The Monday Memo from John Stanko

447: Creative Expressions

Thank you so much for your generous contributions toward my "birthday underwear" fund for Kenyan youth.  More than $700 came in plus some donated underwear. That is great!  It's not too late to give, however, as you can read below.  And if you live in Kenya, please check out the seminar I am coming to conduct next month.  It has the power to change your life. But now, it's time to move on. Two weeks ago, I began a series on creativity and would like to resume that topic for the next few weeks. 

Do you consider yourself a creative person? What creative outlets do you have, or rather how many do you give yourself permission to have? For most of my adult life, I did not give myself permission to pursue creativity and I wasn't open to the fact that I may be creative. My self-image was that of an administrator, and creativity and administration were at odds with one another—or so I thought.

Are you creative? If your answer is no, then perhaps you need to expand the way you view creativity and, consequently, view yourself. If you are open to that possibility, then urge you to read on.

ADAM'S ZOO

Adam was made by God to be creative and we are Adam’s children. After God created Adam, He invited Adam to enter into the creative process by naming the animals:

“Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field” (Genesis 2:19-20).

Adam decided what the animals were to be called; it was an expression of his creative dominion in the Garden.

Too often, we have identified only musicians, songwriters, poets and writers as creative—and they are indeed creative. Those expressions, however, are only a few of the creative expressions that are available to Adam’s children. Let’s take a look at some of the creative expressions that are available to you:

1. Child raising—Raising a child requires tremendous creativity as you teach, train, entertain and discipline each child according to his or her personality and needs.
2. Handwriting—Do you have beautiful handwriting? Then stop using the computer. Use your creative, artistic flair to communicate with others in your own writing.
3. Dress—You may have an eye for color or fashion. Be creative and adorn your body, God’s creation, in a manner that is distinctive and uniquely you.
4. Repairs—It takes creativity not just to invent or design something, but to keep it in working order. Your ability to read a manual and then fix something is an expression of your creativity.
5. Gardening—Do you like flowers? Enjoy raising vegetables? Then plant to the glory of God and do it with your style and grace. If you don’t plant the seeds, they won’t grow! So join in the creative process and do what Adam and Eve did in the Garden. (Don’t forget to pull the weeds, too!)
6. Time management—Can you organize your time and activities? That requires creativity. Can you help others organize? That requires even more creativity.
7. Problem solving—Do you face new problems and apply timeless wisdom and solutions? Then you are not just organized or efficient. You are creative!

YOU ARE OH SO CREATIVE!

I hope you get the picture. Like Adam, you are creative and God wants and needs you to express your creativity in every day life. Stop saying you aren’t creative—you are! I have assembled a list of creative expressions from past studies on creativity and that list is posted on my website. Take a look at that list and see how many expressions are present in your life and then settle once and for all your attitude toward your own creativity.

Perhaps then you will see yourself as creative, which is just how the Lord wants you to see yourself. Once you see yourself as creative, you will then give yourself permission to pursue and release creativity in ways not possible up to this point in your life. As you do, I know you will have a great creative week!

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OPERATION PETTICOAT: You can read about my underwear project at Operation: Petticoat.  Speaking of creativity, I recently heard from a fascinating recycling organization called Bra Recyclers!  They are making a large donation to the cause and are promoting it aggressively. I am going back to Kenya on May 13, so I have set April 30 as my deadline to raise money to purchase underwear here and take it over there (which will cost me money for excess luggage).

You can give through my website or send a check to PurposeQuest, PO Box 91099, Pittsburgh, PA 15221. Just let me know if your contribution is to be used for food or underwear and I promise to apply it where you direct. As stated above, $700 came in last week for Operation: Petticoat and just a little for The Sophia Fund! Thank you for your help. 

KENYA TRAINING:  Last week I provided the specifics for The Pacific Institute (TPI) seminar I will conduct in Nairobi from May 17-19.  Attached below is the brochure for the event. Frankly speaking, TPI is the best training I have ever experienced and I love to share it with my friends. I invite you to join me in Nairobi for what I know will be a life-changing experience. 

