23]:

I think we really ought to honor not only the gospel message of treating people the way we would want to be treated, but also resurrecting, if you will, a healthy appetite for really promoting positive messages. It does nothing for me to see messages about stoking fear of immigrants or trans athletes. When people can't afford to pay, when our farmers can't afford to pay for the diesel fuel prices, and we're being told, and we can see now in grocery stores, whether it's beef going, the price of beef going up or the price of eggs going up, people really just want to, I think, live in peace, But not necessarily be driven by the fear of the other.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:03:17]:

Yeah. And fear is so much of what a lot of the nature of politics is all about. And fear negative towards the other. Sometimes the other is the opposite of political candidate. We've got the election coming up here in a few weeks and a lot of people are being bombarded by ads. So much of them are negative. And then also the fear that you said of immigrants, of people of different means, of Of all kinds of situations where people are being persecuted for ridiculous motivations. And yet the church, I believe, as you said here, the church and the gospel message can speak into that and be a moment of clarity.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:03:57]:

I just want to share one quick story with you about how— and part of this may be getting some perspective on the news, that there is actually more good news than we think because we just don't hear about it. I happened to, on one of my other podcasts, talk to a journalist from the BBC, or she formerly was of the BBC, and now she's a writer and things like this. And she said when she left the BBC a couple years ago, she basically almost never listens to news anymore, even though that was her whole life, because it's so negative and so depressing and so on. And she fills herself instead with positive things, with music and with comedy and other things like this, that she fills her life with that. And she gets her fill of negativity otherwise, but has really leaned into positivity and found that really there's a lot more positivity, even that's just simply not reported on, that we can lean into. I'd like you to kind of comment on that, that there really is a lot of good in the world because you do focus in on being encouraged. Sometimes about that's responding to discouragement, but I also think we need to amplify those who are doing good, those things that are amplified. So can you speak to that for a minute?

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:05:08]:

Yeah, I've been at a church meeting for the last couple of days while we're recording this. I'm in Chicago right now and was at a worship service just last evening, and it was such an uplifting service, Brad. And here's something, a lot of times I notice these things. The praise team, it wasn't a full choir, it was a praise team about 5 adults, but one of them had their daughter with them, and the daughter couldn't have been older than maybe 6 years old, who was with the praise team.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:05:42]:

Yeah.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:05:43]:

And she was just bubbling over with praise herself, even as her mom was singing in the praise choir. And I was just filled by the sense of, here we are praising God, giving thanks to Christ for being able to be in worship, as we said, because God is worthy to be worshiped. And I really, I felt like I said, this is part and parcel of what the faith community does is worship. But it also was a reminder, that worship service was a reminder of all of the ways in which God has blessed us and the ways in which the positive things about being alive and being able to be in a space where we can give praise to God. And to see the sign, I mean, to see a child there in a congregation with a lot of older folks and some younger folks and to realize there is a bright future and there's every reason for us to be motivated. to make this world a safer place, a better place, a more generous place for not only that child who was sitting up and singing with the praise choir with those young adults, but for every child across the globe.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:07:07]:

Reminds me, just the image you mentioned there, just reminds me, just not too long ago in my own church where I attend, we usually have about 75 in church, but our pastor also plays guitar and sings in the praise band that we have. And a few weeks ago, his 3-year-old daughter joined him and was just clinging on his leg, squealing in delight, squealing in delight, just how little girls would do to their daddy, loves her daddy. And she just walked right up there and just grabbed on his leg. And everybody's going to remember that moment for the delight.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:07:39]:

Yeah.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:07:40]:

And the joy. But we do I just think it's something to be remembered. That's one of the things I think the church can do well if we choose to. Don't you think so? If we choose to do it.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:07:51]:

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I don't need another message from my president telling me to be afraid of Iran dropping bombs. Some of it's irresponsible. It's irresponsible because to me, from the White House, and not just from the White House, but we have too many messages of, here's what you ought to be afraid of.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:08:17]:

Sure.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:08:18]:

And therefore, we have to spend millions of dollars, billion dollars a day in a war that is unpopular and that seems to have no real end in sight based upon the fear of the potentiality of nuclear weapons being held by Iran. I say that to say that there's not enough messaging around what are the kinds of things we should be doing to bring more peace in the world and more peace in our communities.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:08:55]:

Yeah.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:08:55]:

And I mean peace of mind, peace of heart, which is why I'm so encouraged when I see some of those people who are running for office. And I think one of the reasons that they're getting traction is because they're giving out messages that people are more important than policies that punish the people that we think ought to be punished or ostracize the people we ought to think need to be ostracized. And stoking fears against the trans community or stoking fears against Haitians, stoking fears against Somalians, stoking fears against short people.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:09:32]:

