"One Thing is for Sure, It Isn't About You"

"What is the meaning of life?" Even more importantly what is the meaning of YOUR life? In his book "Man's Search for Meaning", Viktor Frankl posed that very question to mankind. Frankl, a Holocaust concentration camp survivor, chillingly describes how men that lost hope while living under such traumatic conditions would just shut down and give up fighting to survive. Frankl himself almost reached that point several times during the years of mental and physical abuse, malnutrition, and adverse conditions he endured while imprisoned by the Nazis in World War II, yet Frankl said he had to hold himself accountable to the belief that he had a purpose to fulfill in life. To Viktor Frankl if he had given up on this concept, if he had lost the vision of his life having meaning, if he gave up and  died in that prison death camp his purpose in life would not be established or completed. He held on to the will to live because he knew that if he died before he accomplished his purpose in life, the lives of others would be impacted and the course of their lives would be altered forever. You see Viktor Frankl had an "AHA"moment like no other while he "existed" in the horrific conditions of Auschwitz, Frankl grasped the thought that one thing was for sure, your life is not about YOU!
     If Viktor Frankl had thought that his life had no meaning and that if he died in that prison camp it would not matter in any way I am certain he would never have survived. If he had not survived he obviously would never have written his book "Man's Search for Meaning" and he never would have impacted millions of people that have read his book and were inspired to find their meaning in life and then fulfill it. Frankl went on to speak about his experience and his epiphany of life having a purpose around the world motivating and inspiring people to search for their life's purpose. Frankl's message was very clear, your life's meaning is definitely not about you, it is all about how your life will impact other lives.
     Our church has just recently started a series entitled "A Purpose Driven Life" based on the book by Rick Warren, pastor and founder of Saddleback Church. One of the first things Warren emphasizes is that your life is not about you. I love this mindset and I want to pose the question to you today in our time together, "What is your purpose in life?" To me I believe we have multiple purposes and we fulfill one each day as we work, play, and live with the people we are to impact with our life's purpose. Problem is we have to first realize our life has a purpose, then we have to understand that we will impact the lives of those we live and interact with each day, so what type of impact we make is completely up to us. We can have a positive impact and fulfill our life's purpose, or we can have a negative impact on those same people and provide one more negative instance that they will have to overcome in their life to eventually fulfill their life's purpose. I personally do not want to be the wall in someone's life that they have to scale to reach their destiny, I want to be a bridge that provides a pathway to cross into that same destiny. I want to be a light that shines illuminating the pathway for as many people that I can share this light with in the days that I have been given to live.
     How can we be that bridge? How can we be that light each day? We have to consciously understand that every word we speak and every action we make will impact someone today. We will either build up or tear down, we will either inspire or we will create despair with our words and our actions. If we give up hope or we display a hopeless attitude we may at that same instance be dashing the hopes of a loved one on the rocks of pessimism and defeat. When we look at a situation and want to throw our hands up in disgust and frustration, God wants us to instead dig in and march forward confident that you can make a difference and by so doing you have already made a difference for the cause of perseverance and persistence.
     In life we will all face struggles, challenges, adversity, and affliction that is for certain. The question to be answered here is how will you handle these life events so that others will be impacted by your response in a positive manner. Are you going to quit and give up, or are you going to get up and stand up? As you ponder your answer just remember today's FTM subject, one thing is for sure, your life is not about you! In Colossians 3:23 Paul encourages us to remember that whatever you do, do it with all your heart because you are ultimately doing it to benefit God and thus
mankind. You have a purpose in this life you are living. Your life matters and it will change the course of the lives you cross during your lifetime. The question is will the change you instill move them closer to realizing and understanding their purpose or will your impact create an obstacle that was placed in their life that they must overcome to fulfill their destiny?
     Ask yourself these questions today, "What is my purpose in life at this very moment?"  "What am I doing to assure I am making a positive impact on those I encounter daily and those I happen to cross paths with each day?" "Will the world be a better place to live because of the outlook I share and the life I am living today?" Your life matters and one thing is for sure, your life isn't about YOU!
If you are not sure what your purpose in life is, or if you have been living your life without purpose then today is the best time possible to begin living life focused on what you can do to make the world you live in a better place to be. Choose to live your life fulfilling the purpose you were created to fulfill. Be the key not the lock! You are important and your life matters! Live it! Love it! and Leave it better than you found it!
Coach Carter

