Temple de la Sagrada Familia

Otherwise known as the Temple of the Sacred Family, this church by Antonio Gaudi, a Barcelona architect (he's a Christian too!!) is the most famous building in Barcelona. His grandoise vision for this church was so incredible that he spent the last 40 years of his life doing models, drawings, sculpture constructions and site work. In his last 15 years, this was the only project he was working on, and he even set up his home in the basement of the complex.

He focussed mainly on instructing people after him, because he knew he wouldn't see it finished. When people asked him when it was going to be completed, he often said calmly, "My client is not in a hurry."-such confidence is a real example to me.

And now, after construction began in 1882, the building's still a giant work site attracting thousands of tourists daily.

Lessons to learn:
1. Singular vision and commitment. Maybe he came from a time before all this TV and ipod thing, but nowadays it's really quite hard for us to shut out all the noise and just focus on one thing-our calling, what we are to do with our lives. He lived with a clear vision, and a clear sense of calling from the Lord. There is simply no doubt in Barcelona that this man transformed the entire city. His dedication to God, Barcelona/Catalunya and his craft made all the difference. Why can't we be that same person everytime our flesh just wants to forget it and be lazy? Hey, we all gotta find that secret place of ours k...

2. For architects: sketch a lot and do a lot of models. That's one of the only few ways to innovate. We can always see something beautiful and think we know it, but the amount of commitment to innovation that is needed to produce a seemingly "simple" solution is just unbelieveble. Just try sketching it to see how hard it actually is. I'm guilty of not sketching enough too. Somebody just kick me when I'm being lazy. Aaaa!!!

Pst. Kong was right...what did God call you to do? Just keep doing it and doing it until you become good at it. Talent alone is not enough to finish the race.