“The Six Thinking Hats” and Eliminating Time Wasters on a Crisp, Autumn Monday

The crisp, cool air invigorates me as I walk along the sidewalk drinking a warm coffee to start the day. Taking in the beautiful display of orange, reddish and gold fall foliage, I sit down to plan my week. It’s Monday. A new beginning. The weekly cycle repeats with the regularity of the changing seasons. I work on projects that require focus and self-discipline since I manage my own time. I need to remain motivated and inspired to pursue goals that are not only for my benefit, but for the benefit and encouragement of people in other parts of the world so I pray, plan, read a chapter of the Bible, read a chapter of the book I’m studying, then get to work.

I came across a new idea yesterday that captured my attention: “Six Thinking Hats”, a parallel thinking process developed by Edward de Bono to help people become more productive, focused and mindfully involved. The image of hats made the idea stick as I remembered passing my favorite tea shop last week where I saw a group of ladies in their late autumn years delightfully sipping tea from ornate cups while wearing distinctive red hats. De Bono’s Red Hat signifies feelings, hunches and intuition. When wearing this hat, you can express emotions and feelings, likes and dislikes, or stronger loves and hates.

But what if you are sitting in a group of red hat ladies wearing a lone, White Hat, which represents the concrete realist who thrives on information? You want the facts, just the facts. A woman left a meeting the other week in frustration over the “feelings-centered” focus of the group. I think she was wearing a white hat in a group of red hats.

Think of the possible glee and relief she might feel if a team, gathered for whatever objective, separated thinking into six clear functions? And think of what ruts people could get out of by wearing a different hat. By mentally switching hats, you can redirect conversation or the flow of a meeting. Or you can use it as a personal tool to redirect your thoughts when you are in a quagmire. Sounds like a great idea! I am eager to try it.

Ok, so I told you about the red and white hats. Here are the other four:

The Yellow Hat

This hat symbolizes brightness and optimism. The wearers of this hat shift towards exploring the positives of whatever is being discussed or worked on as a team. You can only consider the positive values and benefits.

The Black Hat

This is the hat of judgment. While wearing this hat, you play the devil’s advocate and consider why something may not work. It is important to spot potential problems, so this hat is both necessary and useful if worn for brief periods. Never overuse the black hat.

The Green Hat

Your innovators will enjoy wearing this hat, but they will want to wear it all the time. This hat focuses on creativity, possibilities and new ideas.  It is an opportunity to offer new concepts, new ways of doing things.

The Blue Hat

This is the hat worn by people chairing meetings. If the group is stymied because ideas are running dry, they may direct the group into Green Hat thinking. When contingency plans are needed, they can ask for Black Hat thinking, etc.

This sounds like a great way to foster productivity, creativity and to get people out of familiar thought patterns.

I tend to prefer the green, yellow and white hats.

Another boost to productivity is getting rid of time wasters. Here are a few common ones:

External Time Wasters

1. Personal interruptions

2.  Phone calls and text messages

3.  E-mail barrages

4.  Short attention span

5.  Social media (limit number of minutes per day)

6.  Your daily energy cycle (do the work that requires the greatest focus and energy before 2pm)

7. Choosing to work in places like Starbucks, unless you are energized by noise.

Internal Time Wasters

1. Lack of delegation

2. Tyranny of the urgent

3. Procrastination

4. Perfectionism

5. Lack of planning – try adding the following segments of planning to your schedule

            daily (10 - 15 minutes)

            weekly (30 - 45 minutes)

            monthly (a few hours)

            quarterly (half a day)

            yearly (1 to 3 days)

6. Lack of a Gospel life plan or personal mission statement - we all need purpose and vision for our lives to keep us from distractions and discouragement. God has a mission for each of us.

So let’s move forward into a more productive week impacting our world.  Hat's off to you.

One Girl's Fight for Education and Hope in a Beautiful, Mountain Valley

The value of the life of a girl is unfathomably measured by man based on where she is born.  If she is even given the chance to be born in some countries, her value is less than that of a boy. But if she is born in Taliban-controlled regions of Afghanistan and mountainous Pakistan near the Afghan border, her life is smothered by oppression and if she dares to cross the threshold of her home to simply get an education, she does so at risk of her own life.  In great struggles that come to light on the world stage, there is usually a protagonist with whom we can identify, with whose story we can feel compassion. In the struggle for the rights of female education in her country, that protagonist is Malala Yousafzai.