Nothing Happens Till Something Happens

     "Nothing happens until something happens", well now that sounds all philosophical doesn't it? It also sounds pretty obvious when you read it, yet many times just because we know something that doesn't mean anything is actually going to happen or change. We have to put "legs" on our ideas as an acquaintance recently told me before anything will happen, until then it's all words and thoughts in our head or on a piece of paper. Nothing is going to happen until YOU make something happen.
      Planting season is fast approaching us here in East Tennessee and farmers will soon be planting seeds, sowing crops, and creating beds for other plants and crops. Most farmers would probably agree that the easy part is planting the seeds in the ground, yet that is only the beginning and actually nothing much is going to happen if planting the seed is all the farmer does. Each tiny seed must first experience a dramatic change before growth ever happens. The seed must first "die" or cease to exist in it's previous form before the plant can begin to grow. What happens to the seed when it "dies" is the beginning of life for the plant that will produce the "fruit" it is intended to provide. You see nothing is going to happen with the seed if something doesn't first happen to change the seed.
     Our ideas, plans, and goals are just like those seeds the farmers are planting in the soil. We may have an out of this world idea for a new business, a book idea to write, a community event to sponsor, or an organization to create but it won't happen until something happens to change your idea into an action. You may need to ask someone for forgiveness, or you may need to offer forgiveness to someone, but that won't happen until something first happens inside you. Just as my friend offered me the piece of advice, "sounds like you just need to put legs on that idea" our plans, our ideas, our need to do lists won't become reality until we get up and start making them become reality.
     Like the seed, each of us have something or several somethings inside of us waiting to burst out of our shells into action. We have gifts that need to be shared and fruits that need to be nurtured, yet until something happens inside us that forces those internal thoughts and ideas to become reality they are just like the seed sitting in the bag, nothing more than bean bag filler. A seed has so much more to offer in life. Some of the tiniest seeds become vines that produce juicy melons spreading out across fields, others stalks of corn that stand tall and produce fruit that is then turned into a multitude of everyday commodities. Still other seeds produce trees that provide shelter, homes, fruits, and most importantly oxygen for us to breathe. Seeds are invaluable to the process, yet unless something happens to that seed after it is planted in the ground it will sit there and eventually dry up and wither away never fulfilling it's purpose in life.
       YOU have something or many somethings that you are supposed to do in this life. YOU have ideas that could spread out across the world and provide help to hundreds or thousands of people if only you will nurture your idea. YOU have people you need to reach out to and possibly say "I'm sorry" or "What can I do to help?", but that won't happen unless you do something about it. YOU just like a tree have fruit to bear, don't let your gifts sit cramped up in a seed eager to burst out into action yet forever imprisoned inside a mindset of the fear of failure or the unknown.
     Here is the deal maker of today's motivational thought. We plant the seeds, we water and fertilize the seeds, we weed the garden so that the seeds are not choked out, and we manicure and shape the plants as they grow from a seed so that the plant will have the best opportunity possible to produce it's fruit, yet we do not make the seed grow into a plant or tree. That is the responsibility of our God. Paul shared his acknowledgment of this with the church in Corinth as he wrote in I Corinthians 3:6-7 "6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth." We must place our trust and faith in our Creator. We must turn our thoughts and plans into actions always trusting that as long as what we are doing is in line with God's plan for our life that He will assure that it grows as long as we keep nurturing our plans with hard work and earnest service to those our plans impact.
     Sow your seeds today, there is no better time to plant your garden than today. But just remember, nothing is going to happen to that seed until something happens to that seed to turn it into what it was created to be!  Dig deep! Sow abundantly! and then Work constantly to see that what you have planted has the necessary nutrients to allow God to grow it into a mighty cause for His purpose in you!