Some ridiculous stuff.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:09:34]:

Stoking up fears against, you know, uh, Yeah. So all, you know, as opposed to, as Matthew, Jesus says, you know, and later in that same, same message, it was, it really was around hearers and doers of the word. It says, you know, later on after Jesus said, in everything do, do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the law and the prophets. In other words, It's not as complex as you think it is. And someone has said, Brad, grace is harder, law is easier than grace.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:10:09]:

Hmm.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:10:10]:

And I think that may be truth to that. Sometimes it's harder for us to embrace the notion that we should be extending God's love to others than it is for us to say, I'm gonna take care of me and my family and damn be with everybody, the 5 million people that now have lost SNAP benefits, or the 2 million children that are now hungry because of a policy that says, well, we need to cut fraud and waste. And so—

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:10:39]:

But the fear has been made manifested by those who would speak it out and who would then make it happen by their own policies and by the things that they do. And yet there are those, as you say, we do have some political candidates who are stepping forward and sharing a different message, not only of perspective and of relevance and understanding that humanity matters, humanness matters. And you're actually close to one of the Senate candidates who's happening and who is running for Senate in Kansas. I know that you know Adam Hamilton pretty well. And so I would like to use that kind of as an example of how in the climate that we are in, as we're 4 weeks out from the midterm elections, how there may be people who can speak to humanity in the midst of sort of this inhumane treatment of fear and negativity and pain that is being out there. Can you just talk about that a little bit, about how you see people like Adam Hamilton? There's some others, I believe, Talarico in Texas, Ossoff in Georgia, who are doing similar things, who are speaking about humanity kind of over despair.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:11:51]:

Yeah, I think people, you know, All people who are running for elected office aren't what we call dyed in the wool, born from cradle to grave politicians.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:12:04]:

Right.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:12:05]:

I've always been a proponent of people who really love serving other people, who understand leadership from the mindset that all great leadership Brad, is servant leadership.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:12:22]:

Yes.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:12:22]:

And so when you have someone like an Adam Hamilton, who is a pastor, been a pastor, who understands the notion of authentic, good leadership, effective leadership is servant leadership. It's serving others. It's not coming up with the best messaging or marketing campaign to ostracize others or stoke fear in others. And I don't know Talarico, James Talarico, personally at all, but I remember before he was running for office, him posting messages because he was pretty on social media platforms around the importance of putting people first. I guess he was in the state legislature before.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:13:07]:

Right.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:13:07]:

Putting people as a priority, the well-being of people, the citizens from your state or from your city or from your community. the well-being of all the people. And what troubles me so much about the current geopolitical landscape is that we've become so partisan, so divided, that it seems like if the people that didn't vote for you are somehow less citizens, or the people that aren't in your same—

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:13:37]:

No.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:13:37]:

Or in the same ethnic group or your same religious group or or don't aspire to your own particular brand of Christianity, then they're somehow outsiders. And what I'm hearing from you—

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:13:50]:

It's even more that people are often characterized— I think it's even more than that, Julius. I think it's even more that people are often categorized as evil or demonic even. I've heard these type of terms used out there, and I'm thinking, come on, wait a minute here, slow down, take a breath here. And there are some bad things that are done in the name of Jesus in political terms. I think there's no doubt about that, and that is evil. But I think we've got to be careful before we start labeling anybody as demonic or evil. But I think we can say that we don't agree with their policies, and I think we can say that their policies are not really biblical or Christian in many cases. And some people like Adam Hamilton are speaking into that about the humanity of it.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:14:34]:

And I would just like for you to speak a little bit about your own personal relationships with Hamilton. He's been the pastor of one of our larger United Methodist churches. You've been a bishop in the church and an international official of the church for some time, and how that leadership that he brings to bear may be important precursor, hopefully, of the type of leadership we need in our country moving forward. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:14:56]:

Well, yeah, I could say what I've seen from a distance and what I've seen relatively up close because he's presented at annual conferences that I presided over in terms of his capacity to be a teaching pastor. One is able, he's pastored a congregation of 1/3 Republicans. At least as they report, about 1/3 Republican, 1/3 Democrat, 1/3 independent. And the ability to embrace and to promote what we talked about at the beginning of this podcast, the Golden Rule, an ethical principle of fair treatment. And what we like to say in the General Board of Church and Society, justice for all, justice being love personified in the public square and not having to apologize. Why should we have to apologize that everybody's welcome in our churches or everybody in the country should be afforded the same rights and privileges, the pursuit of liberty and happiness. And what I see in an Adam Hamilton and others who are now presenting themselves for public service is a willingness not to vilify others in order to offer themselves to be servant leaders who have ethical, moral values, who are willing to fight for a moral budget. that puts food above warfare, that treats our veterans in the way that they deserve to be treated, and our active military folks in a way to be treated, but does not value war above peace.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:16:42]:

