odd balls

Devotional thought for today: In spite of all the cultural influences around me, how will I remind myself that my life is about living for GOD and not myself?

Watching TV, listening to idle chatter at work, hearing of an incident at my child's school -- I feel a little odd, like someone from another country trying to "fit in" with the society around me. The principles I try to live by and teach to my child contradict so much of what we see, read, and hear every day. This statement another shared seems to sum up some of this conflict:

There is a great different between successfulness and fruitfulness. Success comes from strength, control and respectability. Fruitfulness, however comes from weakness and vulnerability.

A child is the fruit conceived in vulnerability, community is the fruit born through shared brokenness, and intimacy is the fruit that grows through touching one another's wounds.

Let's remind one another that what brings us true joy is not successfulness but fruitfulness." -- Henri Nouwen