Monday Memo 339: Seven Years

I started writing The Monday Memo in March, 2001. Little did I know that I would still be writing it seven years later or that it would continue to grow in influence and circulation. I am a better writer than I was seven years ago, and I have learned so much over that period. What's more, I am confident and optimistic that the best is yet to come -- for me and the purpose message. With your permission, I would like to share some lessons I have learned from writing The Memo for these last seven years ago.

1. No one can read what I don’t write. I never thought that The Monday Memo would reach this many people. It wouldn’t reach anyone, however, if I didn’t take the time to write it. I often refer to the verse from James’ epistle, which states: “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:17). To make a difference in the world, you must stop talking about what you’re going to do and start doing it. No can read what you don’t write, sing what you don’t compose, buy what you don’t produce or visit what you don’t build.

2. God gives you what you need when you need it. Every Sunday afternoon for the last seven years, I’ve gone to my computer to write The Memo. I often have no idea what I am going to write, but the ideas always come. Not every issue was brilliant and not every theme was life-changing, but every Sunday God gave me something to give to you. And every week someone would write to say, “That issue was just for me. Thank you.” Don’t worry about next month or next year when you start to do something. Just use what you have today and trust Him for what you will need tomorrow. He is faithful and will always provide.

3. The Internet is a wonderful vehicle to build relationships. That may sound strange, because in some ways the Internet and email seem impersonal. Almost every week, however, I hear from people who say, “Dr. Stanko, you are my mentor” or “I sit at your feet every week” or “I feel like you’re here speaking to me when I read.” The fact that The Memo is regular and personal has allowed me to “relate” to many people whom I may never meet. What's more, The Memo has also enabled me to multiply my effectiveness and build relationships with many who have written or come to hear me speak or teach. In the meantime, my blog has become a favorite for many as I have expanded my capacity to write and create. In these past seven years, my website has become outdated, but I will announce a major overhaul in a few weeks that will make the site one of the most effective purpose stops in cyberspace.

4. The Monday Memo helps me fulfill my purpose. Every Sunday I get to “create order out of chaos without control.” I take random ideas, put them in some written order and send them out for people to read or not read, to ponder or ignore, to pass on or discard. You receive this Memo because you asked to receive and you may unsubscribe at any time. If I am going to keep your loyalty, I must produce something of value that makes a difference in your life. I like that pressure. I am also glad that I have never asked anyone for any money to receive the Memo. Freely I have received, so freely I want to give.

5. The Monday Memo has inspired others to be creative. There are countless publications today that someone started because they read The Monday Memo. Others have started businesses and ministries, and still more have changed jobs and careers. The Memo has given countless thousands permission to be who they are, who God made them to be, because I found a way to share my own freedom. I would hope that many more people will start writing and expressing their own creativity because they receive The Monday Memo. What an honor that would be! So if you are reading this and have an idea but don’t want to seem like you’re copying this Memo, please act on your idea. Call it the Tuesday Tidbit, Wednesday Wisdom, Thursday Trivia, Friday Fill-Up, Saturday Sampler or the Sunday Sermon. And if The Memo helped you start it, feel free to move on and become bigger and be more creative than I could ever hope to be.

There’s so much more that I have learned over these last seven years, but I won’t take the time to bore you. I want to say thank you for being a loyal reader, whether for two weeks or all seven years. When people thank me for The Memo, I often say, “If you keep reading, I’ll keep writing.” It’s an act of love every week to sit down and produce this for you. It’s an honor when you write or when you pass an issue on to your friends and associates.

So with tears in my eyes, I pray God’s purposeful blessing on you as you read and ask Him to give you creative wisdom of how you can produce your own creative expressions that will honor God. I don’t know how much longer The Memo will continue, but I dedicate every future issue to God, to you and to the readers all over the world who are yet to come. May God be glorified by what you do and may many be encouraged by your courageous PurposeQuest. Thank you, God bless you, and have a great week!

It would be great if you could take some time and share with my readers what The Monday Memo has meant to you. Feel free to write your comments on the site where this entry is posted or go to that site to read previous editions of The Monday Memo. Thank you!

Comments

[Bill von Husen]

I do not often leave my comments on blogs that I read but today something beyond Dr John's request urges me to do so.
I have known Dr Stanko for many years, read his books and invited him to speak at our church. I love him and the way God uses him to minister in peoples lives. He is a gift!
When someone visits you or your church infrequently, you hope that you "get them" on a good day. As the one speaking, you hope it's a "good day" as well. In fact, you desperately need and want the Holy Spirit's anointing to make it a "good day"! But when you "visit" with someone on a routine basis as the Monday Morning Memo allows us to, you begin to experience the "real" gift inside the person. You find the wisdom, insights and experiences that meld the person into the gift they truly are. You find the hopes, the weaknesses being made stronger and the "less presentable" aspects of someone that make them "the real" person that God is using to bring change and insights into your life.
It is for this reason that I love, appreciate and thank God for the man and ministry that I know as Dr John Stanko and the Monday Morning Memo.
If I can use a portion of God's Word in the sense of a paraphrase, not that I see myself as a great man but Proverbs 18:16 reminds me that the gift of God that is Dr John is something I gladly receive and make room for each week.