So I think not only candidates like Adam Hamilton, but I think those of us who are voters, we should be determining how we are going to embrace voting, I think, based upon ethical values of the Golden Rule. Do I really want to support someone if their history is, Brad, that they've aligned themselves with election deniers or they've aligned themselves with people who've been part of— hate groups, then I think some of this, for me, is a disqualifier.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:17:26]:

Yes, indeed.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:17:28]:

If you feel that all immigrants need to go back to where they came from and that you feel that we're justified in deporting people, this is my opinion, deporting people who've been in this country for years, never committed any crime, been working, paying taxes, and volunteering at their local schools, taking their children and grandchildren. We think that those are the priorities for our tax dollars, are to round folks up, pull them off a worksite, take children out of their schoolrooms, separate them from their families. I'm all for secure borders, But I think we need to approach things from a sense of humility as well, as well as respect for all of the people who deserve to be treated as we were treated.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:18:24]:

Yeah. And if the polls are an indication, we're seeing some traction from those who believe that love wins and overpowers things to ultimately speak against those who's leaning towards hatred, separation, destruction, violence, as many people are advocating that, and they've had their say here for a number of years. But I believe the opportunity is here for those who advocate love and peace and collegiality and commonality and the common good of humanity. Please God, let it be so that we're gaining some traction on that and that there can be some sensibility, then ultimately love wins. Do you think that's the case, my friend, that ultimately love wins?

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:19:12]:

Yeah, I think ultimately love wins. And that's the story of the risen Christ. Good Friday comes and there is death on the cross, but thanks be to God that Easter Sunday, Jesus rose from the dead. And so I praise God for not only for candidates who are raising the bar on the kind of vision that they're casting for the way in which they're willing to serve, and also this actually unapologetic commitment to say, let's try to see if we people can work together, whether they're Republican or Democrat or independent, in order to solve problems that people are facing.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:20:02]:

Yeah.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:20:02]:

People should be able to work a full-time job, Brad, and afford to live in a house or a decent apartment. People should be able to work and be able to go have access to healthcare without being called— without being scared to say, well, we don't want to be socialists or communists by providing access to healthcare for everyone. when there's so many things that we do already that benefit just the wealthiest of the population.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:20:36]:

Sure.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:20:36]:

And we leave the masses of the people to just kind of fend for themselves. So I think the best of public service and even the best of prophetic service is that we take seriously the text in Proverbs that says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:20:56]:

Hmm.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:20:56]:

That means that we trust that God cares about all of creation, and fear is not to be afraid of God, but to treat God with a sense of awe so that we can treat others with a sense of humility. So my prayer is that God would grant wisdom to those who get elected and that we would go out and vote for people that we know will put people above products and put people's wellbeing above building wealth for a handful of people.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:21:34]:

We know there's a lot of people who are suffering and even more so given the economic circumstances and healthcare and price of fuel and everything else is just making it really, really tough for people to afford to live even the basics. But I just can't help but think about the scripture from First John, I believe, about perfect love casts out fear. But one of the ways you can cast that out is to vote for love rather than for fear. And that I think we do have some options this time around. But I'd like to kind of narrow the focus of our conversation about the Golden Rule, about how we treat others, treat others as you would be treated, to more local, more individual, like a local church pastor or local people in their in their community, in their school situation, or their community, and where there may be some division and some fear that is out there. How do you think a local church pastor or people can respond to fear, hatred, all this kind of stuff with this, what we're talking about here, the Golden Rule? How can they respond in such a way and make an impact on those who have been hardened and just scared to death by what they've been fed.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:22:56]:

Well, one of the things I just got through talking today and on yesterday with colleagues here in Chicago who are retired clergy, but they're retired clergy who have found a sense of joy and carving out a part of their time. I know you do some of this, Brad, carving out a part of their time where they're actually volunteering. One of them who I've known for many years, it says twice a week he volunteers at a food pantry, one of the church's Methodist church food pantry.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:23:35]:

Right.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:23:35]:

He's in charge of distributing the meats, and they give out quite a bit. And I use that as an example that making love real is often service where you actually are in the proximity of people who are benefiting from that. It's one thing to say, I'll treat everybody the way I want to be treated, but it's another thing to actually carve out some of your time where you're actually in proximity with people.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:24:06]:

Yeah.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:24:07]:

that are engaged. And I don't mean just from the standpoint of charity, but I mean in the standpoint of actually interfacing with people and showing them that, hey, you may be going through a tough time right now. I have the ability to give some of my time so that I might maybe help possibly make your life a little bit better. And I think that's something we should always be doing. Cornel West talks about some of the hardest work we do is self-interrogation. And Christians should always find time to do self-interrogation to find out whether or not we really are— are we really embracing the mind of Christ and following the example of Christ?