The bright-eyed, amazingly poised, 14-year-old girl was targeted by masked Taliban gunmen who boarded her bus on the way home from school, and was shot in the head and neck, leaving her fighting for her life in a struggle she began in her beloved Swat Valley three years ago. After the shooting, a Taliban spokesman said his organization considers Malala’s crusade for education rights an “obscenity” and if she survives, the group promises to try to kill her again.

Malala, named after a mythic female figure in Pashtun culture, once dreamt of becoming a doctor, but recently she became interested in politics to end the crises which have threatened to destroy her country for years. In 2011, she was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize for her bravery in standing up for girls’ educational rights amidst rising fundamentalism during a time when few adults would take a stand. Malala came to public attention in 2009 as the Pakistani Taliban, their faces covered by dark turbans, swept through her valley home, once a beautiful vacation spot famous for its music and tolerance, and unleashed a wave of violence. Her father ran one of the last schools that defied Taliban orders to end female education. As an 11-year-old, Malala began writing a blog about her struggle to be educated under daily threat and danger. “She symbolizes the brave girls of Swat” said Samar Minallah, a documentary filmmaker. “She knew her voice was important, so she spoke up for the rights of children. Even adults didn’t have a vision like hers.”

In neighboring Afghanistan, girls have been maimed by acid attacks, targeted by bombers, and had their drinking water poisoned simply because of their desire to be educated. While this happens under the oppressive Taliban, the overall education of girls in Afghanistan is improving. "Basically, you didn't have girls educated in 2001,” said Christine Roehrs, spokeswoman for Save the Children in Afghanistan. “And now we have 3 million girls in school."

The region awoke to the barbaric rule of the Taliban eleven years ago. Its regime in Afghanistan was known for brutal repression and subjugation of women who were not allowed to work or attend school. Women could not laugh out loud, wear bright colors, and their fingernails were ripped out for the crime of wearing nail polish. Taliban religious police on patrol daily beat women who went out alone or who were not dressed properly. Needless to say, the internet was banned, but imagine a country where even kite flying was outlawed.  It seemed that hope itself was extinguished.

While the Taliban has largely been pushed back and its ability to attack Pakistan’s major cities has waned in the past year, there are still rural areas along the Afghan border where militants have intensified their efforts to silence critics and impose their will.

As I watched a documentary about her struggle and listened to Malala and her father share their simple dream to live at peace and pursue education for girls in their mountainous home, I was deeply moved. Draped in vibrant colors, which would be banned under the Taliban, she spoke with the innocence of a young girl and the clarity and purpose of someone far more mature.  I couldn’t imagine anyone shooting her.  As I pray for her I am reminded of a Jewish carpenter who elevated the situation of women in the Mediterranean and Greco-Roman world.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Jesus gave women human dignity. . . Prior to Jesus, women were regarded as inferior beings, religiously speaking.”

But not only in relation to religion.  During the time of Jesus, women were usually not educated and often remained indoors. When a girl was born, she was often left to die. Yet the longest conversation recorded between Jesus and another person is in John 4 when he asked the Samaritan woman at the well for a drink to the surprise of his disciples.  He engaged in a deeply theological and personal conversation with her, taking seriously her thoughts and questions. As John Ortberg observed in his book Who is this Man?, “Is it any wonder she could not stop talking about this man? Jesus was doing something very subversive. He was treating a woman like someone who had her own identity.”

Often people teach the story about Mary and Martha in the Bible as a lesson about avoiding busy-ness, but no one in the first century would have seen it that way. “To sit at someone’s feet” meant to be someone’s disciple. Martha did what the culture valued in women, she was busy cooking and cleaning, while Mary did what the culture valued in men.  She became a disciple. And Jesus honored her choice. He invited women to be His disciples.

We value education for our daughters who have never experienced barriers based on gender or otherwise in pursuit of their education, faith and dreams. But it is not enough for me to be grateful for them, I pray this will be the experience of every girl no matter where she is born. 

The Eeyore Antidote: Looking at Life through Grace-colored Glasses

Our childhood stories made us feel cozy and warm. While snuggling in a blanket, we were transported to another world learning lessons about life as we listened to a grown-up read to us. I love to enter into story from time to time because stories found in books, film and biography resonate with our lives - the hopes, joys, conflict, dissonance, pain and, sometimes, resolution. In the classic stories of “Winnie the Pooh”, there was a gloomy donkey, Eeyore, who always anticipated a negative outcome.  He never looked at life through rose-colored glasses, although some may say he was simply a realist.  To give him credit, some of his gloom could be attributed to being an introvert who didn’t want to be bothered by intruders, “He turned around angrily on the others and said "Everybody crowds round so in this Forest. There's no Space. I never saw a more Spreading lot of animals in my life, and in all the wrong places."  So that’s my theory.