[Jim Lehmkuhl]

Thanks so much for your diligence in writing the Monday Memo. I too use email to send God-centered, encouraging messages to believers struggling with substance abuse.
Your consistancy has kept me going. Thanks, Jim

[Kudzai]

Dr John

Thank you so much for your commitment to write out the Monday Memo, it has been life transforming, challenging and provoking in a lot more ways than one. I have personally enjoyed it as I have become a consistent reader of this memo.

The Lord increase your influence in His Kingdom, as you faithfully move to completing your life given assignment.

Warm regards

[Beacon Advertising]

God bless you sir

[Howard]

Dear Dr. John,

Gee, I wanted to offer the world a sampler of trivial wisdom to fill-up their Saturdays from my Sunday sermon.

I was hoping that that you wouldn’t cover every day of the week, but I suppose it’s hard to stop those creative juices from flowing. :-)

Although I am a relatively new reader of the Monday Memo, I do appreciate it very much. God bless you.

[Jaine]

” Don’t worry about next month or next year when you start to dosomething. Just use what you have today and trust Him for what you willneed tomorrow. He is faithful and will always provide. I just copy-pasted that. It has given me the impetus to go on.

I am a mother of 4 boys. 18, 14, and twins aged 4. I am a civil servant with a meagre pay. Been trying to get a degree in vain. Last week was admitted to College. The bill is overwhelming. I however feel the spirit of God telling me go Jane go......go for it. I got no penny to pay for the fees. It is about Ksh.500,000. I do not know from where but I must obey...... Like Abraham.... I WILL OBEY. I can tell it is the Lord from your past lessons. I go by the first statement of this email that I copied from Memo No. 339. I will not relent. I am a believer. I have to activate my FAITH. I will walk by FAITH!

I heard about purpose quest on a Hope FM interview a few years ago.....and ever since this Memo has become a life support weekly-prescription Can't do without a dose. Have referred quite a number of my friends. I hope they have become addicts to this beautiful message.

[Cheryl Ramurath]

I first encountered Dr Stanko's Purpose Quest when he gave a talk at the church I was attending at the time... I was going through a lot of emotional trauma during my early twenties and it was only the faint belief that my life had a purpose that I was able to hold on...

I dared to request a meeting with him when he was visiting South Africa and was so excited and nervous all at once! In that brief time, he saw in me what I was trying to make sense of and helped me define my very own purpose statement.

It's been a few years of painful progress along my purpose pathway, but now I have finally closer to living out my purpose than ever before ;> I've even started writing daily devotionals and know the joy of seeing the Holy Spirit work through your hands ;o)

I am also honoured to have Dr Stanko write a regular column in Kairos magazine, a publication that helps South Africans strive to develop their purpose so that they can thrive in the promises of God!

I thank God for one man who has dared to live with purpose – and helped thousands of others to draw up personal maps to discover their hidden treasure!

God bless,
Cher

[Anne]

Just wanted to write and tell you that I am one of the people you have helped inspire to write! I started a weekly email about 6 months ago called Thoughts on Thursday. I had been thinking about writing a weekly "column" off and on for years. After subscribing to yours and reading it each week, I became more inspired. And then I finally decided to take action instead of just thinking about it.

I find my experience to be similar to yours -- I sit down each Wednesday evening and I'm not always sure what to write about, but the Lord always gives me something. And they aren't all brilliant or life-changing, but some that I thought were rather blah have gotten responses from someone who said "this was just what I needed today!"

Your thoughts on purpose have been very helpful to me. I am still working on my purpose statement -- I came up with the start of one, actually 2 ideas, and I'm trying to figure out how they fit together. Mainly, I think, my purpose is to bring new perspectives to people, to show them new perspectives, to give them new perspectives to consider, to broaden their perspective... and that is one of the main reasons I write my Thoughts on Thursday. Perspective is very important to our walk with God and our spiritual growth. I think if we can get the right perspective on a situation, we can then respond in the right way; and altering our perspective can bring hope and peace and renew our faith.

I also like to bring color into people's lives -- in a literal way, at least (not sure if it's figurative as well). I like to wear bright colors and mix colors and to use color when I can -- I have many colored pens that I journal with, and I have a colorful journal to write in. I use color in everyday situations and I am known for that. But I'm not sure how the color and the perspectives tie together (perhaps I bring new perspective about color). But in any event, I am much closer to being able to know and live from my purpose than I was before, and you have been instrumental in that process.