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:24:55]:

Yes, indeed. Indeed. And I think that's so important to really be the hands and feet of Christ tangibly, get our hands dirty, get walking, get going, and be engaged with our communities. Because this also goes, I believe, to human dignity. I think it's kind of hard to establish policies and things like this which are hurtful to people if you are actually engaging with people that are different than you are in whatever one, socioeconomically, in any number of ways. And I think this goes to a question you and I talked about in our chat before we started recording here. We have a tendency in our world right now to see what we are against or what we are not for, what we don't like. But you've talked about, especially in everything you say about encouragement, maybe we should be thinking a little bit more of what we are for and what we can do instead of what we can't do.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:25:54]:

Can you say a word about that, about this whole thinking of what are we for, not so much what are we against?

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:26:02]:

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I believe that. I believe that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, as the Psalmist says.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:26:09]:

That's right.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:26:10]:

I believe the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, and that we are stewards of creation. So sometimes we can say, I'm willing to be kind to people, but cruel to creation. So fortunately, I'm married to a person who, for many, many years, even before we got married, when we were dating, who was always educating me about how to be more environmentally conscientious.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:26:36]:

Hmm.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:26:36]:

And also now to pay attention to creation. It's important, even if you're not a gardener, to know what it is to plant something as opposed to just to pluck things up, as opposed to just be a consumer of food, maybe to plant flowers and plant vegetables and to know that that happens. But I think there's so much we can do. I believe in the human dignity of all people. I believe that the example of the Good Samaritan that Jesus lifted up in the Bible, which is probably one of the most well-known biblical stories, the Good Samaritan, is a lifelong lesson for all people to pay attention to. Should we be passing by the needs of of others, assuming that maybe someone else would care for them? Or should we also, as Abraham Lincoln said, the role of the government is to lift all the artificial weights from the shoulders of its citizens. So I interpret that to mean that the government should be making life easier, not to say tax-free.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:27:46]:

Yeah.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:27:46]:

I don't mean tax-free, but removing the burdens upon the human, upon its citizens. Now, every president says that their number one role is to protect the citizens of the United States. That's true, but it's, you, you don't just protect the citizens from the United States by spending, you know, inordinate amount of money to, to, to build more bombs and more guns and so forth.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:28:11]:

Yeah.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:28:11]:

But you can protect the citizens of the United States and the citizens of the world if we join in with others who want to eradicate hunger, who want to eradicate tuberculosis, who want to eradicate malaria, who want to provide people a fair and living wage. I believe that we all are children of the Most High God. I preached about this last night.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:28:35]:

Indeed.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:28:35]:

Yeah, that we are all children of the Most High God. And if we are all children of the Most High God, then we all are worthy of respect, and justice and not fearing our own police departments or our own—

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:28:49]:

Yeah.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:28:49]:

Other police officers that we might get shot if we exercise our First Amendment right to protest and for free speech. I am troubled right now, Brad, around the suppression of free press. And that's one of the dangerous things. So I thank God that podcasts and other forms of communication are taking place because sometimes there's not enough messaging of what we can be doing as opposed to who we should be fearful of or hating.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:29:31]:

Those who live in fear are trying to suppress free expression in the press and among other people, among people apart from them. And that is simply not— it's not Christlike. It's certainly not democratic in terms of our country as well. It's a gross attack on the First Amendment.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:29:53]:

Right.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:29:53]:

And so there is a lot to be said about how we can do that. But I think the opportunity is here for people like you who has brought a prophetic voice to this area, To be encouraged in the midst of discouraging times and to keep that clarion call going. So let's kind of bring us around, Bishop Trimble, to what would be your encouraging word, especially in the context of how we began this with the Golden Rule, about those who truly want to live out the Golden Rule. Maybe it's in politics, maybe it's in their company that they work for, maybe it's in their household, their marriage, or whatever, their church. Those who want to live out the golden rule in the midst of times which are a little bit scary because there are people, forces of fear that want to suppress it. But what would be your word of encouragement there, especially as we approach these midterm elections coming up in just 4 weeks now? What's your encouraging word?