In our world far from the Hundred-acre Wood, while many of us experience life’s wonders and joys, the stresses of life can threaten our well-being on a consistent basis so we must find a way to deal with the negatives. After our bedtime routine when our girls were young, which, yes, included stories, one of the girls would often come untucked after a scary thought took over her imagination. I would tell her every time to say “God is with me, I am not afraid.” As adults, we can still be fearful of things that go bump in the night. Only they are all too real. News affects us. We face our own trials while living in an unprecedented world of information.  We don’t want to be the Eeyore in the bunch. We must have faith. We face the challenge of sifting through a bombardment of information on a daily basis and must choose what to meditate on. Faith comes from hearing what God is saying to us.  The primary means is through studying the Bible daily. Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1)  

But where do we place our faith, how does faith play out in our daily lives, and is it simply positive thinking or optimism? Here are a few approaches many take to faith.  Do you recognize yourself in any of these? 

Rose-colored Glasses

Those who chose to look at life through rose-colored glasses view life with optimism.  Here are a few common phrases: Everything will turn out well if you only believe. You can have your best life now if you follow God’s principles.  Look at the bright side. If you make positive confessions, positive things will happen. But rose-colored glasses leave out the tint of suffering, the problem of pain, and taking up our crosses daily as we die to self and live for God. Positive thinking turns faith into a formula, leaving people with a watered-down truth devoid of rich fellowship with God and the power of living beyond ourselves.

Practical Atheism

The practical atheist pays homage to belief in God, but struggles with the dissonance we often encounter in life and within ourselves. Our actions and attitudes don’t always line up with what we say we believe.  So the practical atheist lives out daily life as it God isn’t really intimately concerned with our lives, and as if everything in life is up to them. Such a view makes it possible to go through rote prayer and Bible reading in the morning while living in fear, disappointment and doubt as if God is not in the equation the rest of the day. Developing a fresh, firm foundation on the biblical view of God and who we are in Christ can free people from this truncated view of faith, leading to peace and joy. 

Faith If

God, I will have faith in you if you heal me (my mother, my brother).  If my favorite candidate wins the election.  If I win the gold medal.  If you give me the woman/man of my dreams.  I will have faith if . . .  Faith is sometimes shipwrecked when expectations are not met. God help us. We need to remember that He is God and we are not.

“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Heb. 12:1-3)

Grace-colored Glasses

A healthy faith looks at the world and the self through the lens of grace. When we understand the redemptive power of the Gospel through the sinless life of Jesus, His death on the cross for our sin, and his resurrection offering forgiveness and new life to all who believe, everything changes. The dissonance takes on a perspective of grace because His work in us was finished on the cross.  We don’t have to earn our salvation. When the greatest story grips us, we live differently.  We live by faith. And we view the world redemptively.

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." Matt. 11:28-29. (MSG)

“Abounding sin is the terror of the world, but abounding grace is the hope of mankind.” A. W. Tozer

Slaking our thirst for Resolution: Music, Films and Stories that Resolve

We find satisfaction when music resolves.  Just a tinge at times, but sometimes it goes deep, touching on our need for harmony and resolution.  And when we watch a film with heightened tension and intense conflict, we can have a physical reaction and a sense of euphoria at the end when it resolves.

Have you ever thought about how quickly we move from one experience, unresolved conflict or unexpected circumstance to another often without taking the time to really reflect and process what is going on?  So how do our souls stay nourished and healthy without carrying emotional baggage, becoming bitter or emotionally numb?  We don’t want to end up like Macbeth thinking “Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”  

Our lives are played out with a certain metanarrative or great story in mind, a sort of script in front our eyes.  Our worldview is not always as decisively formed as we would hope to believe because we are subtly influenced by culture, the prevailing winds seeking to knock us off course if we have embraced Christ and the cross.  Every story has conflict, but only through our life in Christ do we experience the strange irony of peaceful resolution right in the midst of our struggles.  And not only that, but a crazy joy, which only makes sense when we consider the might and goodness of our God lovingly leading us through.  However, if we aren’t decisive about what influences us, culture will.  If we don’t make disciples, culture will.  It will prey on our desires, programming us to think we should find instant gratification and quick resolution.  According to Alan Hirsch, we are bombarded by consumerism, deriving our meaning, identity, purpose and belonging through the consumption of products.  

