Showing posts with label gains. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gains. Show all posts

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Thought for The Day - I am "Here"






A red dot marks my location on the map...and this concept gets copied and modified on electronic devices and software. We can be found "here," or "there." Like the "dash" between a birth year and year of departure, there's no telling what that dot contains!  The dot, the dash, they're just indicators, but no indicator of the stories stored in that location. The reps can't tell you I've moved from this spot in the room, the house, or the office building. It can't tell you I'm on the first floor, getting in the tub or in the basement reclining on the couch while the television serenades me. And the dash doesn't indicate how many people's lives we have impacted for the good.

Words, representing a focal point for the day, a point of concentration, like the rudder on a ship. In this venue, the focal word or phrase says "use 'this' as a mile marker, a reminder of things important. Use it to build, tear down, plant and uproot." There exist thoughts, notions and intentions in us that are taking us to a dead end; we want life, especially in us. There are secret plans we've been plotting and scheming, perhaps we aren't aware how damaging and destructive they can be. We need a remedy, a sense of hope to redirect our course. Sometimes one word, a single concept is all that is needed to put us back on the correct path. And sometimes, the equivalent of an embrace (one word or "thought"); that basic human point of contact changes our location and the direction of our lives.

It's just a word, a thought or a feeling. In the language of "dots" and "the dash," it doesn't register. But in the day-to-day living, the microscopic details of the grand design, eternity is found "here."

Friday, April 11, 2014

Thought for The Day - Tripping Over a Pebble

Elastic 18 x 24 pastels


You've scaled mountains, crossed the burning sands, survived corporate attack after attack and this one pebble trips you, and you're flat on your face! Sometimes it is the enemy you can't see, that does the worse damage. And sometimes, it is the fact that you've come so far, and accomplished so much, that this "one thing" reveals what remains inside of you.

This is not to say you haven't accomplished much or that you aren't strong; quite the opposite, it proves that you are. But everyone has a "breaking point." No, I take that back: everyone has several breaking points! And the very shape of life is designed to uncover them! Years ago, having decided to get serious about my Christian life, I decided to attend church every Sunday. A few months of that, I added to it regular Bible study at church AND Sunday school. I was practicing being kind and patient and generous, using softer words and expressions. I was doing fairly well! But one day I thought: "If I could change a couple more bad habits, I would be okay!" Big mistake! It was going to take far more than a couple more self-perceived flaws to change me into a "Godly man!"

Life, our consideration of this journey, will have you "up" one minute and "down" the next. And it isn't always the same stimuli that takes you in either direction. We are prone to failure and in a sense, that's okay. We can also choose to learn from mistakes and rise above each one. But please be aware: there's always a pebble, or twig, or beautiful face, ready to trip you up!