Food for Thought: The Last Day of the Year...

It's the very last day of the year.

And I am sitting here at work, reading reports. And this particular report that I'm reading is very much bootleg. So much so that I need to fire off an email to someone... somewhere.

I've spent the past hour reading this particular report. Sigh.

And now, I am looking out the window. The sun is shining. It makes me wish that I would've taken the day off. Why? Because it has been dreary all week. How nice it would be to be out enjoying this nice nice sunshine, even though it's a bit nippy out. I could be anywhere but here. I could be at home, cleaning up (like I need to do anyway). Or I could be relaxing on the sofa, watching a movie. I could be holding Oscar-Tyrone, rubbing his tummy, and listening to him purr.

Anything besides reading this report from some private lab and checking it for errors and applying my expertise and making a judgement call as to whether it passes or fails.

I've been working on this for the past hour.


I wrote that earlier today while at work. As you could see, I had taken a break from my reading.

With that said, I want to to post a quote of the year.

It is an interesting quote.

An appropriate quote, it is. Almost a bridge of sorts.

A connector, a walkway bridging 2013 and 2014.

You work 8 hours a day to fulfill someone else's vision. But don't forget that you have a vision of your own, a vision that's also important, if not more important than that workplace vision that you work so hard to fulfill... day after day after day.

Make sure you take time to fulfill YOUR vision.

I heard that quote a month ago on "black talk radio", i.e., the African American themed AM talk show station here in Atlanta. I'm not sure what the general discussion was about because I was on my way to work and just trying to hear the morning traffic and weather reports. I don't listen to urban music radio. I rather listen to talk radio... I never know when I will pick up something substantial and "meaty", like the quote above.

I told my boss, "Honey, if I could have jumped out my car on the freeway and did a church shout and a church spin I would have."

Why? Because it was so powerful... and true.

I have been thinking about it for over a month.

I work 40 hours a week to fulfill someone else's vision.

What on earth would happen if I put the same amount of time into fulfilling my own vision?

Hold up.

What if I put a fraction of the time into fullfilling my own vision?

You know, putting 5 to 10% of the time into my vision per week would move it forward.

It really would.

I wrote a post about time this month.  5% or 10% may not sound like much.

But what would it mean over a span of time?

That's beside the point right now (somewhat).

I am not my job.

I am a collection of the plethora of dreams, goals, purposes, and visions that are in my heart. I have always been taught that all those things are little seeds that God sows into my heart. And I am to nurture and respect and cultivate that.

And don't get me wrong. I am good at my job (at least I think I am). I have a doctorate in the area of my expertise. I have learned to not be onery about my job. I remember praying and asking for forgiveness for my attitude because I had to realize, not everyone gets to work on world crises issues. It is something else to watch the world news and they are discussing the crises going on... and to know that I am working in the lab on the very problem, working with other chemists around the country, discussing the darn thing.

That is one fortunate thing, it is. Not everybody can say that.

That is my talent, though.

I heard a fascinating sermon some years ago by my very own pastor, where he proposed that there is a difference between your talents and your God-given purpose. And how not to get those things confused. In fact, you are annointed to carry out the vision that God has placed in your heart...

... And some of that annointing leaks over onto your talents. And it explains why you are successful in your employment. Even though that employment is not fulfilling your innermost being.

Hmm. A bold proposal. I have been thinking about it every since.

I was sitting with my friend Dawn the other night after our writing workshop, working with her on her crochet project, and she said something that fascinated me:

She doesn't know the details of her friends' jobs. But she does know the details of their heart's desires: their vision, their purposes and dreams.

That fascinated me. And just thinking about it, I am the same way. I think of my friends in terms of their heart's desires. Their vision.

Fascinating.

And, getting back to the quote, we should spend time nurturing that vision...

Even in the midst of spending so much carrying out the vision and "mission statement" of another (our jobs).

Just a little something for you (and I) to ponder for the new year.

Feels good to end the year with a Food-for-Thought post.

Let's let 2014 be the year that we work on our visions...

Let it be a year we fulfill our own visions.

ON PURPOSE.