{"id":1115,"date":"2010-10-23T18:53:31","date_gmt":"2010-10-24T01:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wordpress\/?p=1115"},"modified":"2010-11-07T15:24:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-07T22:24:00","slug":"a-tale-of-two-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/?p=1115","title":{"rendered":"A Tale of Two Photos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/bellah6.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1116\" title=\"bellah6\" src=\"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/bellah6.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"147\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/mb_color_bestyearsblog-150x15014.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1117\" title=\"mb_color_bestyearsblog-150x1501\" src=\"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/mb_color_bestyearsblog-150x15014.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>As I write these words, I have two photos before me. In the first (left), I was 41; in the second, 61.<\/p>\n<p>The first I used 20 years ago when I wrote my first book and first <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bestyears.com\" target=\"_blank\">columns<\/a>. The second I used for my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fortispress.com\" target=\"_blank\">recent novelette <\/a>and for these blogs.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the smile, the man in the first photo is anxious about the future. The man in the second wonders why he worried so much.<\/p>\n<p>The man in the first is struggling to find a new career. The man in the second feels blessed to have found it.<\/p>\n<p>The man in the first wonders whether his resources (family, friends, faith) will be enough to see him through to his goal. The man in the second knows that God is good.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, the man in the first photo knows he is imperfect and in need of God&#8217;s daily grace; the man in the second knows the same, even more so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I write these words, I have two photos before me. In the first (left), I was 41; in the second, 61. The first I used 20 years ago when I wrote my first book and first columns. The second I used for my recent novelette and for these blogs. Despite the smile, the man [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1115"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1135,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions\/1135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}