What's at the Tip of a Triangle?

   
       I recently listened to a sermon from Chip Ingram on the subject of relationships and the visual he utilized, although on an audial platform, was as vivid a picture as I will ever see. Ingram's sermon was about the relationship bound through marriage, but I would suggest that the same visual aid Pastor Ingram provided for his sermon on the marriage relationship is just as applicable in our work relationships, friendships, classroom relationships for those in education, oh what the heck this visual is pretty darn good for just about any type of relationship you can imagine. In our time together today, I'd like to share my "Aha" takeaways from his message.
      First, get the visual of a triangle in your mind. Got it, yeah three equal sides, three connecting points, a peak at the tip of the triangle, and two points extended out away from each other. I believe my dear colleague and mathematician extraordinaire, Jeff Kinsler might even be impressed with my math application here! Okay, so you've got that image in your head now place yourself at one of the bottom points of your triangle, then place your spouse, students, co-worker, family member, _______ you fill in the blank, at the other side of your triangle's base. Got it? Now you probably have guessed what goes at the top of the triangle, you guessed it God. Triangular perfection! What you need to be able to see is that the two points at the bottom of the triangle are as far apart from each other as they are from the tip of the triangle at the top. This may all seem really elementary to you, but this is where the visualization really hit home for me. In a relationship, I believe it would be safe to say that the ultimate goal is for the two entities in that relationship "partnership" to get closer so that their working outcomes are more beneficial to all involved. I guess that's why the institution of marriage brings two together to become one.  If we want our relationships to improve, albeit, get closer to one another then the points on our triangle have to move in one distinct direction, in tandem, towards the tip of the triangle.
      I'm sure there's some math principle out there, "Help Jeff", that explains this, but for our purposes today, we'll just agree that as two points get closer together they come closer to being unified as one. In our relationships, the further away from the tip of our relationship triangle, God, we are the harder it is going to be for us to be a functioning, productive partnership. Apply this to your marriage, if you are living outside of Biblical principles in your marriage and your relationship with God is strained at best or non-existent at worst, then what will you use to bring that divide together. What will be the force of nature that will bring those two distant points together? When adversity rises its head and your working relationship with your business partner or the company is at jeopardy what business technique will be utilized to bring the two together? As a coach, if conflict exists between the coach and her team what relationship building techniques will bridge that great divide? In all of the aforementioned instances the only way to bridge that gulf is to create equal vertical movement towards the tip of the relational triangle. In my vision of that tip of the triangle I see the word GOD!
     If one point of the triangle is working in that vertical direction that's great, but if we are talking about relationships, and it's all about relationships, both sides of the triangle have to be moving in unison towards the tip or the distance continues to broaden and that actually works against the whole concept of being unified. Each clip of shared movement in the direction of the tip of the triangle creates visual evidence that the two distant "partners to be" are gaining momentum and getting closer to each other as they also get closer to God and His plans for their lives.
     "Come near to God and he will come near to you." James 4:8 proclaims. That is the plan for successful relationships. Plain and simple as it is, as basic a shape as you can get outside of the circle or square, the triangular trajectory of our relationships here on this earth is totally dependent on how close we are to the tip, GOD, of our triangle. How do we do that in our everyday life you ask? Well for me it means living out our relationship with God and inviting others to come along with us on that journey. What if the other party is reluctant or adamantly refuses to go along with you? It is my belief that we don't just leave them behind, that could lead to a broken triangle if the distance gets too expansive. When one point of our triangle isn't moving in the same trajectory that you are, don't slow down so they can catch up, but instead throw them a line and tow them along with you inching your way towards that point of the triangle you are striving and working towards. All the time hand over hand towing that line in closer to you and in return guiding them closer to our Creator.
     Sounds simplistic too some possibly. That's okay in reality it is meant to be a simple equation. You, your partner, and God working in unison to come to a place where the synergy is directed upwards, climbing and sometimes pushing and pulling each other towards that tip of the triangle. That tip of the triangle is the secret to relationship success. Jesus said it best in John 14:23 “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them." If your desire, which it should be your desire, is for your relationships in all areas of your life to be productive and successful then draw close to the tip of that triangle! 

