How Do You Use Your Lightning-Fast Mind?
In the 90s, as the Associate Director of Communications at the University of Manitoba, I received this Inuit stone carving in appreciation for the “innovative idea” I had for an intra-campus courier service. Of course, we’ll have great ideas for witty inventions and innovations if we actually use these “lightning fast minds” that were made in the image of our Great Innovator and Creator. Just think about the brilliant minds of Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos in this generation and how they took the limits and restrictions off their minds and CREATED.
I like to think that I used my “innovative” thoughts similarly to those brilliant minds who did something that met a need. Oh, that we would put our thoughts to good use to meet needs and create solutions to problems instead of negative thoughts and actions that think “No way can that be done!” “That’s a dumb idea!” “It will cost too much!” “It will take too long!” We can put these God-given brains and minds to good use if we realize the potential that lies inside us. St. Paul told us how to use our “thinkers”. Philippians 4:8 “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, THINK about these things.”
Imagine a world where we thought only about “these things”. It would be a world that creativity flowed even beyond where we are today. It would be a world where we honored God with our thoughts and then the words and actions of that honor would produce world changers and history makers.
These thoughts regarding being a creator and thinker were spawned from an article I read yesterday about a new, creative idea of a young adult librarian from the Riverside branch of the New York Public Library. Her idea became reality last month when the library began to offer neckties, bow ties, handbags and briefcases intended for people with limited resources who are heading for job interviews, auditions or any other events for which they need to dress up.
Michelle Lee came up with the concept while teaching a free class at the library about job seeking and résumé making. She told the high school students: “You want to look professional. You shouldn’t be bringing a backpack to a job interview.” She was surprised by their reaction. “For a lot of them, it was eye-opening because they never thought about it. One of the students said he didn’t have anything like that. The other kids said ‘I don’t have nice things.’” She realized the students needed more than a résumé class. She said, “It got me thinking if the library could help,” she said. (My thought: She used her “thinker”)
She felt that she already had the teens’ attention because many of them use the library as a hangout spot after school, often doing homework on computers, or borrowing laptops. So she drafted a proposal for the ties and handbags and submitted it to the library’s Innovation Project, a program that allows library staffers to suggest ideas and solutions to problems they come across, with a budget of about $3,000 or less each. After a submission period, the staff voted Lee’s project a winner. With funding from the Charles H. Revson Foundation, which sponsors the Innovation Project, she bought 12 handbags and briefcases new from Amazon — priced between $40 and $120 — and the ties and pocket squares were donated, including by an employee at Bloomingdale’s.
Lee said she thinks the lending program will be useful because many teens and adults use the library to work on résumés or apply for jobs. The library already refers patrons who need business attire to organizations that lend clothes. She figured that allowing people to check out ties and bags would fill a need.
Library patrons with less than $15 in fines are eligible to borrow the ties and bags for a three-week span.
What a great example of using her “thinker” for good!! What if we only allowed creativity and ideas and good thinking to come into and out of our minds? Just imagine a home where the wife and mom used her mind to create “systems” that caused her home to function better. Just a imagine a secretary that offered her mind to come up with solutions for the supply room or filing system. Just imagine freeing up our minds of the useless trash, negative thinking to open the door of our minds to be “thinkers” of possibilities!