Download Kenya TPI

446: Underwear for My Birthday

Today I turn 60 years old - the big six-oh. I am off for two days of celebration out West with my family, but thought I would write some thoughts before I get away.  I will spend the next two days doing some cool stuff, but I will also spend some time thinking about the future, and planning what I would like to do for the next ten years, with God's help of course. 

MY FUTURE VISION

I have come to the conclusion, which isn't particularly brilliant or original, that it is what you do for others that will provide a legacy once you are gone.  Stephen Covey's second habit for successful people is beginning with the end in mind.  He recommends that you write your funeral eulogy today, outlining what you hope people will say about you when you are gone. Then you must get busy doing those things if that is how you want to be remembered.

I want to be remembered as someone who helped set people free to purpose, to know the joy of doing what they were created to do, where they were meant to do it.  I want to be a person whom others sought out for wisdom and help in time of personal need.  I want people to smile when I walk in a room or preach a message; if I can make them laugh, all the better. And I want to meet practical needs, wherever I may find them.

I crave writing a best-selling book, where smiling people line up outside a bookstore to get an autographed copy.  I could go on and on about the future, but let me focus for now on something I want today for my birthday and that is underwear.

MY PRESENT PROJECT

No, it's not for me.  It's for children in Kenya, who sometimes can't go to school because they don't have it.   To date, I have collected 600 pair, but I want and need more.  My sister-in-law wrote a blog entry the other day entitled, "Why I am buying my brother-in-law underwear for his birthday" and then sent me $50.  That gave me the idea to ask for more.

So how about it?  Are you up for buying an old man some underwear for his birthday?  While you are at it, how about adding $5 to your contribution for the Sophia Fund to help feed widows and orphans.  Next week we will resume our discussion of creativity, but for this week, it's time to celebrate my 60th by buying some underwear.  Instructions on how to give are below.  Have a great week!

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OPERATION PETTICOAT: You can read about my underwear project at Operation: Petticoat.  Recently I heard from a fascinating recycling organization called Bra Recyclers!  They are making a large donation to the cause. I am going back to Kenya in May, so I have set April 30 as my deadline to raise money to purchase underwear here and take it over there (which will cost me money for excess luggage).

You can give through my website or send a check to PurposeQuest, PO Box 91099, Pittsburgh, PA 15221. Just let me know if your contribution is to be used for food or underwear and I promise to apply it where you direct. $1000 came in last week for Operation: Petticoat and $800 for The Sophia Fund! Thank you for your help. 

KENYA TRAINING:  Last week I provided the specifics for The Pacific Institute (TPI) seminar I will conduct in Nairobi from May 17-19.  Attached below is the brochure for the event. Frankly speaking, TPI is the best training I have ever experienced and I love to share it with my friends. I invite you to join me in Nairobi for what I know will be a life-changing experience. 

Download Kenya TPI

445: Time to Create

It's been a few years since I have written about creativity, and I sense it is time to do that again. So let's devote the next few months to a discussion of how you can tap into the massive and unpredictable sea of creativity that is resident in your own heart and mind.

Have you wondered where creativity comes from? Have you also wondered why some people are more creative than others?  For the most part, creativity continues to be a mystery to me. One thing I do know, however, and that is creativity is hard work! Today I am sitting at my kitchen table, composing this Monday Memo. This Memo won't descend from heaven, even if God inspires it (which I hope He does). I have to write it and send it out. That's not glamorous or spiritual; it's just effort.

Many people tell me that they are more productive because they don't have enough time to write, paint, study, or think, for that matter. You know my response to that excuse: You have all the time there is in the world--24 hours every day. It's what you do with that time that will set you apart as a creative or non-creative person.

If you have read many of my Memos, you know that I am a big fan of Julia Cameron; In her book The Sound of Paper: Starting from Scratch, Cameron had this to say about the issue of time and creativity:

Most of us think, "If only I had more time, then I would create." We have a fantasy that there is such a think as good creative time, an idyll of endless, seamless time unfolding invitingly for us to frolic in creativity. No such bolts of limitless time exist for most of us.  Our days are chopped into segments, and if we are to be creative, we must learn to use the limited time that we have.