Coach Carter

From Educator to Encourager

     
What is an educator? Is it someone that goes to college to be a teacher, obtains a bachelor’s degree in education with a specialization in some specific subject matter? Or could it be a person that works in a skilled trade and mentors young apprentices with their knowledge and experience? How about a coach that drills skills, practices plays, and presses technique and proper formations each day of practice? And let us not leave out of our question the role of a parent. Parents are the most basic Pre-K teacher in the title "Pre-Kindergarten" teacher. And if we are going all-inclusive in our search for the definition of educator would we not also add those we work with that offer experience and advice on how to do our jobs more effectively and thus more productively for the organizations we work? So, if we are all in agreement that all of these are examples of what an educator is, then hopefully you should be getting the picture that you probably fit into more than one of the aforementioned categories and in many cases, you might fit into just about every single one of the educator categories listed. Today's question isn't who necessarily is an educator? It isn't even the question of what qualifies you to be called an educator? In our time together today my focus is more on what should our primary goal be as the "educator" in the moment be? What is our purpose as an educator to the pupil or pupils we have been given the opportunity to teach? For me I have had an epiphany of sorts about the title of educator which is today's title and topic for our Flat Tire Ministries Thought for the Week. 
     Face it, based on the descriptions listed above, pretty much all of us will assume the title of educator at some level or capacity in your life. I guess the real question is what or maybe how are you going to educate those you work with as their "teacher"? Unfortunately in some instances, we can be an educator via our example of poor choices or bad behaviors. Sadly, we can "teach" our "students" to make excuses or blame others for the circumstances they have been dealt in life, thus creating a next generation of individuals that are not interested in assuming ownership for their lives. And wouldn't it also be true that we could be labelled an educator just through the inaction we display when we witness injustice or inhumane actions taking place around us and abroad? The harsh reality here is that all of these are foundational settings for learning and thus the arena of an educator. Fortunately, we have the ability, no the opportunity, to be that positive influence in a "student's" life. Each day, whether you are standing in front of a classroom full of bright and eager young folks, or if you are working one on one with someone with less experience than yourself, you have the opportunity to be the encourager in the room. And that is where you can make all the difference in the world.
     For me the title of encourager just makes sense for anyone that is educating others. What is the primary role of an educator? In my opinion it would be to encourage those we are teaching to do their best, to persevere through adversity, and to seek out opportunities to utilize their powers for good instead of evil. Deem this positional power if you like, but whether you have a student or a classroom of students you have the opportunity to make a positive impact on their lives. Life is tough, so are some of the math skills we teach students, believe me I feel this one personally, but what is one of the best skills we can teach students as they face adversity whether it is in the Algebra II classroom, in the garage learning how to change your brake pads, or even out on the field when the other team is beating the socks off of our team? Grit, resiliency, and perseverance should be at the top of the goals in our "classroom". We should be encouraging students to not give up, to stay with it, and to seek out the tools or support they need to find an answer to the problem in front of them. Encouraging students to persevere teaches them to endure the bad and to see it through regardless of the discomfort they experience. Check out these words of encouraging advice from the apostle Paul found in Romans 5:3-4 "Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." If we do nothing else but to encourage our students to never give up then we have made a positive impact on their lives.
      As educators, we should also be encouraging empathy, compassion, and hard work. Add to that servant leadership which we display through our own actions and walk in life each day. Here is the opportunity to encourage our students to do something for someone else without the thought of getting something in return. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" Matthew 7:12. You know they call that the "Golden Rule" for an obvious reason, learning that is more valuable than any amount of gold we could entrust to those we educate along the way. You are the teacher in your classroom, where ever that may be, remember school is always in session and your actions are going to be remembered more than your words ever will.
    Finally, I would encourage you to not become an enabler. An enabler is a teacher, but definitely not the type of educator that you want to become and most certainly not what we hope for our students. Enablers make excuses. Enablers find a finger to point at someone else or give you a sense of it doesn't really matter anyway so just go ahead and quit. DO NOT BECOME THAT EDUCATOR! Encourage your students to persevere. Be an example of choosing right and fighting for truth. If you aren't sure about what truth is look to the author of right and truth. His Word is filled with encouragement and when we place our trust in the Word then we can rest assured that we will be teaching our students up! I have been involved in public education for over 28 years now and just this year I have come to the awareness that my title should not be educator, it should be that of encourager. I believe this should be true for you today as well, you are an educator for someone, be their encourager, give them hope, and expect them to get back up when they get knocked down! You have the opportunity to be an encourager, "Just Do It!"
Coach Carter

