Here is my article in today's Kingsport Times-News
Different Is Good
In reading Jeff McCord’s article published February 17th in the Kingsport Times-News titled “Travel the same roads in a different direction” I loved his approach to the subject of familiarity.
It is true that we need constancy in our lives and it is that familiarity that helps keep us in a somewhat normal life cycle. He is correct that familiarity works on us slowly for it is in familiarity (if we are paying attention) that we are changing every day in small incremental ways.
He said that “The very best counsel that I have ever gotten on doing just that comes from a very wise person, who I’ve known for a very long time. And it is simply this: Travel the same roads in a different direction.” This is my take on that statement “Try something different and allow yourself to look at the same things in a different way.”
When I saw the title “Travel the same roads in a different direction” it took me back at least 50 to 55 years ago to the little church that my Dad pastored. There was a lady that would come and sing and part of one of the songs she would sing was “You go to your church and I’ll go to mine, but let’s walk along together. Our Heavenly father is the same, so let’s walk along together.”
This may be a little different direction than Jeff McCord was going but that’s where my mind went, so please be patient with me, and allow me some liberty.
We all have our family and friends in our circle which we are familiar with. We may not realize it but we all are very different from each other, and that is not a bad thing. One Sunday during one of my messages I asked the question, “What if everyone was just like you, what kind of world would this be?”
Everyone would like the same thing, such as cars, houses, colors, neighborhoods, parts of the world, even political persuasion and many other things. Most of our thinking is like Henry Ford who is quoted to have said, “You can have a car in any color you want, as long as it’s black.”
But we are all different and unique, but, we really are all the same; for we all have very similar needs. We need to be able to challenge each other, and honor each other at the same time. Whether we realize it or not, what we feel and believe is important to each and every one of us.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. said “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” We are all alone on this ball in the universe so we need to try to get along.
It’s ok to be different, to be unique. We need to celebrate our differences, for we are traveling the same road of life but in different directions.
Duane Williams