    

Headed Downstream? Choose Your Destination

     I love the water, whether it's swimming or boating I feel at home in a creek, lake, river, or ocean. Over the past several years I have been introduced to the sport of kayaking and that has become my water sport of choice. Flat water kayaking around the lake is good for a workout or just to relax exploring the coves and islands of the lake, but nothing compares to floating or running downstream on a river. The appeal of a river and the unknown adventures it provides makes kayaking a new experience each time you put in and head down the rapids.
     My first experiences with whitewater were connected to river rafting trips. Eight to ten people loaded onto an inflatable raft, oars in and out of the water paddling and resting to the commands of the river guide situated in the back of the raft. Whitewater rafting is a fun experience, yet for the most part the guide is navigating the boat and the "crew" only provide the muscle to move the boat into position for a good run for the next rapid ahead. But as we traveled downstream I was always infatuated by the kayaks and the way they skirted in and out of the rapids playfully moving at their own pace and choosing which way they would each attack the upcoming rapid along the river's course. I knew this would be my next progression in running rivers.
     I learned pretty quickly that kayaking may look simple, but it is actually a very complex and challenging sport. That is if your plan is to stay on top of the water as you move downstream. In the early stages of my induction to kayaking I found an instructor, sage, named Dave Crawford of Rapid Expeditions on the Pigeon River. I was having a great deal of trouble staying on top of the water as I would near a rapid and Dave pulled me to the side and gave me a piece of advice that I will never forget. His training tip paraphrased went something like this. When a kayaker is headed downstream into a rapid it is easy to get distracted and get caught up worrying about the rocks on either side of you and the gurgling whitewater that lies in front of you. These obstacles in front of your goal can cause you to lose your focus on the goal of running the rapid and enjoying the ride as you go. Mr. Crawford's advice was to pick out a spot downstream and then stay focused on that spot and head straight for it. Pick out a destination, chart a course, and then stay focused on that destination. Don't get distracted by the rocks, obstacles, and whitewater capping in front of you, stay the course and you will be fine. Believe me that piece of advice made a difference for me as I moved into the sport of kayaking and that same piece of advice has made an impressible impact on my life.
     As Dave was explaining the downstream target tip to me, my mind instantly started comparing his whitewater advice to how we approach life and the goals we must set along our life's course. The analogous comparison of rivers and life motivates me anyway and here I had been given a life lesson right in the midst of my early whitewater kayak training. In life we are all headed downstream and whether we have an intentional goal or if we are just drifting along as we go, we are all headed in the same direction, not many of us are attempting to float upstream, I 'm just saying. When we set a goal in life whatever level of goal it is there is going to be obstacles in front of us that will try to hinder us, sidetrack us, and even some obstacles that will try to capsize us and leave us stranded in a whirlpool of despair and hopeless loss. If we aren't careful those obstacles will eventually drag us down to the bottom of the river and cut our journey short and keep us from reaching our goal.
     Just as my river instructor's advice helped me navigate and overcome my difficulty with running a rapid, so too can this same advice help us in life. When we decide on a goal we have to stay focused on it. We can't get distracted and discouraged with the obstacles that lie in front of us as we take the steps necessary to reach our goal. We have to stay focused and to do that we keep our eyes on the prize. Paul provided a lesson for us that applies well here in I Corinthians 9:24-26 as he wrote, "Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step...". Paul in our river analogy is saying we are all going downstream and along the way many of us are going to capsize our kayak, but if you keep your eye on the prize you will reach your destination. 
     As you set goals in life my advice today is to pick out a spot downstream and then go for it! Don't let people, circumstances or situations, doubts, fears, or anything else cause you to lose focus and make you feel that you can't reach your goal. Stay focused, determined, and have faith that you will reach your goal if you only keep your eye on the prize downstream! 
Stay strong and remember as long as we have hope we have a chance to see our plans become reality! 
Coach Carter

What Does It Mean to "Give It All You Got?"