God Given Talent

   
     Are you familiar with the parable of the businessman and the three talents? (Matthew 25:14-30) A wealthy businessman is going away for a period of time and he entrusts three of his servants with varying quantities of his talents (gold). No real instructions on what to do with the talents, just an understanding that he would want his property back when he returned. As the parable goes one servant who received 5 talents went out and doubled his master's money. Another that received 2 talents doubled his portion as well. The third servant was only given 1 talent, and out of fear of failing to improve his master's lot in life he went out and hid the talent so that he would be able to give his master back what he had been given. Playing it safe. In the end, that didn't work out to well for the cautious, unmotivated servant. Upon his return, the master ended up giving the first two servants what they had earned through investing their master's money, but the third reluctant servant was admonished for his cowardly actions and had his one talent given to the servant that had been given ten talents. Moral of the story, we all have been given gifts. Some may appear to be overloaded with gifts, God given talents, while some of us feel like we were in the wrong line when talent was being distributed. And that is where you are wrong, completely, 100% wrong. Like I previously stated, each of us has been given talents to the level of which we can handle them and use them by investing in others.
     Talent is a broad and encompasses a list of skills, attributes, and qualities that make us who God wanted us to be. It may appear that some people we know are talented in just about everything they do. Athleticism, mechanically inclined, high intelligence, or musical talented are just a few prime examples of recognizable talents, but empathy, serving, giving, counseling, teaching, and leading are other talents that many times go unnoticed or unappreciated. Each of us has been given talents according to what our intended purpose on this old rock is.
      Problem is too many of us either are afraid to invest ourselves in our talents or we are misusing our talents for our own personal gain and benefit. Think back to our parable for just a minute. The first two servants invested the talents they had been given even though there was no promise of profiting anything for their efforts to invest and produce a profit for their master. They did what they did because it was the right thing to do. They had been entrusted with something valuable, what good would it be to hid it in a corner. The opportunity was in front of them and they chose to go for it! Nothing ventured nothing gained! The sad, insecure servant hid his "God given" talent, afraid to take a chance, scared to invest what he had been given eliminating the opportunity to benefit someone else with the investment he could have made. Read the end of the parable and ask this question, "How'd that turn out for you?"
     Are you that servant? Are you afraid to go out and use the skills and abilities that you have been given? Are you afraid that you might fail and thus appear defeated? Again, nothing ventured nothing gained, I protest! You have a talent, myriad talents and God gave them to you for one reason, to use them for the benefit of others. When you were created, skills were placed in your DNA that are unique to you and you alone. What a shame to allow those talents to go hidden, forgoing the opportunity to help someone else or a whole group of somebodies. What is holding you back, fear? President Franklin D. Roosevelt dismantled that one pretty quick in his inaugural speech back in 1933 as he addressed a country climbing out of the Great Depression proclaiming that "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself."  Or is it lack of desire to use our talents for the good of mankind. A selfish man can't see how his talents were designed to help others, and many times feels that using his talent is a waste of time if it isn't benefiting himself. That focus on self- preservation usually ends up in a deficit model much like the servant with the one talent in Jesus' parable.
     You have been given the talent you possess for one of the following reasons, to help others, to benefit others, or to lift up others. When you invest your talents into the lives of others your return on that investment will pay dividends much like the first two servants in our parable. That investment will not only change your life, but also the lives of those you impact through your talent. Go out and sing, work, invent, or lead whatever your talent is. "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:38.
Coach Carter 

 