When ego is siphoned of creativity, when creativity becomes one more thing we do, like laundry, then it takes far less time to do it. Much of our desire for creative time has to do with our trying to coax ourselves into being in the right mood to create. We want to "feel like it," and when we don't don't quickly, we think the solution is more time. Actually, the solution is less attention to the vagaries of mood. In short, creativity needs to become daily, doable and nonnegotiable; something as quotidian [everyday, commonplace, ordinary] as breathing. When we make a special occasion out of our art, we rob ourselves of the time we actually have.

Often I don't start creating because I don't believe I have enough time to complete what I start. When that is the case, I need to trust that God will help me use the time I have. At other times, I don't start something because I am afraid I won't have enough time to do it well. When that happens, I need more courage, not more time. I need to begin and trust that what I don't consider "good enough" may be more than good enough to impact someone else. I can't let my perfectionism inhibit my ability to produce what I can, when I can, no matter how meager it may seem.

I have almost every day for the last nine years writing my daily installment for my weekly Bible studies. I have completed a devotional commentary for 25 of 27 books in the New Testament by focusing on four verses a day every day, usually investing 15-20 minutes. I sit down to write and somehow the creative process kicks in, and the result is a large body of work of which I am quite pleased. Even today I just had to sit down and begin to write; the result is this edition 445 of The Monday Memo thirty minutes later.

You have the time and you also have the creative ability. Now all you have to do is spend a little time every day bringing forth what has probably been in you for some time. You are a creative person; don't waste your creativity on excuses of why you can't produce. Move past your fears and invest some time and hard work. In the long run, you and the world will be the better for those efforts. Have a great week!

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OPERATION PETTICOAT:  I announced plans two weeks ago to continue raising money for The Sophia Fund, the Deborah Foundation and a new program, Operation: Petticoat.  The latter is an effort to raise money for underwear for the young ladies in Kenya, who don't have any and consequently miss school because of it.  I know it may sound simple, but this is an important issue for those who have not. This week I heard from a fascinating recycling organization called Bra Recyclers!  They are making a large donation to the cause.

I am going back to Kenya in May, so we set April 30 as our deadline to raise money to purchase underwear here and take it over there.  You may not be passionate about underwear, but the two emails above speak to the urgency of the matter. 

You can give through my website or send a check to PurposeQuest, PO Box 91099, Pittsburgh, PA 15221. Just let me know if your contribution is to be used for food or underwear and I promise to apply it where you direct. $100 came in last week for Operation: Petticoat and $200 for The Sophia Fund! Thank you for your help. 

KENYA TRAINING:  I promised last week to have the specifics of The Pacific Institute (TPI) seminar I will conduct in Nairobi from May 17-19.  Attached below is the brochure for the event. Frankly speaking, TPI is the best training I have ever experienced and I love to share it with my friends. I invite you to join me in Nairobi for what I know will be a life-changing experience. 

Download Kenya TPI

444: Keep Pouring

Have you ever faced economic pressure that almost paralyzed you?  You were in such desperate straights that you did not know what to do next?  In 2001, I faced a major life transition when I started PurposeQuest International. The pressure was so great that there were days I did nothing but lie on the couch. We had no money, I had no business and I wasn't always sure what to do next. 

If you are facing something like this or have faced it, then perhaps you can relate.  If you haven't you may want to read on and then file this away for future use, just in case you need it - and chances are in your PurposeQuest you will face this kind of pressure at one time or another.

MORE JARS

In 2 Kings 4, the prophet Elisha met a widow who was also in desperate times. She was so heavily in debt that she feared losing her son to her creditors.  Elisha gave her some strange advice; he told her to go home and find as many jars as possible. Once she had done that, she was to go home, close the door and start pouring the oil she had into those jars. Here is what happened next:

She left him and afterward shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. When all the jars were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another one." But he replied, "There is not a jar left." Then the oil stopped flowing. She went and told the man of God, and he said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left" (2 Kings 4:5-7).