    "Give it your best shot", "Go for it", "Go big or go home", "Just do it", and "Give it all you got" are just a few of the inspirational encouragements you might here as you enter a challenging situation, athletic endeavor, or in pretty much any locker room speech that is being given to a collection of team members preparing to do battle on their chosen field of play. We have all heard it, more than likely we have probably even said something similar to any of the above subscribed cries, yet have we ever put thought into what it actually means and what "giving it all you got" really entails?
     When we want to encourage someone, a group or even a team, the tendency is to give them a little pep talk and then expect that they are automatically going to go out and "give it all they got" for the sake of accomplishing the very challenge you laid out for them to do. The truth is it isn't that easy for many of us. From childhood many people face defeat, loss, and other devastating life events that beat us down to thinking that, "it doesn't matter what I do, I'm just going to end up losing in the end, that's what always ends up happening. I'm just not lucky, talented, capable, ... ", you get the idea you fill in your adjective. That defeated type of mentality becomes a mindset in many people's minds, maybe it doesn't always surface as a defeated before I try attitude, yet deep inside it becomes easier and more common to say "I'll give it a try" or "I'll do all I can do", or maybe even " well I don't think it will matter but I will give it a shot". Or possibly you might be someone that gives 100% but when it isn't going your way or things just seem to still not be working out the way you imagined you throw in the towel, "No since in wasting more energy and resources on something that isn't going to happen anyway". I get it, life isn't a bowl of cherries and there is split milk and when the going gets tough some of us just want to go home. For me that type of thinking and the option of quitting just aren't available and are not in my vocabulary or my DNA for that matter.
     When we talk about the mentality of "giving it all you got" it has to become something deeper than what we say on the surface in conversation. Especially if on the inside we have doubts or reservations that what we are doing will actually work or that the task can actually be completed successfully regardless of what we do. No this type of mentality or mindset is something that has to become ingrained in you, it has to be something that you don't even think about outcomes you just know that you are going to give it all you got and that's just the way it is.
     If you are reading this and saying to yourself, "yea, so what's this guy trying to say, I know this and that's how I live my life already", congratulations you aren't someone that stands on the side of the pool, you are one that dives in to the deep end head first. I wish everyone was ready to try a back flip off the high dive , but the truth is that in life something or some things happen to many people and they just don't grow the right way from it. Instead of learning from their mistakes and growing from their adversities, those life events become traps of defeat and despair. In some cases it is the memory of someone telling them that they just aren't good enough or that they won't be successful anyway so why try? At the end of  the day what this person hears is "see I told you so" or "I knew it wasn't going to work anyway". Regardless of the source nature or nurture this is a mindset of defeat and it will never allow you to "give it all you got".
     Okay this is where I get to the point of today's thought. I don't live in the world of giving up. I have been knocked down and I got back up. I have coached for over thirty years and during that time period I have won some and I have lost some. I have had undefeated championships and I have had one season that our team did not win a single game of any set in any match we played. But you know what we kept going out, giving our best, working our hardest, and honestly never giving up and at the end of the season we were all the better for it, self included. In my professional and business life, I have faced what would appear to be insurmountable mountains, in some cases I reached the peak and in some situations I tumbled down to the bottom of that mountain, but even in those situations I have gotten back up and started back up that mountain again. I have faced giants, but just as David, I slung my rock right at the forehead of my obstacle and if that didn't work I attacked at the ankles and worked my way up! The bottom line here is I will not give up! You may beat me but you will have to do it. I may not succeed, but it won't be for lack of trying. You may even think I have failed, but I don't believe in the word failure until I quit or give up, then and only then will I label myself a failure. That is where you have got to go, that is who you have to become, and that is who you have to inspire those that you have influence over to become.
      If this is foreign to who you are, if you are reading this and are thinking that this is too impossible for you to do, then stop and start retraining your mindset. Start small, find a task, skill, or goal to set and choose to persevere through to the end. Whether it is related to your job, your family, your own life, or whatever it is you choose do not give up, see it through to the end. At the end you will either have succeeded and accomplished your task, or if for some reason it didn't turn out the way you envisioned it turning out, stop and reflect on the whole process. Flesh out what went wrong or what you could do differently the next time you are in a similar situation. Guess what you have just grown from a setback, and at the end of the day it will not be a setback but instead it will be the knowledge obtained that may equal success for you the next time you encounter similar circumstances. Remember it isn't over until you quit. You aren't defeated as long as you get back up and keep plugging away at what is in front of you.
     I'll end today's Flat Tire Ministries Thought with a story about a legendary United States Marine Corps legend, Lieutenant General Lewis "Chesty" Puller. Puller is the most highly decorated Marine in American History, having fought in World War II and the Korean War plus several other instances of fighting against guerrillas in Central America. During the Korean War Chesty and his platoon found themselves surrounded by North Korean and Chinese forces in what could have been deemed a no win situation. Puller gathered his troops together and provided them with this call to duty. Paraphrased but something to the effect, "Men we have been searching for our enemy all over this jungle. Now the enemy is to our north, to our south, to the east of us, and to the west. We have them right where we want them, they can't get away from us now!" If that doesn't get your blood pumping you may want to get to the ER and have yourself checked out! Don't ever quit, don't ever give up, and always do your best! I'm giving it all I got, how about you?
Coach Carter