“Hey Sis,” he began. “Just wanted to touch bases.”

“God is good, even when we aren’t good,” he said, as he talked excitedly about the changes he was making in his professional life. He was finally leaving the NAACP, the organization that he loved and for which he had worked practically all of his adult life.

We praised God together and talked about “the options” God had presented him. We talked about how prayer had sustained him through difficult days and had helped him when he needed to make critical decisions. “Oh yeah,” he gushed. “I know.  I am always gonna pray.”

After a few more minutes, we hung up. I proceeded with the busyness of my day, grateful that I had stopped by home in time to receive his second call. I had missed the first one my son told me when I arrived back home that afternoon to pick up my daughter.

That was 10 years and almost a month ago, but even with my faulty memory I clearly remember that conversation and rarely resort to my journal for its details. Earl died in a car accident on an Alabama highway near Montgomery on June 11, 2000, the day after we talked. He was going somewhere, doing a thing that he loved.

I have come to view our conversation  that day as God’s gift to me. To know how happy he was somehow mitigates the pain when I think of his death. Today I am thinking of his life and how much laughter and love and service and purpose he crammed into his nearly 50 years.

Today would have been Earl’s 60^th birthday, and I am recalling some of the lessons I learned from my brother.  For me, he remains a prime example of a person who lived his life with purpose. From the age of 13 when he began volunteering with the NAACP youth council in Savannah, Earl’s sight stayed fixed on working for the civil rights of others here and aboard.

Here is a shorthand version of lessons I learned from my brother’s life:

Find something you love and do it with passion.

Be authentic. Live who you are in all situations and with all people.

Treat all people with respect and have no respect of persons.

Take your mustard seed of faith and find a way to do the things you desire to do.

Commit yourself to something. Don’t be a fence-sitter.

Love your family with all your heart.

Develop deep, enduring friendships.

Be righteously indignant about something at some point in your life and use that energy to make a difference in the world.

 Don’t take yourself too seriously or analyze everything. Sometimes a movie is just a movie.

Know and love yourself; more importantly know and love God.

                ————————————————————————–

In keeping with Earl’s spirit and commitment, my family in cooperation with the Ralph Mark Gilbert Museum and the Savannah Branch NAACP is sponsoring The Earl T. Shinhoster Youth Leadership Institute July 26 -31 in Savannah. The Institute seeks to help youth ages 12 -14 discover and sharpen their leadership potential.

Peace and power, brother Earl.

Related posts:

1. I will not live an unlived life
2. Prayer, the breath and blood of my life
3. Would you allow God to interrupt your busy life?

Over the years, I have gotten energized and focused about living with intentionality from my exploration of books such as the popular, “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren and, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, “I will not die an unlived life,” by Dawna Markova.

However, it was probably the four-series MasterLife Bible studies, followed by the study, “Knowing and Doing the Will of God” by Henry T. Blackaby and Claude V. King,  that I undertook at our then-fledging church nearly 13 years ago that provided a foundation for my own definition of purpose.  I see my overarching reason for being as “serving God and edifying people.” 

It is in the carrying out of that purpose that I am now having some questions. I am involved in many good efforts through my church, my volunteering with the local Baptist convention, the College of Prayer, this blog, my family and some friends. Lately though, I’ve found myself  praying after awaking, “Lord I want to be useful to you today,” and then sometime afterwards  asking “Lord, am I accomplishing your purpose for my life with all this stuff….what is my larger purpose?”

Then while reading the book I purchased recently for my women’s ministry work, “Pathway to Purpose for Women” by Katie Brazelton, I found a passage or two that put my questioning on pause.  Brazelton, whose own life narrative provides a powerful testimony, writes that there is a strong connection between “going today where you have been sent today—no matter how difficult, incomprehensible, or unrewarding it may be—and a future, take-your-breath away assignment from God.”

She goes on to say:

“God has chosen a series of specific, daily tasks for each of us, and we accomplish those through our roles in our family, church, vocation, and community. He also asks us to handle the tasks-at-hand in our personal life (including our mental physical, emotional and spiritual well-being). Although we may not see the value in these common requirements, God is committed to using them to accomplish his purposes. So we must learn to trust Him as the Sovereign Lord of our “today.” Instead of asking, “what remarkable task do I want to tackle for God,” a better question is, “What does God want me to be and do in my routine world today?”

So today I’m taking one step at a time and fulfilling my purpose by doing today the work before me. I also am  keeping my heart and mind open for God to bring forth in my life what He desires to accomplish for His greater glory.

Have you read or studied any good books on purpose written specifically for women?

Related posts:

1. Faithfully using our time
2. Are our children living what they learn?
3. Are we faithfully saving the earth?

When I read this book  a few years ago, I was inspired to examine where I was in my life and to push toward  living the fullest life possible, with intention and with passion.   It gave me added impetus to really look at the work I was doing as a journalist and in my faith community and to ask myself what how much better can I serve God?  

Markova  uses her skill as a storyteller to take us on her own spiritual journey through surviving cancer, her parents’ deaths, her work in helping others, and other trials and triumphs.  In doing so, she shows us what is universal to all of us.  She also asks questions that can plunge you deeper into your mind’s and heart’s truths.

I was especially delighted to revisit the poem she wrote. The title of her book comes from  the poem’s first line, and that line has been singing in my head since I rediscovered the book.

Take a read and let me know what it says, if anything , to you.  Also if you get the chance, read the book. It’s an easy, insighful read. You may find a passion and a purpose you didn’t know you had. 

 I will not die an unlived life.

    I will not live in fear

of falling or catching fire.

I choose to inhabit my days,

to allow my living to open me,

    to make me less afraid,

        more accessible,

     to loosen my heart

   until it becomes a wing,

       a torch, a promise.

   I choose to risk my significance.

to live so that which came to me as blossom,

                goes on as fruit.

Related posts:

1. Lessons from my brother’s life
2. Prayer, the breath and blood of my life
3. Would you allow God to interrupt your busy life?