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Making Your Mark

Mother Theresa, Deborah, King David, King Ahab, King Solomon, Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Maathai Wangari, Funmilayo  Ransome Kuti, Rahab, Queen Amina of Zaria, Golda Meir, General Sani Abacha and Yakubu Gowon all had one thing in common: they left their marks as leaders.

Interestingly, every leader leaves a mark of some sort, whether good or bad. The desire to make the world a better place, which is a noble thing, is in the heart of most leaders at some point of their journey. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always turn out to be so.

At this point the question to be asked is: Is it marks that make leaders or is it leaders that make marks?

The truth is, we are made in God’s image and we are created to have dominion, implying that we are made to lead. God Himself is always pushing frontiers, moving things forward and always leaving marks. Therefore, it follows that it is a legitimate thing for leaders to want to leave their marks. Leaders leave marks and they are defined by their marks.

The amazing thing about marks is:

1.       You hardly know when you make them.

It was solely for the liberation of an oppressed people and one of many such speeches when Martin Luther at Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C on the 28th of August 1963 made his epoch-making statement “I have a dream”. The impact of that statement was probably not apparent to him but he pushed on. Today, we remember him, among other things, by this famous slogan.

At the Commencement ceremony of Harrow School on the 29th of October, 1941, Churchill Winston who was a Master of the Art when it came to public speaking gave his simple and shortest speech “Never give in.” He also would not have realized it would have such a lasting impact.

As simple as these slogans were, they drove both leaders to significance. However, at the time, I am sure they did not realize they were leaving their greatest impressions for future generations.

2.       You don’t need a platform or a title to make a mark.

Imagine the seemingly insignificant slave girl in Naaman’s house; she knew her master had a problem and knew where he could get help. She had no title or platform but had a desire. Not her status or even the usual rejection such people could suffer could stop her. Two thousand years later, her mark was still clearly evident. In essence, you don’t have to be Esther, the king’s wife, to leave a mark. It is really about leaving your own mark and not someone else’s.

When this slave girl took that first step towards giving her master’s wife a useful piece of information, she did not realize she was making history. However, the rippling effect is that many through history have come to the knowledge of God’s healing power with that simple move. Her singular act brings us to the realization that there is no one God cannot use. You don’t need a title or platform to make your mark. You can start where you are today and watch what God can do through you. Little but deliberate steps in the right direction lead to greatness.

3.       You don’t need any notoriety.

The woman with the alabaster flask was an uninvited guest in Simon the Leper’s house. Even her entrance into a feast meant for men was rather dramatic; remember it was taboo for women to be found in the midst of men in those days. She broke all protocol and followed her heart. It was bad enough that she was a woman, It was worse that she was a prostitute. But her focus was on her Master’s (Jesus’) service. She broke her alabaster box at the feet of Jesus, anointed his feet and wiped them with her hair. When they did not know what to say about her, they called her wasteful. But that woman was undeterred; she fulfilled her purpose. She didn’t have a name like the big wigs in her time but she made her mark.

For most leaders, the mark they want to make or the legacy they want to leave has nothing to do with being famous. They just see a wrong that needs to be righted, an idea that needs to be pursued, an opportunity that needs to be explored, a need that has to be met and go for it. So, it is their desire to improve the lot of people that fuels their drive to achieve or make an impact.

Simply put, the one word that characterizes leaders who leave marks is ‘service’.

So, we are driven to make a difference; we are driven to make a mark but we often don’t know what it is and when it is happening.

If the only impact you have made is in the life of your husband, son or daughter, would you have made an impact?  Of course! What if you are that driving force behind a great achiever or if you are that remarkable wife or the mother of a great leader? A mark can therefore be made whether with one person, a group of people, a nation or a generation. Anyhow you make it, it’s a mark.

History is strewn with many great men who have attributed their successes in life to their wives and/ or mothers.

As a woman therefore, what are the possible areas you can leave a mark?