We need to be careful that we disciple people to follow Jesus, not simply to become consumers of Christianity who seek to get their needs met without understanding that Jesus is Lord of our lives.  Discipleship is becoming more and more like Jesus.  Hirsch said “In the Hebrew mind, the way you worship is to obey.”  Disciples are willing to pay the price and obey because they are in love with their Lord.  They aren’t worshiping their own dreams or scripts of how God will meet their needs and fulfill them.  Our sense of meaning, identity, purpose and belonging comes from knowing and following Jesus together with the community of believers.  But it is important to know that as we follow Him we will encounter conflict.  Jesus is in the boat with us through the height of the storm, the cusp of the conflict.  And He is the resolution residing within us.

“And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him.  And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.  And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?” (Matt. 8:23-27)

The same question applies to us today: why are we afraid, where is our faith?  Let’s get to know the powerful God who became man to save us, who gets in the boat with us and calms the storm.  Our faith isn’t in ourselves, the boat, or the weather patterns.  Our faith is in God Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus our Lord.  

Sometimes our stories don’t resolve in our lifetime.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a theologian, a man of great faith, and a co-conspirator to overthrow Hitler.  His hope for resolution extended to the next generation because he was killed only a few weeks before Germany was liberated from Hitler’s diabolical rule.  Concerning Hitler's assuming supreme command over Germany, Eric Metaxas wrote “But now Hindenburg was gone, and the German people found themselves far from shore, alone in a boat with a madman.”  But even in a country ruled by a madman, Jesus is in the boat with those who are His, giving peace, joy and hope.  Bonhoeffer enjoyed a vibrant relationship with Jesus throughout his trials and his life and teachings speak to us today.  

When we experience conflict and trials, we can ask ourselves these questions to find out if our hearts are inclined towards God and if our souls are being nourished by God and His Word.

• Am I studying the Bible daily?
• Am I growing closer to God?
• Do I have a deep understanding of God's presence, power, and love for me?
• Am I learning to identify with others and comfort them in their trials?
• Am I learning to love others better?
• Am I determined to stay the course? 
• Am I living in community with other believers?
• Am I a disciple who is making disciples?
• Is my sense of meaning, identity, purpose and belonging defined by God or the culture around me?
• Is this a time to re-evaluate and seek the direction God has for me?

And here is where our ultimate hope, our ultimate resolution rests:

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’ And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ And he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.’ ”  (Rev. 21:3-6)

In Loving Pursuit

"Life's greatest happiness is to be convinced we are loved." -Victor Hugo

How would you make your spouse fall in love with you again if they could not remember you?  Or, more commonly, if they could not forget a time of great difficulty?  “The Vow” is a film loosely based on the true story of a couple who experienced tragedy and had to reclaim love and relationship. Leo and Paige were in a car accident which caused her to suffer memory loss, forgetting the past five years including the time they met, fell in love and married.  Leo sought to win her heart all over again.

This recurring theme, the words of their vows, echoes throughout the film:  “I vow to fiercely love you and all your forms now and forever. I promise never to forget this is a once in a lifetime love ... and no matter what challenges carry us apart we'll always find a way back to each other.” 

What sustains your marriage?  I was thinking about this today.  Several times I have heard people say they married their own perceptions of their spouse.  Then after marriage they found out who the real person was and chose to love that person.  Kind of awkward.  But with us, I don’t think that was the case.  We talk for hours a day sometimes, so when we were dating and engaged we communicated so often on a deep level that we knew one another quite well.  I fell in love with his brilliant mind and caring heart.  He had a glimpse of what was in store when I got out of the car one evening and started dancing down the street, but it was many years before he danced across a pedestrian bridge with me.  And I saw the stressful weight of future responsibility affecting him.  He sometimes says I am a kite and he holds my string.

Our backgrounds provide the framework for different outlooks on life.  His view of family was survival and keeping the peace.  I had a deep sense of security in my family, so our outlook was to enjoy life and explore opportunities.  Our personalities differ as well, but we share love, respect, common interests, a strong commitment to God and one another, and a sense of mission in life.  As Antoine de Saint-Exupery said "Loving is not just looking at each other, it's looking in the same direction." (Note quotes by two French guys in a love article.)  Moreover, we need to be embraced by a God-inspired, God-sized vision for our lives and marriages which fills and sustains us because of Jesus, His love, purpose and grace.