Persevering Through My Leaky Faucet

    
     I scored a big victory this week and I thought it would make for a nice FTM Thought so here we go! I recently traveled to Nashville for a conference and upon returning home I was greeted by a leaky kitchen faucet that would soon create a major water damage issue if it wasn't given my direct attention quickly. Well that was on a Friday, and my Saturday that week started at 8:00AM and ended around 10:30PM so it was actually Sunday afternoon before I could give any attention to the faucet and any plans to repair or replace this critically important component of the kitchen. Upon evaluation, I determined that repair was not going to be an option. The faucet only leaked when you turned the water on, but being that this is the sole purpose of a faucet a plumbing task was deemed necessary, ASAP! Disclaimer, I am not a plumber. Disclaimer two, I am not a handy man. And Disclaimer three, I am by no means mechanically inclined. Those facts being made known I do have some assets on my side that would ultimately serve me well in this endeavor and those are the nuts and bolts of our time together today.
    I don't know why I'm not more mechanically inclined? My dad was a contractor and a large- scale farmer with all sizes and shapes of equipment that had to be fixed on the spot during my childhood. Unfortunately for me, I didn't take advantage of the opportunity to gain those skills and experiences when I had the chance, I spent more time getting out of work and heading to the VFW swimming pool, hindsight is 20/20. Well, since I don't have the inclination or the experiences factor on my side, in years past when faced with a similar dilemma I would just pick up the phone and procure the services of someone much more talented in the needed area and allow them to fix what was ailing my house, car, or kitchen faucet in this case. That was then. The whole premise of Flat Tire Ministries started for me around ten years ago which is a whole different story, hence my unpublished book, "How to Fix a Flat Tire" and the new toolbox I acquired through the "flat tires" life has thrown me both literally and figuratively. One of those tools has served me well as I have moved from customer for the handy man to the actual "Mister Fix-A-Flat" himself, perseverance.
     Sunday I set the repair in motion disconnecting the water lines and assuring I had no other leaks involved in the equation. From there I visited Lowe's and purchased a new faucet, and from there it was time to get some guidance and "next steps". I contacted my brother-in-law, who by the way is an amazing repair artist, to inquire about what I might run into that would require certain tools I might not have readily available. Glen made not only a list for me, but also provided me with two tote bags full of adjustable, crescent, open-faced, closed, and pipe wrenches. Also in one of the bags he included what probably turned out to be the most critical tool in the job, a basin wrench. To not get too technical, the basin wrench provides a flexible head that allows you to get into those tight spots where a wrench is necessary, but not able to be used due to the limited area to turn the wrench. That pretty much ended Sunday's portion of the job. Monday was a work day, and with no after work duties I was able to get started around 5:00 on my plumbing adventure. Let's just say things didn't really go the way I imagined they would from there. By the time 9:00PM rolled around I was about one tenth of a mile into my 26- mile plumbing marathon. I had made very little progress on disconnecting the current leaky faucet and I needed to finish up my evening tasks and hit the hay, so feeling frustrated and partially defeated the thought that I should just get out the old yellow pages and find me a plumber that would probably come in and knock this small job out in an hour or so really crossed my mind. The problem there was that the hour or so was going to cost me around $100.00-$150.00 minimum and I did not want to spend on a plumber when I knew exactly what needed to be done, but just was not getting it done!
      After a restless night of dancing nuts and bolts in my dreams, I awakened with a new sense of resolve that told me I could do this thing. I used part of my morning routine time to perform a self-inspection of what I needed to do to get this job done. Of those, two items proved to be the difference makers. First, I concluded that I was going to need a new basin wrench. Glen's was a wonderful tool, but the one I saw online at Home Depot looked like it might serve me better for this particular job. So off to Home Depot I trekked before work on Tuesday. Much to my surprise, the associate at Home Depot, who was much more knowledgeable about plumbing than I, agreed with me and directed me to a $15.00 basin wrench. The wrench would prove invaluable, but the other Aha moment I had while constructing my day three strategy, is applicable in life as much as it would prove to be in this particular situation.
     I called J.D. my son-in-law to see if he would provide me with an extra set of hands to hold down the faucet while I removed the faucet nut off the sink. This part of the job was not one that could easily be done by just one person. I needed a friend or the job would not be completed on day three. He agreed and that evening around 5:30 J.D. showed up and provided me with that extra layer of support that allowed me to keep tension on the faucet nut, which allowed me, armed with my new basin wrench, to remove the hard to reach, hard to loosen nut and eventually the leaky faucet. Not wanting to kidnap J.D.'s evening I thanked him for his help and recommended he head on to the house. The rest of the job was definitely a job for one person. "Who is this saying he can handle a repair like this on his own??" And that I did. The installation of the new faucet went smoothly and honestly without a hitch. I completed the rest of the task promptly and before you knew it, we once again had a fully functioning faucet with both hot and cold running water. (Thanks to our two district wide plumbers, Jack and Jackie, for teaching me the basics of plumbing hot's on the left, cold's on the right, and stuff in the pipes has to run downhill!) Job well done, I had completely forgotten that it was less than 24 hours ago that I was thinking about which plumber I could possibly schedule to alleviate my plumbing woes. Pumped and proud, I ran water through that faucet like never before, and with a broad smile beaming across my face!
     Point to take away from my adventure in plumbing is this. We all face leaky faucets, broke down cars, broke down family members, health issues, financial matters, and even work related breakdowns, but none of these will get fixed if we give up. Just as I could not continue to allow the faucet to leak down on the cabinet's floor, we cannot expect that our own life situations will not damage our life and our relationships if we do not address the problem. Is that easy? More than likely not or you would have already corrected the issue. Is it something you will be able to do on your own? In my situation, I concluded that there's not much that I can do on my own. I called on both my brother-in-law and my son-in-law, and also had to request the assistance of the staff at Home Depot, but the job got done because I didn't give up on it, perseverance, and I sought out the help I needed to guide me through the process. Guess what? Regardless of who you have or don't have at your beckoning call for assistance we all have the opportunity to call upon our faith to see us through the leaky faucets of life. Psalm 55:22 gives us this assurance, "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you;" and Jesus offers to us all in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Whatever you are facing, whatever your leaks look like in life, there is a "Fix-it-Man" that is ready to support you and see you through whatever life is throwing your way. He doesn't promise to remove your problems, He promises to carry you through your situations in life.  I still had to fix my sink, it just made it all possible when I committed myself to being a little more gritty than that nut on my sink and when I called out for guidance and support. 
Endeavor to Persevere!
Coach Carter