The Monday Memo from John Stanko

538: Joy Oil

I am in the midst of a rewrite of my book So Many Leaders, So Little Leadership, which I wrote in 2000. I have half-jokingly said that I no longer believe some of what is in that book, but I think it's that my views on leadership have matured since then. It was time to put those new views on paper. I am already behind my publisher's requested submission date but I think I am two days away from completion - if I can find some chunks of time to work on it uninterrupted.

When you put this much work into a project, you ask yourself along the way, "Why am I doing this?" and you consider quitting altogether or at least postponing completion until a more opportune time, which of course will never come.  So I have learned to press on and look for the joy oil while I work.  Let's consider that concept now.

JOY OIL

I was at a meeting of pastors this week and one of them read Hebrews 1:9, which got me thinking about this week's Memo: "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.”  This verse makes reference to Jesus Christ and of course Christ means "Anointed One."  Notice what Jesus' anointing was.  It wasn't power or authority or knowledge.  It was joy.

In my leadership book revision, I talk about the importance of anointing, not just in church work but in any purpose work.  If the joy isn't there, there are no anointed results - and anointed simply means that God is helping you do the work.

As I write and get bogged down or discouraged, I look for the joy oil.  And the joy oil for me is visualizing people reading, learning and growing.  It's people closer to understanding and fulfilling their purpore than before they started reading. The oil isn't in the money, there isn't very much in publishing unless you have mass media to market, but I write for the joy.

FIND IT

I have been asking audiences lately, "Why does a bird sing?"  A bird doesn't sing for an audience or money.  A bird sings because it has a song inside it to sing, nothing more nothing less. I supposed a bird can't have joy oil, but sometimes when I watch them sing, I think maybe they do!  Or maybe they sing just to bring us joy. Why will you sing or write, or compose, or teach, or lead?  It may be for money or to serve others, but ultimately it had better be for joy because that's what's in you to do.

If you are going to write or do just about anything related to purpose, then you must find that oil of joy to be successful and fulfilled.  Where is it for you?  Are you afraid of it? Are you trying to operate without it? All those are good questions to address this week, while I work feverishly to finish my manuscript.  When you find your joy oil as I have found mine, you will have all the motivation you need to carry on and through all opposition and hindrances, especially those that come from within you.  Have a great week!

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KENYA REPORT:  I depart for Kenya in six weeks and must raise $12,000 before then to reach my goal of $25,000 for The Big Blessing. I will start writing and updating you in earnest next week and I know the Lord will come through, using you in the process.  You don't have to wait but can give through my website or by sending a check to PurposeQuest, PO Box 8881, Pittsburgh, PA 15221-0881.

MEMO INDEX:  Did you know that every Memo I have ever written is on my website in groups of five, along with an index that includes every Scripture reference, topic and Memo title.  If you are looking for something specific, you can look here, or just do some reading of back issues at your leisure.

WWJA:  Have you checked out my new daily devotional, What Would Jesus Ask?  If not, take a look here and subscribe at the same site to receive it every day. 

ISRAEL POSTPONED:  I did not have enough people interested for this May, so I have rescheduled the next Israel trip for September, 2013.  It will be here before you know it, so plan to be part of that trip now.

537: Afraid of Happy?

Two weeks ago we looked at a summary of five regrets of the dying, as reported by an Australian woman who worked with those who were terminally ill.  We have covered two of the five regrets the last two weeks, and this week we will cover a third (and last), and the move on.  The fifth regret was "I wish that I had let myself be happier."  Notice they did not say they wish they were happier, but rather they wish they had let themselves be happy.  That means that they actually did not give themselves permission to be happy and enjoy life. How sad. 

APART FROM THE LORD

I know there is no true fulfillment or happiness outside of the Lord, and it's possible that some or many of those surveyed were not believers.  My experience, however, is that some or perhaps many believers are guilty of the same thing:  they are fighting themselves and their joy.  They are so conditioned to think that joy and happiness are traps and not really consistent with the Christian life that they avoid joy and happiness.  In other words, they are afraid of joy?  Is this possible?

The writer of Ecclesiastes conducted a life experiment, as you can read in Ecclesiastes 2.  He tried all kinds of pleasure, pursued knowledge and wisdom, undertook great projects and amassed considerable wealth.  None of these things in and of themselves brought the writer happiness.

Having done all these things, he came to this conclusion:

A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind (Ecclesiastes 2:24-26).

So let me ask you a question based on the writer's conclusion:  Are you happy in your work?

AFRAID OF HAPPY?