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:30:48]:

I think my encouraging word is we should ask the question, and those who are running for election and those of us who are going to vote, by the way, my wife and I, we went and voted yesterday because it was early voting.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:30:58]:

early voting.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:30:59]:

And so we went ahead and already cast our vote. And I would encourage our listeners to, wherever you might be, whatever country or whatever county you might be, that not only you cast a vote, but you remember that people have lived and died and in some cases sacrificed their lives so that we might have the right to vote and to have fair and free elections. But I believe that we should ask the question, the decisions we make, will our children look back or our grandchildren look back and say, thank you? Or will they look back and say, what were you thinking? Will they look back, Brad, and say, thank you? Or will they look back and say, our grandchildren look back and say, what were you all thinking that you destroyed all of these trees in Wyoming? Or Wyoming, or you gave up all of this land to drill oil. What were you thinking when you chose to abandon these peace agreements thinking that the only way to preserve peace was to build more warships? Now, what were you thinking when you thought that runaway gas prices wasn't going to end up with people more people being homeless because they simply couldn't afford to work or they couldn't afford to keep heating fuel? Or will people look back and say, I thank God that our Congress, the Republicans and Democrats got together and they were able to craft, Brad, a comprehensive immigration law so that people had a legal way they could access the country, And people who were fleeing and seeking asylum found the United States of America to be a place of welcome because there's many places where we have plenty of land and we have plenty of food to feed a lot more people than actually living on this land. Indeed. Indeed. Yeah. Yeah.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:33:02]:

So I think that's one of the things. So I know my wife and I, we voted and we were unapologetic to vote yes for a school referendum that we know will increase our taxes on our house, even though we don't have children, Brad, that are in the school system. The reason being because we did have children.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:33:26]:

And I know you well enough that children matter, right? Children still matter. And I know that she doesn't live in the school system where you're at, but you have a granddaughter who's of school age and you care about her, that she gets a good education. So there's our point.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:33:41]:

So when I'm voting, I'm thinking about, I want her school to be supported, and I didn't want to see teachers being laid off. I didn't want to see schools being boarded up.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:33:55]:

I think your question there—

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:33:57]:

That was a good throw.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:33:59]:

I think the way you wrapped up our conversation here today with this question, it is the question of our time in many ways. What were you thinking? Or, thank you. We're at that kind of that pivotal moment, aren't we? For our—

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:34:18]:

Thank you?

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:34:19]:

Well, I think that question could be posed. Both of us have granddaughters of about the same age, and maybe 10 or 15 years from now, they could pose those type of questions to you and I, couldn't they? What were you thinking, Grandpa? What were you thinking? or thank you? And I think that's kind of the question of our time, even as we approach an election where that's the type of question that's kind of on the ballot as well, isn't it?

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:34:45]:

It is.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:34:46]:

It is.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:34:46]:

Yeah, I think by way of encouragement, I often think about best friends I've had, some who are living, some who are no longer, passed on now, how I want to treat people. I consider you, I know we consider ourselves to be friends.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:35:01]:

Sure, absolutely.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:35:03]:

We've grown closer in recent years. But I always want to treat you, Brad, with the respect that I believe you deserve as a child of God, as a colleague. We have different titles, we've had different pathways, but I want to treat my— but also treat my— I believe I ought to treat myself the way I would treat my best friend.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:35:25]:

Indeed.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:35:25]:

So I would say people are listening. There are a lot of people, Brad, that I think have really gotten down on themselves. And if you've been discouraged about politics or you're discouraged about even maybe your own struggles right now, treat yourself, think of yourself in the way that you would want to treat your very best friend. So there's no reason for us to treat ourselves any less than we would treat our best friend.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:35:50]:

And that is a great way. I take that to be the Bishop Julius C. Trimble summation of the Golden Rule. And that is a great way for us to conclude our conversation here today about the power of the Golden Rule if it's applied and implemented to the world we live in right now. So thank you for sharing today. Always powerful prophetic words from Bishop Julius C. Trimble here on the To Be Encouraged podcast. And I just want to say a word that Bishop Trimble has a lot of prophetic words, and he has, and people listening to us can find out more by going to tobeencouraged.com where you'll find well over 100 episodes of this podcast, and everyone in one form or another, Bishop Trimble and the guests we've had in our conversations, are all about encouraging people, encouraging people to be encouraged in a world that is often not encouraging.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:36:45]:

So thank you for sharing, and this has been the To Be Encouraged podcast. I'm your co-host, Reverend Dr. Brad Miller. Our host is Bishop Julius C. Trimble. You're on the To Be Encouraged podcast, a podcast where we offer An encouraging word to an often discouraged world.