Several months ago I was introduced to two very special people, Joshua Medcalf and Jamie Gilbert. A young woman at a college golf tournament where I was speaking walked up to me after I spoke and asked me if I had ever heard of them. She then told me, “You sound like them.”
It so intrigued me that I went home that night and looked them up online. I downloaded their books, “Burn Your Goals” and “An Impractical Guide to Becoming a Transformational Leader”. I stayed up all night reading their books! I was so curious as to who she thought I sounded like. I had to text her after reading their books because I realized she had paid me a huge compliment.
Their website, by the way, if you want to check them out, is http://www.t2bc.com which stands for “Train 2 B Clutch”. I love these guys. First, they love Jesus. Jesus was the most counter-cultural leader and they do an amazing job at communicating how to achieve this in the world we live in today. Their testimonies are powerful. God is using them to help people develop their life message and life mission. It’s similar to what God has called me to do in “Encouraging others to lead a life of Significance”..….through salvation…then surrender…which leads to “significance” and fulfilling Ephesians 2:10!
Back to Joshua and Jamie…I emailed them because I loved their books and mentorship program. Eventually, over the next few days, our middle son Thomas engaged them to mentor him long distance with a vigorous reading program, long distance scheduled phone calls and homework assignments that required action on Thomas’ part. For three months, from close-up and from a distance, I watched and learned from Thomas’ experience.
I wasn’t involved in any of the training except I read the books Thomas was reading. Sometimes he would choose to share with me what he was doing and why. Mostly I learned from WATCHING because Thomas was living at home and I could see the change in him. Thomas would be the first to tell you that he is a work in progress. That real change comes slow and has to be intentional. But their mentorship has really transformed how Thomas approaches life, God, people, relationships, golf, family. One thing they required of Thomas was to sign a contract that committed him to the process, down to how he practiced golf. His golf practice was sooooo counter-cultural to anything Thomas had done with golf since he started playing. So much so that when Thomas went out to practice, people stared at him.
Today we laugh about it because there was a method to the madness. Thomas very quickly got over the stares as he trusted and committed to doing what they asked of him. He slowly learned to NOT CARE about the stares or the opinions of others. Haha! What took Thomas several weeks has taken me years to learn. I praise God that He is showing our children at a younger age how to keep “eyes on God, not people”. Throughout the program Thomas was praying and developing a life message and mission statement. The guidelines for developing his “life mission statement” required that he write it in such a way that he could still live his mission even if he was injured and could never play golf again! I LOVE IT!!!
Thomas will be the first to tell you that he had to do much soul searching, praying and looking inward to develop his mission statement. Joshua and Jamie distinguished goals as something you achieve but a dream/mission is who you become! “A Mission is something you can do today, right where you are, using what you have, and you don’t need anyone’s permission”. I loved how Jamie and Joshua used “Mother Teresa” as their prime example of no matter where she was, or what happened to her, she lived her life message/mission: “To serve the needs of the sick and dying.” She didn’t need a degree, or a title or anyone’s permission.
I was actually guided through this same process over six years ago by someone totally different. It helped me to see and understand God’s plan for me in the Back 9 of life and how to execute it. I am so very thankful for Joshua and Jamie and their approach to mentorship as well as their life message and mission. I am watching it take root in Thomas. You are never a prophet in your hometown, or your home, sometimes. What I have learned is that sometimes our children need another messenger besides their parents. Someone to tell them the “same thing” in a different way..
I reflect now on my speaking at the Women’s College Golf tournament. It was so much about what I came away with rather than what I brought. I was living my life message and mission but in the midst of it, God gave me something to give our children, especially Thomas. Two guys who love Jesus, one who lives in California and one who lives in Colorado. Both have greatly influenced Thomas’ life, not to mention mine and the lives of the rest of our family.
Point of post: when you establish a “Life message and Mission” with God at the core and build on that while you are “living it,” great things happen that you don’t see coming.
Great things like meeting Joshua Medcalf and Jamie Gilbert. I would have never known them otherwise and neither would Thomas. Today Thomas would tell you that, so far, they have been two of the most influential people in his life. To God be the glory!
Live your mission and Life message…Great things come from it…..especially when you least expect it. God truly shows up and shows out…we just have to trust and live it!
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:4-10).