A) THROUGH YOUR SPOUSE

Many years ago, a young woman named Josephine Rose-Marie Tascher arrived in France from the tropical island of Martinique in the midst of the greatest political and social upheaval. With her innate grace and charm she secured herself a position of prominence that enabled her to capture the affection of Napoleon Bonaparte, an up and coming French artillery officer from the Island of Creole. The marriage of Josephine and the great Napoleon was one of turbulence, yet Josephine had a great impact on his decisions and his rise to power and fame. Socially, Josephine had a great impact on Napoleon’s advancements and his success in many areas of life. Josephine had a major influence on Napoleon emotionally, directly and indirectly, by making him feel secure, providing him with emotional support, and giving him confidence which ultimately had a bearing on his decisions and actions. Sadly, before Napoleon met Josephine, he was on the verge of suicide; he was lonely and depressed. But Josephine transformed his life, giving him meaning to ambition and crowning his success with pleasure

Mlle Avrillon, one of Josephine’s maids, even saw his dependence on her and her swift response to his needs. She said, “Whenever he suffered the slightest indisposition, when any problem aroused to worry him, she was, so to speak, at his feet, and at such times he could not get along without her.” This demonstrates how much her emotional support helped Napoleon and how he relied on it to continue his aspirations. Napoleon was convinced that his good fortune in battle, politics, and all the important areas of life was linked to his finding and falling in love with Josephine. She was his charm and “his talisman” (the time they met he had nothing but opportunities and success). Likewise, when Napoleon was being pressured into divorcing Josephine and it appeared in newspapers all around Europe, he became very upset because he truly loved her. He turned into an emotional wreck which affected his battles. On account of this he was suffering defeat after defeat. After this, he was convinced that if he divorced Josephine it would equal bad luck for him; and it did! Such is the extent of influence a woman can wield in the life of a man.

B) THROUGH YOUR CHILDREN

It is commonly said that the hands that rock the cradle rule the world. It is possible to influence someone who would in-turn influence generations. In this instance, would you not have left a mark? Of course, you would have.

Consider Timothy in the Bible! His faith was attributed to his godly mother and grandmother. Jochebed (Moses’ mother) saved her son from being killed and raised him to know God. Samuel, one of the prophets in the Old Testament, was dedicated to the Lord at birth by his mother. Little wonder the Bible records that none of his words fell to the ground.

Before you conclude that was in the Bible age, Abraham Lincoln’s mother sat him on her knees and read the Bible to him. She taught him to memorize the Ten Commandments. Later, as President, when he was leading the nation through the horrors of the War of Rebellion, he said, “All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” Another time he said, “I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.”

Also, the great fundamentalist preacher Dr. John R. Rice told how, when he was only five years old, he was called to his mother’s deathbed and she told him goodbye and made him promise to meet her in Heaven. He went on to become one of the great defenders of Biblical Christianity of the last century.

What about Ronald Reagan? His disappointment with his father’s role in his life led him to the arms of his mother Nelle Reagan’s Jesus! He gave his life to Jesus and went on to attend a Christian college. In 1981, when he was sworn in as President, he did so with his hand placed on his mother’s Bible.

So important is the role of a mother that President Theodore Roosevelt’s had this to say about motherhood.

“The good mother, the wise mother, is more important to the community than even the ablest person; her career is more worthy of honor and is more useful to the community than the career of any other person, no matter how successful.”

Our nation needs more mothers like these!

C)  IN YOUR COMMUNITY/ NATION

Queen Esther was the wife of King Ahasuerus and it was a significant enough position to occupy, as it were. What she probably did not realize was that she was a woman on assignment. Haman, because of his insatiable quest for power, decided to destroy a whole tribe because one man Mordecai refused to bow down to him. When she was told about the development, she called for a fast and broke all protocol to see the king. She was aware of the implications of her decision but she said “If I perish, I perish.” That was the turning point in her life. She gained favour before the king and she and her people were delivered. Even though Mordecai had told her that help would come from another if she refused to act, her decision to speak up saved her tribe and restored peace to the land.

