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.
Hello Dr. John,
Excellent choices. Its important to find people who inspire.
Every time I find myself with nothing to write about and no ideas, I just picture you laughing off the entire notion of writers block off, and then I write.
Posted by: Kent Nelson | January 02, 2012 at 03:27 PM
Dr. J, you will leave a great legacy as you equip others to live like Jesus and they in turn pass on the blessing. thanks for sharing your insights and wisdom with us to find our purpose and make it happen..you have been such a great source of inspiration to me!!! remember when i couldn't even talk to you about moving forward?
Blessings to you in this new year!
kim
Posted by: Kim Fleming | January 02, 2012 at 09:56 PM