LAKE OCONEE —
As a student, fashion designer Sandra Garratt was given a project to design clothing that would go against her natural inclinations — clothes that she didn’t like. She came up with a line of economical, one-size-fits-all, modular clothing for women. Garratt moved on to a series of jobs in the fashion industry, but she kept thinking about those clothes she'd designed. They intrigued her enough that she eventually began producing them for a boutique in Dallas. Several business people saw promise in Garratt’s clothes, and in 1986 they invested the money to help her start a nationwide chain of shops. The investment paid off. Within a few years, more than $100 million of Garratt’s clothes had been sold, and she had made millions in royalties. All because she put her natural inclinations aside and investigated something different.
That is a good lesson for us. Try something different. Don’t always go with the comfortable. God might be trying to stretch you in ways you are not even aware. Wishing you much love and much light.
—The Rev. David W. Key, director of the Baptist Studies Program, is involved in recruitment, admissions, student life, counseling, placement, and development functions for Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. He teaches in the Contextual Education program. He is the founding pastor of the Lake Oconee Community Church at Reynolds Plantation. Contact him at (404) 727-6350 or dkey@emory.edu. His
column appears weekly in this space.
Life Lessons
Set inclination aside and do something different
- Life Lessons
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Pray for faithfulness in the midst of life’s challenges
Oswald Chambers, in his book “Run Today’s Race,” taught us that faith for my deliverance is not faith in God.
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Don’t put off the most important thing
As Douglas MacArthur said, in war all tragedy can be summarized in two words, “too late.”
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What are you delaying in your life?
In the early ‘90s, U.S. News and World Report told us that Chicago learned one price of neglecting the underpinnings of all its economic growth.
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Find a community and become a part of it
Harry Emerson Fosdick reminds us that the Great Wall of China is a gigantic structure which cost an immense amount of money and labor.
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Let God be your passion
A woman rushed up to famed violinist Fritz Kreisler after a concert and cried
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Pray for God’s will and nothing else
At a meeting of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Bobby Richardson, former New York Yankee second baseman, offered a prayer that is a classic in brevity and poignancy: “Dear God, Your will, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. Amen.”
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Not too early to make Easter plans
Fritz Kreisler, the famous violinist, once said
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God calls on you to overcome your obstacles
Do you have a lot to overcome in your life? David Livingstone, the pioneer missionary to Africa, walked over 29,000 miles during his ministry.
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Are you coasting in life?
Bertoldo de Giovanni was the pupil of Donatello, the greatest sculptor of his time, and he was the teacher of Michelangelo, the greatest sculptor of all time.
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Will your soul take the high road or low?
John Oxenham wrote the following poem:
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