In recent history, albeit, most believed negatively, Cleopatra VII Philopator made her mark. She was an ancient Greek queen and the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. She was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great’s death during the Hellenistic period. The Ptolemies, throughout their dynasty, spoke Greek and refused to learn Egyptian, which is the reason that Greek as well as Egyptian languages were used on official court documents like the Rosetta Stone. By contrast, Cleopatra did learn Egyptian and represented herself as the reincarnation of an Egyptian goddess Isis.

Cleopatra originally ruled jointly with her father Ptolemy XII Auletes and later with her brothers, Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV, whom she married as per Egyptian custom, but eventually she became sole ruler. As pharaoh, she consummated a liaison with Julius Caesar that solidified her grip on the throne. She later elevated her son with Caesar, Caesarion, to co-ruler in name.

After Caesar’s assassination in 44 BC, she aligned with Mark Antony in opposition to Caesar’s legal heir, Caesar Octavianus. With Antony, she bore the twins Cleopatra Selene II and Alexander Helios, and another son, Ptolemy Philadelphus. Her unions with her brothers produced no children.

She influenced the rulership of all her children. At the Donations of Alexandria in late 34 BC, following Antony’s conquest of Armenia, Cleopatra and Caesarion were crowned co-rulers of Egypt and Cyprus; Alexander Helios was crowned ruler of Armenia, Media, and Parthia; Cleopatra Selene II was crowned ruler of Cyrenaica and Libya; and Ptolemy Philadelphus was crowned ruler of Phoenicia, Syria, and Cilicia. Cleopatra was also given the title of “Queen of Kings” by Antonius. Egyptians thought Cleopatra to be a reincarnation of the goddess Isis, as she called herself Nea Isis. To this day, Cleopatra remains a popular figure in Western culture. Her legacy survives in numerous works of art and the many dramatizations of her story in literature and other media, including William Shakespeare’s tragedy Antony and Cleopatra, Jules Massenet’s opera Cléopâtre and the 1963 film Cleopatra. In most depictions, Cleopatra is put forward as a great beauty and her successive conquests of the world’s most powerful men are taken to be proof of her aesthetic and sexual appeal.

Later in the work, however, Plutarch indicates that “her beauty, as we are told, was in itself not altogether incomparable, or such as to strike those who saw her.” Rather, what ultimately made Cleopatra attractive were her wit, charm and sweetness in the tones of her voice.

We also have Golda Meir, who served as Israel’s foreign minister from 1956 to 1966 and became its fourth prime minister in 1969. By the end of her life, she had become a hero as one of the first women to head a nation in the modern era. Meir was a leading figure in the movement called Zionism, the movement to create a Jewish state in Palestine, the area the Jews regarded as their historical home. The Zionist movement lead to the founding of Israel.
Meir started her political career in Israel as its representative to the Soviet Union. With her election to the first Israeli Parliament (governing body), she returned to Israel and was appointed minister of labour and social insurance. While in this office, she worked to solve the most important internal problems of Israel: housing and employment for the new mass Jewish immigration. Still known by her married name, she engineered what became known as the “Myerson Plan,” which allowed for the construction of more than thirty thousand units of one-room housing. She also oversaw the construction of some two hundred thousand low-income apartments to house Israel’s newly immigrated families. In 1956, Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion (1886–1976) called Meir “the best man” in his cabinet and named her to replace Shertok-Sharett as foreign minister, among the most important government jobs in the nation. In 1966, tired and ill, Meir resigned as minister of foreign affairs. However, soon after, under pressure from her political party, she agreed to take over the leadership of Israel’s Labour Party. Over the next two years, she succeeded in reuniting three main labour groups that had split. Though elderly and in poor health, Meir proved her abilities to the country during her initial nine-month term. As a result, her Labour Party won the 1969 elections. Meir thus gained her own four-year term as prime minister. This period was marked by Meir’s efforts to gain U.S. aid in the form of military and economic assistance. Even in retirement, Meir remained an important political presence in Israel.

D)   IN YOUR GENERATION

Mother Theresa said “By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.”