Do you enjoy your work or are you afraid of the joy and happiness it can bring?  Are you conditioned to think that work must be miserable or at least only tolerable?  Have you put the pursuit of the big three, career, a nice salary and benefits, ahead of joyful work?  There is nothing wrong with any of those three things, but if you are pursuing them and don't have joy, you will eventually be frustrated and even burn out.

When you are afraid of happy, you are in some ways fighting yourself, resisting who God made you to be and what He created you to do.  God wanted to make the process a bit simpler for you but attaching joy to the work He has for you to do.  When you fight the joy, you fight God as well as yourself.  So do yourself a favor, listen to the writer and pursue what you love - the money will follow eventually, I promise.  Don't let yourself be scared of your own shadow of happiness, but let it come into the fullness of the light of your daily existence.  Thank you and have a great week!

536: Hard Work

Last week, I shared the five regrets of the dying as reported by a women in Australia who worked with many dying patients, which you can access here. We looked at the first regret and that was people wished they had been more true to themselves and not to others' expectations. I wasn't planning on going through the other four regrets, but let's at least look at one or two more before we move on.

HARD WORK

The second regret was, "I wish I had not worked so hard."  That is interesting to me, for work is God's gift to mankind.  When the writer of Ecclesiastes discussed his life lessons learned from pursuing many things, he came to this conclusion: "So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot" (Ecclesiastes 3:22).  That verse and conclusion number two led me to ask a question:  Were the people doing the right work that caused them to wish they had not worked so hard?

You see, if it is God's lot for you to enjoy your work, then why would He not want you to engage that work as often as possible?  Isn't the joy an incentive to pursue the work, at least in part? I wonder if the regret should have been worded, "I wish I had not worked at the wrong work so hard"?

PAUL'S PERSPECTIVE

Years ago I was complaining to the Lord that I was working too hard. I had a dream one night and heard this verse in my dream, and have used it as a guide for most of my adult life.  It is in 1 Corinthians 15:10: "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me."

Paul acknowledged that it was God's grace with him that caused him to work as hard as he did.  I felt the Lord was indicating that He was not going to send me any less work, but actually more work.  Yet it would be work that I would enjoy, work that He would help me achieve.  I would say He has done that for me, and I think He wants to do it for you, too.

If I got the end of my life and had devoted thousands of hours to work I hated or that didn't matter, I think I would regret that like those who were part of that woman's conclusions.  Rather I have worked doing what I love and that has made my adult life enjoyable, meaningful and rich.  My father retired from his work at 62, and I will be that age this year.  I cannot even imagine stopping doing what I love to do something else or nothing at all. I hope you feel the same.

If you don't, what are you prepared to do about it?  It's not too late to lay the foundation for meaningful, enjoyable work.  What are you waiting for?  Most people know what that work would be, but they let fear rob them of the efforts to perform it. Don't end up like those people in the survey who wished they had not worked so hard. Instead be like Paul who rejoiced that God's grace empowered him to work hard and see results.  Thank you and have a great week!

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THE BIG BLESSING UPDATE: I posted some new pictures, a video and a financial update for The Big Blessing $25,000 target raised by March 15 on my blog site.  Take a look when you have a chance and then help me reach my goal!  Thank you. 

PURPOSEQUEST ASSESSMENT:  Don't forget to take the free Purpose Assessment on my website to determine where you may be on your individual purpose journey.

LAST CALL FOR ISRAEL:  If you are interested in my trip to Israel from May 15-29, you must let me know immediately so we can hold airline seats. Just drop me an email and let me know that you are interested.

535: The Five Regrets of the Dying

I found a link to an article over the holidays and wanted to share it first chance I had, so this looks like a good week.  It's written by an Australian woman, Bronnie Ware, and can be found in its entirety here.  I will summarize the five points of her article "The Five Regrets of The Dying," and focus on one point in particular.

THE FIVE REGRETS

Here are the five regrets that Bronnie discovered in working with those patients close to death over the years:

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I didn't work so hard.
3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Here is what Ware had to say about the first point, the courage to be true to self and not others:

This was the most common regret of all. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people have had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.

DON'T LET IT BE YOUR REGRET

It takes courage to be true to yourself and who God created you to be. Before David went out to fight Goliath, King Saul tried to have David wear his (Saul's) battle armor.  Saul was a tall man, however, and the armor didn't fit.  David did not try and please the king. Instead he rejected the armor and took along his sling shot, something that was more true to who he was.  His success is legendary (see 1 Samuel 17:38-40).

Are you wearing someone else's armor?  If you are, then you are headed for the number one regret expressed by the dying.  Don't do it!  I cannot say what you should do, but I can only urge you to follow your heart and stop living your life for someone else, unless however it is for the Lord.  I was challenged by this list and I hope you are, too.  Now get about the work of living before it's too late. Have a great week!