Do you think the women wished at that point that she had gathered more jars to hold oil?  The point I am trying to make is that you must still operate in faith when you are desperate.  What's more, you must do things that are consistent not with where you are now, but where you will be when your breakthrough comes.

MY JARS

When I had my desperate time, I could barely function, but I had to get up off the couch and write.  I had to prepare seminars and teachings for no one in particular because I had no business.  I had to make financial decisions for the future when I had no money on that particular day!  What's more, I felt directed to give away things to others when my own needs were critical.  It was during that season that I began writing this Monday Memo and giving it away.  Shortly thereafter I began to send out my weekly Bible studies, free of charge to any and all.  I designed a website and committed money to its development, money I didn't have with no promise of any return.

Now that I look back, I did what this woman did many centuries ago:  I kept pouring what little I had and God kept providing more.  I am teaching today what I developed in those dark, uncertain times.  I meet with hundreds of people every year from all over the world, and I counsel them with things I read about and studied when my pressure almost rendered me helpless and without hope.

So what about you?  Is it time to despair, or is it time to gather some more jars and start pouring?  Your situation may be critical, but I urge you to think and act this week like it isn't  I am asking you to do what only God can help you do: act today like your breakthrough is already here, even though the evidence says otherwise.  If you can do this, then when your breakthrough comes, and it will come, you will have enough jars - whatever that represents for you - to hold the blessings that are in store for every purposeful servant of God.  If I made it through my dark time, you will, too. When it's all over, you will be glad you didn't stop pouring.  Have a great week!

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OPERATION PETTICOAT:  I announced plans two weeks ago to continue raising money for The Sophia Fund, the Deborah Foundation and a new program, Operation: Petticoat.  The latter is an effort to raise money for underwear for the young ladies in Kenya, who don't have any and consequently miss school because of it.  I know it may sound simple, but this is an important issue as evidenced by two emails I received this past week:

Just read about Operation: Petticoat.  It is so true about the underwear issue.  Most of the girls here don't wear bras and the panties are tattered.  It may seem strange to you but it is a big issue and the silly things are not cheap!  So little material but the price can be restrictive to kids who have little - J.M.

John, I think Operation: Petticoat is brilliant. Lack of underwear is a huge problem for girls and women in Africa and they are very grateful for any that can be sent. It doesn't matter if it is second hand as long as it is clean. Bras are particularly appreciated because they are harder to find and much more expensive. They are also necessary for older girls to be able to play sport. Women in developed countries don't know what to do with their older bras other than throw them away, and they could make such a difference. Children's clothes are also needed. Zimbabwe winter temperatures regularly go below zero at night.  Another vital necessity, which is out of reach for all but the best paid, is sanitary towels and tampons - S.F.

I am going back to Kenya in May, so we set April 30 as our deadline to raise money to purchase underwear here and take it over there.  You may not be passionate about underwear, but the two emails above speak to the urgency of the matter. 

You can give through my website or send a check to PurposeQuest, PO Box 91099, Pittsburgh, PA 15221. Just let me know if your contribution is to be used for food or underwear and I promise to apply it where you direct. $70 came in last week for Operation: Petticoat and $500 yesterday for The Sophia Fund, and I am trusting the Risen Christ for a lot more!  Thank you for your help. 

KENYA TRAINING:  I promised last week to have the specifics of The Pacific Institute (TPI) seminar I will conduct in Nairobi from May 17-19.  I don't have the actual brochure as I thought I would, but it will be here next week for sure.  In the meantime, I have attached some PDF material from the Institute itself outlining the benefits of the program called The Investment in Excellence (IIE).  This should answer some of your questions until I have the brochure and registration info for you next week.

Frankly speaking, TPI is the best training I have ever experienced and I love to share it with my friends. Be watching next week for the specifics and then join me in Nairobi for what I know will be a life-changing experience. 

Download TPI Graduate

Download TPI IIE