Most of the trials we have endured happened because of our life calling and choices on the mission field in Eastern Europe.  Because we share common goals and hearts to serve in that part of the world, we chose not to allow those hardships to come between us.  But there have been times when extreme difficulty or trials would cause one of us to shut down or shut out the other due to pain, self-protection or misunderstanding.

During such times, a partner has a choice.  Do you seek to pursue your husband or wife in loving ways?  When we do this, love deepens and we learn more about unconditional love, how to meet the needs of another, and we find that we can get past a difficult time.  We find that the feelings return as well.  Date nights or lunches are important, even when life is busy or finances are tight you can plan a date at home or in the beautiful outdoors.  I watch war and spy films with Mike (I really enjoy them), and he enjoys a night at the ballet and an elegant dinner out with me.  Forgiveness is key too.  It seems that every other day there is a news article about a couple getting a divorce because they have grown apart or don’t love one another any more. But what is the foundation for their marriages?  Stay together as long as they have feelings for one another and as long as the other person doesn’t get in the way of their personal goals and happiness?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a famous theologian and pastor who died in prison in Nazi Germany before he was able to marry his fiance, wrote "It is not your love that sustains the marriage but ... the marriage that sustains your love."  Our covenant before God is not to be taken lightly, causing two to become one.  When we value marriage as our most important relationship, we consider how our decisions affect our marriage, not just ourselves.   And we take the time to enjoy one another, learning how to meet the needs of one another while we trust God to meet our deepest needs.  Many marriages never deepen to the point of intimate belonging, mutual understanding and compassionate love.
  

Kim Carpenter, the real-life husband who inspired “The Vow” said "We live in a society where vows are constantly broken...Years ago, till death do us part meant the death of a soul mate; today it's the death of a marriage that society has accepted. . . We don't have a story without God.  And that story really is about commitment – commitment to Him and commitment in marriage."  His wife, Krickitt, said, "You have trials in your life and you have to keep persevering."  Another important aspect of a loving, healthy marriage is that it makes our children secure and gives them a strong foundation for their future families.  This is not an insignificant side affect, but an important legacy for generations to follow.  So love up!

The Damascus Road Encounter

To have an encounter with, to meet, the omnipotent God instead of merely aligning ourselves with impotent religious traditions and laws is our greatest need today as it was thousands of years ago.  Nothing short of this will change us.  We cannot save ourselves any more than we can give breath to life.

But first we need to be convinced God is real. And not only to be convinced, but to encounter Him personally while on this wonderful, arduous, and often confusing, journey of our lives none of us asked to be on. Even if we are on a determined course in complete opposition to the claims of Jesus Christ.

Like Saul on the road to Damascus.  

The Apostle Paul (whose given name was Saul) wrote a major portion of the New Testament, writings which shaped Christian doctrine.  His brilliant letters shed light on many aspects of faith in Jesus Christ and practical living.  So it may be hard to believe that this man once violently opposed Christianity, entering homes and dragging believers off to prison, casting his vote in hearty agreement to send them to death.

Saul was raised a devout Jew in Palestine, becoming a Pharisee, a scholar and expert on Jewish law.  He thought the claims of Christianity were blasphemous.  How could Jesus claim to be the Son of God?  His life mission was to put a stop to such an insult to the pure faith he cherished.  He was greatly feared by Christians in the region.  When he set off on the road to Damascus, he was determined to imprison anyone in Damascus who believed in Jesus.

Then Saul had an unexpected encounter.  On the road, he met the risen Jesus.  The encounter is described in the Bible:  “As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Saul asked.  ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. ‘Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.’ ”

The change was dramatic and lasting.  He was blind for a period of days, then began to preach that Jesus was the Son of God and God’s forgiveness boldly in the synagogues. This was a man on fire.  And he had to have known the ramifications since he himself had persecuted followers of Jesus.  He knew he could be killed.  So after being whisked away to safety, he went on to preach the Gospel in city after city. His new name, Paul, means “asked of God” as he had been chosen to reach those outside of the Jewish faith.    

In case we doubt his encounter, consider what he went through for the sake of his faith: He was beaten and imprisoned numerous times, often to the point of death. He was whipped and stoned. He was shipwrecked three times, spending a night and day in the middle of the sea. He was in danger from robbers, spies, wild animals, and enemies who wanted to kill him. He endured starvation, extreme cold, and exposure.  And he suffered these great hardships with joy!