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KENYA LIBRARY UPDATE:  We were able to ship 179 boxes weighing a total of 7,500 pounds to Texas to be containered for shipment to Kenya. You can read about it here.  My thanks to so many who made this next step possible, but stay tuned:  We will need more help before this is all complete.

PURPOSEQUEST ASSESSMENT:  Don't forget to take the free Purpose Assessment on my website to determine where you may be on your individual purpose journey.  Then let me know how I can help you be even more purposeful.

534: Teenie Harris, Frank Lloyd Wright & Larry Fitzgerald

I am still on vacation, but have used this time to refresh and retool for the coming year.  To help do that, I traveled out West and also took some time to visit a museum in my hometown.  I encountered three men of purpose during the holidays who inspired me. I would like to tell you about them and their impact on me this holiday season.

THREE MEN

The first man is Charles "Teenie" Harris. He was a local photographer in Pittsburgh who worked for the famous black newspaper, The Pittsburgh Courier.  Harris spent his life taking photographs of the African American community in Pittsburgh (and things of interest to the black community).  He amassed a collection of 80,000 pictures in his lifetime and they are on display now through April 7 in the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh (If you live in or near Pittsburgh, run, don't walk, to see this exhibit).

The second man is Frank Llloyd Wright. Wright was the famous American architect who spent 70 years creating architectural concepts that revolutionized how modern buildings were and are designed. There is a display honoring Wright's work here at the Phoenix Museum of Art.  Wright's blueprints and conceptual drawings are framed and hung as art, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation has its headquarters here in Phoenix at a complex Wright designed called Taliesin West.  I am going to visit there later today.

The third man is Larry Fitzgerald, a wide receiver for the professional football team here in Phoenix called the Arizona Cardinals.  Fitzgerald played his college ball in Pittsburgh and has gone on to become one of the best receivers in the NFL today.  I saw Fitzgerald perform yesterday when the Arizona Cardinals played the Seattle Seahawks here in Phoenix (Fitzgerald had a great game and I think half the people in the stadium were wearing his jersey).

ONE MAN

What do these three men have to do with me (and you)?  These men were or are the best at what they do.  They impacted the world while alive and two are still impacting the world after their death. They did not try to do all the things they could do, but rather focused on being the best at the one thing they could or can do that no one else could or can match. 

That is what I want my legacy to be. I want to do what one man can do, with God's help, to touch and change the world.

I want to be the best purpose coach and writer I can be.  While I cannot guarantee the results now or after I am gone, I want to give God my best results and present Him things that, if He chooses, can be used to bless and touch others. 

With that in mind, I commit myself to be the best expression of who God intended me to be in 2012.  I want to produce resources that will help you and others.  I want to "sing my song," and trust God for the results, even if I am only singing for His ears.  An audience of one, if God is that One, is not time wasted.

So Happy New Year to you and yours.  I invite you to join me, along with Teenie, Frank and Larry, to be the best person in your work that you can be in 2012 and beyond.  Continue to lay the foundation and pay the price to be the best you can be, and trust God for the results.  Who knows, maybe some day, someone will come to visit your display in a museum and another person like me will write about you.  Have a great week and year!

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THANK YOU:  We met our matching grant deadline.  $650 came in yesterday, so we qualified to receive the $750 matching grant.  The cool thing about it is that the last $300 came in at 11:30 PM, thirty minutes before the grant deadline.  Isn't God good?  I don't have the totals, but I believe this puts us about halfway toward our $25,000 goal for March.  I will have the totals for you next week.

This week we ship 180 boxes of books and supplies to Kenya for our arrival in March.  Please pray that all goes well.  And thank you for your giving and prayers that helped us once again meet a deadline for the orphans and widows.

MATCHING GRANT: You can issue your own challenge grant to help me fulfill the second half of our $25,000 goal. All you have to do is give me an amount ("I will give $1000"), and a deadline ("I will give $1,000 by January 31") and then I challenge my readers to give toward that grant.  If we receive $1,000 in matching gifts and you give your $1,000, you have effectively doubled your gift!  Let me know if this is something you would be interested in doing and I will take it from there.

PURPOSEQUEST ASSESSMENT:  Why not start off the year by taking (or retaking) the free Purpose Assessment on the home page of my website. Then follow up on the email I send you with your score.

NEW DEVOTIONAL:  I have started a new daily devotional called "What Would Jesus Ask" and you can check it out or subscribe to receive it on my personal blog site.  I pose a question every day from the Bible and give you some thoughts to help you seek the answers to the questions.