So thank you for writing! Thank you for sharing!

[Sharron]

The memo has meant a lot to me. I wanted to share it via the link - it didn't work on my computer and I'm writing because maybe others are experiencing the same problem.

Keep writing. All the very best,

[kenny champion]

Dr. John is WORLD WIDE like the Nike Swoosh! Not only are his words inspiring and reader's comments encouraging, but i'm fascinated by all the NAMES of those reading and responding ... everyone from AFRICA to AMERICA and everywhere in between is HERE, thanx to you, Dr. John. Keep “creating order out of chaos without control.” I love it. NONE of us would be on this site, if you never took the chance to Write.

[Mike]

Hi John, I actually came across your work through "The Purpose Club" - Glen McQuirk. May I add my appreciation of your Monday Memo - I have drawn lots of encouragement from it. I still need to get onto your program when the time comes. God bless,

[Esther]

Thanks a great deal for being a blessing and for thrusting us out of our comfort zone. Your memos are encouraging on one hand and very 'provocative' in that after reading the memos, one cant just sit there. A still small voice keeps pestering as it did to me until i couldnt believe what i have done. I have opened a business which i have never believed i could open. I have struggled for many years just to take the step of faith and your memos kept on probing me to step out and accomplish my purpose. SO here am with a licence and stock for my business and guess what? i feel on top of the world and want more facilities for more businesses. Cant imagine myself.

[Tim]

I've been receiving the Monday Memo since issue #1. I signed up on a torn-out sheet of notepaper that you circulated at the OCEA conference in Akron that March. I also picked up your "I wrote this book on purpose" book & one of your QuickTime CD's at the time. Your teachings have influenced many choices I've made in the intervening years.

I think I have always been blessed to be "on purpose" - as a kid I was a nerd who wanted to be an electronics engineer; I became both 40 years ago & have loved the craft, enough to survive several badly-placed bosses. The blessing is that all the products I have worked on have been targeted at health care or educational products that improve the quality of life for people.

I "retired" about a year ago to start a design-consulting business, although my former employer of 28 years has kept me too busy part-time to get things going. My hours there have diminished, as I've brought the "new kids" up to speed, so now I can (and must) concentrate on growing my business. I also have a bent towards graphic arts; my favorite area of concentration in my engineering work has been user-interface design and implementation, and my new business will concentrate on that area. I create the KeyNote presentations for my Pastor each week, and would like to use it for song lyrics, too, but there is nothing for the Mac that is satisfactory; I'm working on changing that with some software I'm developing. I also have some web design, page-layout and Mac training work that keeps me eating.
It's exciting to be free from the daily corporate structure and to have to depend on the Lord for my daily directions. Even though I shouldn't be surprised, he has frequently surprised me with the physical means to move forward in my quest to enable people to be "children of light" (Eph 5:8)

BTW, thanks for suggesting the Palm Pilot in your 2001 class - I'm currently on my third, a TX (Laridian's MyBible is great); I may get an iPod Touch & write some software for that, too...
Blessings on your work!

[Nyasha]

doc, thank you for being a faithful servant of the
Lord. i believe the memo is going to be around for very
long time and more so your very life and love and
sacrifice will forever be an unending , timeless,
unforgetable memo!! may God bless you and even increase
you more to " take charge over ten cities!"well done!!

[Antony]

congratulation for your seven years. am one of the people who has benefited from the Monday memo.In moments have been down the memo has encouraged me, times I have been confused I have gotten answer to many questions. My most memorable one is the fact that God is a Creator and we were also born to create that works for me and may God bless you and continue to increase your wisdom and skill

[Njeri]

I thank the Lord Jesus for you.

You used to send me Monday memo sometime back. This is to Thank you.

You came to our church back in 2005, L.C.C. Deliverance Church, Nakuru. Thank you and God Bless You.

Pray for the Nation of Kenya for peace, we have really gone thru a tough time but God is great for we are still around to give Him praise and worship-Amen

[Benard]

The articles you send me are very inspiring.Iam very blessed i pray that the lord will continue putting more in your spirit to bless us even more.Thank you for praying for Kenya,Things are now returning to normal.

[Benard]

The articles you send me are very inspiring.Iam very blessed i pray that the lord will continue putting more in your spirit to bless us even more.Thank you for praying for Kenya,Things are now returning to normal.

[Matilda Zijenah]

Doctor Stanko you are truly an inspiration for anyone on a quest to find their purpose on this earth. i have been receiving the Monday Memo for the last two years now. And i can safely say that every time that i have read one of your articles i have been moved to action. Today as i write to thank you i am filled with tears of gratitude for you continue to insopire me. I wish you every succcess.God bless....