Small of stature, rocklike in faith, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was entrusted with the mission of proclaiming God’s thirsting love for humanity, especially for the poorest of the poor. At the age of 12, she felt strongly the call of God. She knew she had to be a missionary to spread the love of Christ. At the age of 18 she left her parental home in Skopje and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India. Although she had no funds, she depended on Divine Providence, and started an open-air school for slum children. Soon she was joined by voluntary helpers, and financial support was also forthcoming. Mother Teresa received permission from the Holy See to start her own order, “The Missionaries of Charity,” whose primary task was to love and care for those persons nobody was prepared to look after. Today the order comprises Active and Contemplative branches of Sisters and Brothers in many countries.

The Society of Missionaries has spread all over the world, including the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. They provide effective help to the poorest of the poor in a number of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and they undertake relief work in the wake of natural catastrophes such as floods, epidemics and famine, and for refugees. The order also has houses in North America, Europe and Australia, where they take care of the shut-ins, alcoholics, homeless and AIDS sufferers.

The Missionaries of Charity throughout the world are aided and assisted by Co-Workers who became an official International Association on March 29, 1969. By the 1990s there were over one million Co-Workers in more than 40 countries. Along with the Co-Workers, the lay Missionaries of Charity try to follow Mother Teresa’s spirit and charisma in their families.

Mother Teresa’s work has been recognised and acclaimed throughout the world and she has received a number of awards and distinctions, including the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (1971) and the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding (1972). She also received the Balzan Prize (1979) and the Templeton and Magsaysay awards.

You have no idea what God can and wants to accomplish through you. Will you let Him?

The truth is, all those who leave their marks are steady plotters, richly focused and ready to go. They are not so concerned about others’ impression or fame. They just want to right a wrong, pursue a benefiting idea to a logical end, and pursue a need till it’s met. They care about people. I believe that is you, and you will accomplish much because you have the God-given ability. You were made in His image. More so at a time like this, when the world is looking for solution, there is no limiting what God can do through you. But then it will require your submitting to his counsel. Let go of your fears, let go of your insecurities and let God do with you what only He can do.

You are that change agent that the world is waiting for. It is your turn to leave your mark, and you will leave your mark in Jesus’ name.

*This paper was originally presented by Taiwo Odukoya at The Woman Leader quarterly conference held in Lagos, Nigeria on the 23rd of January, 2011.

About the Author

Daniel Taiwo Odukoya holds a degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Ibadan and worked for 12 years with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) until his voluntary retirement in 1994 to concentrate on the ministry God has committed to him.

In his days at NNPC, he sat on different policy-drafting committees at the Corporation and was instrumental in fashioning some key policies that are still in use in Nigeria’s oil industry today.

He is a firm believer in the potential of his country Nigeria, and that is why he has personally established and actively invested in various initiatives to enhance the nation morally, educationally and politically. His approach centres on what he considers the root of the problem – a value reorientation of the various aspects of our national life, particularly the leadership, with the firm belief that this is one of the main ways we can truly make a positive change in the society. Among his initiatives are: Discovery for Men, Discovery for Women, The Woman Leader, Home Affairs and Grace Springs Medical Centre.

An accomplished author, he has to his credit over 300 publications, including books, articles, seminar papers, etc. His books Unleash Your God-given Potential, Created for Blessing, Limitless, 100 Nuggets of Wisdom for the Man of Significance (Volumes 1&2), Home Affairs and The Portrait of a Champion have gained a wide readership both locally and internationally.

He was the husband of the legendary Pastor ‘Bimbo (of blessed memory) and they had three lovely children – a boy and two girls. He is now married to Simangele Rosemary Zulu (popularly known as Pastor Nomthi) and they are blessed with a boy.

He is the Chairman of the Boards of Grace Springs Africa Publishers and Wiseworth Resources Limited. He is also the Senior Pastor of The Fountain of Life Church, Lagos, Nigeria – a church with a membership in excess of 8,000.

“The Pyramids, Cairo and Alexandria” Out-of-nanoose’s photos around Cairo, Egypt (travel pics)

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