Inspiration where you find it

Sometimes inspiration comes in unexpected ways. On Monday night, as my mind and body were winding down, I watched a few minutes of C-SPAN’s replay of the Senate hearing for Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland. I don’t recall hearing or seeing Judge Garland before that evening. I listened with one ear, but I looked up when Senator Cory Booker referenced the judge’s family experience, a “Micah mandate” and his motivation for wanting to be Attorney General.

I turned both ears toward the TV to hear the soft-spoken judge’s reply. He said slowly and at times haltingly, “I come from a family where my grandparents fled anti-Semitism and persecution. The country took us in and protected us. I feel an obligation to the country. This is the highest and best use of my own set of skills to pay back. So, I want very much to be the kind of Attorney General that you’re saying I could become. I’ll do my best to be that kind of Attorney General.”

The senator said, “I believe your heart and I’m grateful that you’re living that Micah mandate.” The biblical reference is Micah 6.8:

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
    and to walk humbly with your God?

From “Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland chokes up about his family fleeing anti-Semitism, persecution,” by Joseph Guzman, The Hill, February 22, 2021