You Are Not Your Own

This incredibly smart man, Dr. French, was driving me home yesterday from our Spring Break in Colorado Springs, it was delightful. He said to me, “the more I think about it the more I am amazed at your dad.” …Hmm, tell me more.

He said “I look at you and you make things better everywhere you go. You grow things and build things. I think about the lessons that your dad taught you about being productive and about using what is in your hands, and I see the fruit of these lessons. I look at your brothers and sisters and how productive they are and I can see all the things that were and are inside your dad and how there is no way all that was in his heart could be done in one generation.”

Larry then went one by one through all the siblings admiring their brilliance. There is no perfect man, but to produce a bunch like this above, he must have done something right.

I told Larry that I have actually started to realize that a huge part of what I bring to the world, to companies, to churches, to communities, is I build things. I watched my dad build things from the ground up my whole life. He was always building something, either a house, a room addition, a church or a ministry, a yard update, or in his later years, why not totally rebuild a van for his wife.

Recently my boss was questioning how I just “make things happen” and why I don’t “sweat” or make others feel stressed around me and just get the job done no matter the obstacles. I said, let me tell you a story….

When I was about 19 my dad was building a house. I spent several weeks of my summer helping him. We showed up at the job site and as we walked on the slab, my dad started looking around and realized that the plumbing was off. It was in the wrong place. At this moment, my dad had a few options, call the plumber tell them to come jackhammer up all this concrete and lay his plumbing right, wait weeks, or go after their money and demand a refund. This is what my dad said…

“Well Emily, looks like we are going to redesign a house, grab the chalk line.”

I grabbed the end of the chalk line as my dad measured, figured, and instructed me to snap! And in a matter of a few hours, we redesigned a house. You can complain or you can create. We create, we build. This is my blood, my heritage, and for that I am thankful.

“By failing to fulfill your purpose, you are not only doing a disservice to yourself but to many others who have a destiny to reach and whose destinies are connected to yours “

Pepe Minambo