Uphill idealist

Image found at Colorpictures.net I received this as an email from a friend of mine the other day. Isn't it wonderful when your receive the 'word' you needed to hear, just when you needed to hear it the most. :) Thanks friend. "The person who follows the crowd will usually gets no further than the crowd. The person who walks alone is likely to discover places no one has ever been before. Creativity in living is not without its attendant difficulties. For peculiarity breeds contempt. And the unfortunate thing about being ahead of your time is that when people finally realize you were right, they’ll say it was obvious all along. You have two choices in life. You can dissolve into the mainstream, or you can be distinct. To be distinct, you must be different. To be different, you must be what no one else can be…. – Anonymous"

The green chair sat in the corner of the garage. It was high-backed, sturdy, and proud looking - even though it might beginning to show some signs of wear. It had lost count of the books that had been read in it, how many morning cups of coffee drank and how many re-reuns of Seinfeld it had seen. A great deal of life had been lived in and around the green chair. Things had changed. It had moved out of the front room, then to the study and now it had settled in the garage with all the other odds and ends of the household. No longer did it's feet rest in cushioned carpet, it was being moved out to make room for the new. The green chair, that had once been so integral, a hub for focus in the home; had been downgraded to the outside and replaced by some new sleek swedish type of chair with an elegant name. The green chair had never been elegant, but it had been faithful and sturdy and strong. Isn't that all a good chair needs to be, it wondered as it took in it's new garage su...

There is a thing called grace that is beautiful beyond measure. When life is hard, challenge surrounds, and efforts are (or aren't) made - there is grace. It is impossible for me to function without it - and really why would I try? On this cool morning, after a few weeks of oppressive heat and humidity; I 'm reminded of the newness of each day. The bread of this moment is this newness and the knowledge of the grace that steps with me in the day ahead. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--Eph. 2:8 What is you bread today?