The Room

In "Storey" the author tells of a man who tried, unsuccessfully, to assassinate his brother, the king.

Now the brother was so grossly overweight that he couldn't pass through a normal sized doorway so as punishment the king had him placed in a tower room with a view of the sea, with three rich perfectly prepared meals served each day and an unguarded normal sized doorway leading to freedom. (Presumably the room was built around the prisoner or the doorway made smaller after his arrival.)

All the man had to do was lose enough weight to fit through the door and he would be free.

He died in the room.

How often are we like that - we cry out to God to remove us from a situation when all along all we really need to do is walk away from something or stop doing something and we would be free.

Story

My daughter lent me "Story" a novel by Steven James.

One of those books I just couldn't put down & read it in less than a day.

The following is a quote he uses from Soren Kierkegaard then his comments on it.

"The difference between an admirer and a follower still remains, no matter where you are.
The admirer never makes any true sacrifices. He always plays it safe. Though in words, phrases, songs, he is inexhaustible about how highly he prizes Christ, he renounces nothing, gives up nothing, will not reconstruct his life, will not be what he admires, and will not let his life express what it is he supposedly admires."
Soren Kierkegaard

As I read and re-read these blunt words, I had to ask myself, "Am I really a follower of Jesus, or am I just an admirer?"
I don't think there are too many followers of Jesus around anymore. There are plenty of churchgoing admirers, but most of us would rather not leave our nets behind and follow him. Instead we prefer dragging the nets onshore with us so we can have the best of both worlds. But of course that never works - you can't follow Jesus while you're dragging your old life along behind you. If you try to you'll wind up losing out on both.

New Doors

We had a new front door & a new patio door installed yesterday.

The old front door had a side window but no window in the door - the new one has a large beveled glass window & a side window so it brightens up the foyer considerably.

Mrv is happy :)

Old Jeans

There's nothing like a comfortable pair of old jeans.

I was thinking that this morning as I got ready of work & pulled on a pair of jeans that had been around forever.

Around 8:30 as I sat down at my cube with a coffee I heard a ripping sound and realized that the back end of my jeans had developed about a 4 inch tear in them.

Not even on a seam - just tired old material giving up.

Good thing the shirt I had on was long enough to cover the rip because I had to run downstairs (carefully so as not to expose myself or rip the jeans any more) to borrow the keys to Joe's car - we car pool & today, of course, was Joe's day to drive.

At the closest mall, Zellers was thankfully open (it seems most stores in Mississauga open at 10)
and had jeans on sale.