The term "Damascus Road conversion" is now commonly used to refer to an abrupt about-face on a serious issue of religion, philosophy or perhaps politics. But Paul was incapable of accomplishing this about-face, or repentance, without God revealing Himself to him.  While not all encounters with Jesus Christ are so dramatic, His invitation to know Him is given to all.  It may happen during the course of a conversation, reading the Bible, or a moment of desperate prayer.

Jesus is inviting you to encounter Him on the Damascus road today. 

As Paul said: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.”  (Romans 1:16)

The World in 2012: 12 Ways to Make a Difference

As we peer into 2012, ringing in the new year, the world is in a state of economic uncertainty and political upheaval.  Hardships persist.  After ringing in the new millenium in Ukraine, a young woman said she was hoping to wake up the next day and find that she and her circumstances were somehow different as if a mystical transformation would take place.  But she was the same.  The same problems stared back at her when she looked in the mirror and she was disappointed.  The transformation we need takes place in our perspectives and in whom we place our trust.  God seeks to embrace us, lift us out of our pain, frustration and deep fatigue and restore our souls.  He encourages us to take hold of faith, clinging to Him who holds our dreams as we believe and work for the seemingly impossible in 2012.

We can draw inspiration from the lives of three individuals in greatly diverse fields who passed away this year leaving legacies of far-reaching impact on our world, changing the way we think, live and interact:  John Stott, a prolific author credited with shaping 20th century evangelical Christianity; Vaclav Havel, Czech playwright, dissident and politician; and Steve Jobs, our modern-day Thomas Edison, innovator and entrepreneur. 

The legacy of John Stott

1.  Make a commitment to study the Bible.

Stott woke up at 5:00 a.m. daily to read the Bible and pray for hundreds of people before breakfast.  For more than 50 years, he read the entire Bible annually.

"We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our complacency and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior.” – John Stott

2.  Make a commitment to social responsibility, starting with the needs of those around us.

“Social responsibility becomes an aspect not of Christian mission only, but also of Christian conversion. It is impossible to be truly converted to God without being thereby converted to our neighbor.” – John Stott

3.  Mentor others – see the tremendous value and need for mentoring and take the time to do so.

John Stott wrote more than 50 books, crafted the Lausanne Covenant, a defining statement which launched the world evangelical movement, and an Anglican preacher, but many knew him as a mentor who personally and profoundly touched their lives.  Billy Graham considered him a mentor. 

4.  Be salt and light in the world.

“We should not ask, ‘What is wrong with the world?’ for that diagnosis has already been given. Rather we should ask, "What has happened to salt and light?" – John Stott

5.  Learn how to communicate effectively and clearly.

"He wasn't Billy Graham," Richard J. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary said, "but he just exuded wisdom. He was able to take difficult topics and make them plain for people who are not all that tuned in to high-level intellectual discussion, yet he had the respect of scholars. He was one of those bridge figures."

The legacy of Vaclav Havel

6.  Stand up for what is right, even if it may cost you.

A playwright, politician, dissident and intellectual, Havel gained international fame with Charter 77, a human rights manifesto which led to multiple imprisonments by the communist regime.

7.  Be humble.

“As soon as man began considering himself the source of the highest meaning in the world and the measure of everything, the world began to lose its human dimension, and man began to lose control of it.” – Vaclav Havel

8.  Keep your joy and child-like wonder.  Be an artist, in the classic sense or otherwise.

Havel was known to roller skate in the palace in Prague.

9.  When confronted with lies and hatred, respond with truth and love.

Havel may best be remembered as a symbol of democracy and freedom who once said "truth and love must prevail over lies and hatred".

The legacy of Steve Jobs

10.   Use your abilities to make a difference in the world.  Be innovative, while maintaining focus and simplicity.

Or as Jobs said he desired to “make a dent in the universe”.   It would be difficult to overstate the impact of his life and legacy.  I don't think many of us would know how to go back to a world without Apple products.

11.  Stay married to your spouse.

Jobs did that as well.  This has a greater impact on our world than we may realize and affects generations.       

12.  Follow your heart and passions in life.  Don’t just settle.

And so I end with these words . . .

"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do." – Steve Jobs

What will be your legacy?  Endeavor to make a difference in 2012.  And may it be by the grace of Jesus Christ, bringing honor to God.