Your Choice Poison or Pie?

 

Our granddaughter Ivy loves cherries. Over the summer, we have been fortunate to have her down from Virginia almost a full month this year. It just so happens that this time of year must be the primal season for cherry harvesting, because the shelves have been jam packed with overflowing containers of these deep, crimson red poppers. I'll have to admit I enjoy sitting down and having a bowl myself. If you've ever eaten a cherry, then you probably can relate to the one issue I have, the pit. Biting into a cherry is not recommended, the cherry pit is as hard as a rock and the meat of the cherry is tightly wrapped around the pit, so there is definitely a skill to eating this particular fruit. 

Here's an interesting fact about that rock hard cherry pit, a hand full of seeds dried out and crushed into a powder will create the lethal poison, cyanide. I'm no scientist and have no desire to create poison, but I find it intriguing that the same pit or seed that can be planted in the ground to produce yet another cherry tree and thus more fruit, can also be gathered, processed, and create a substance that can be detrimental and deadly. Same pit, two choices, create poison or create produce, and you alone make the choice about which you will produce. Throughout your life, you will make similar choices with the "cherries" you are given. Will you create poison or will you plant a garden?

There exist two sayings centered around cherries, the first comments that "life is just a bowlful of cherries". The other laments that "life isn't just a bowl of cherries". I don't think I have to go into which of these statements would be crossing the lips of the pessimist and the optimist, yet the fact of the matter is regardless of what life hands you, the choice of what you are going to do with that handful of cherries is completely up to one person, YOU. 

Life happens, circumstances, conditions, situations, and just downright nature all play pivotal roles in our state of being. I believe that we are not a product of our environment, but instead we are more of a product of the choices that we make in that environment. Life gives us cherries and then we have to decide whether we make a pie or we make poison. One can be shared with others and provides a wonderful end to a meal, the other can create destruction and ripples of negative impacts for generations. Why would anyone choose to make poison over a sweet cherry pie? I don't have that answer, but look around it happens on so many different levels each and every day!

Everything that happens in your life happens for a purpose. I just don't believe in coincidence. But, what happens when life happens is a choice, the choice, that each one of us has to make. We were created to do good in the image of God that has been shared with us through the life of His Son. Ephesians 2:10 tells us "For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." NLT. A key word in that scripture is "can", the scripture doesn't read that we “will” do the things we were created to do, it plainly says so we can which conveys the idea of a choice that is going to have to be made. I researched several English translations of this particular verse and pretty much any way you translate the message it transfers the idea of making a choice about whether you choose to follow God's desired purpose or not. That's just the human nature of it all. Cherry pits can make poison, or that same pit can be the catalyst for creating an orchard over decades of nurturing and cultivating. Your choice poison or pie? I have made the choice to plant orchards, nurture their growth, and ultimately produce more cherries, to create the potential for perpetual cherry pies to be shared. “… the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:37-38.

Plant a seed, plan on growing an orchard. 

Coach Carter

 

Taking that First Step

Most likely, you have heard someone say something like, "I'm taking a step of faith..." or "She was stepping out in faith", or maybe that is a concept you have used in your own walk of life. Whatever the case may be the meaning behind this idea is today's topic in our Flat Tire Ministries Thought. There is an ancient Chinese proverb that goes like this, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step". How true that statement is, until we put that first foot forward progress is at a standstill. All the planning in the world won't move you an inch if you don't take that first step. Easy enough, right? Right foot out and step. No problem, but if it is that easy why then do we not move forward on all our plans and actions that we know are the right thing to do? A little story about one of my granddaughters might shed a little light on this question, let's get moving. 

Ella's second year of life was lived a great deal in a COVID confine. Pretty much her exposure to the world outside of home was limited at best. Dining out, shopping, going to public events were all placed on the "not to do" list in March of 2020 as they were for most of the world. As adults, the experiences we missed during the past year were not necessarily new experiences, but most definitely familiar and frequent fits the description. Well, I didn't give this too much thought until this past week when we took Ella, now a new experience three-year-old connoisseur, to the Opryland Hotel for a conference I was attending. A plethora of experiences that she previously had not encountered or if she had she probably didn't really retain in her memory bank between that first year or two of her life. Crowds of people, people that you could actually see their smiles, eating in restaurants, and interacting with children and adults alike all made this trip like an adventure for Ella. The encounter that really speaks to our FTM today didn't really involve people, but instead it was her first real engagement with the escalator on the hotel property.

A whirlwind of plants, trees, and water crashing down from waterfalls welcome guests as you walk into the first section of the hotel property. There are elevators available, but for the most part people were taking the escalators up and up for a grand view of this portion of the resort. As we made our way up to the escalator, I noticed Ella was very reluctant to take that first step to engage this new mode of transport. I stood there holding Ella's hand encouraging her to take that first step, but at the same time I watched as she attempted to step forward numerous times before finally taking that first step. It seemed that each time we made our way to the escalators her fear lessened, or better yet, her courage strengthened and by the end of our three-night stay, Ella had become an agile escalator navigator. 

We started our conversation today with the proverb that encourages us to take that first step, conversely, just as Ella struggled with taking that first step onto the escalator, many of us struggle with taking that first step in our own life's journey. Applying for that new job that's your dream job, but would require a career change requires a big step of faith. Being open and transparent with a friend or family member about a developing addiction that you see coming takes a step of faith to start many times. Moving to a different city or state, mending a broken relationship, standing up for what is right all require us to take a step of faith at some point. In all of the aforementioned instances that first step is always going to be the hardest one, but if our faith is founded in God then we can be confident that He is with us for that first step and for each and every step thereafter. In II Corinthians 5:7 Paul encourages us with this confirmation, "For we walk by faith, not by sight." When Ella looked at the escalator she looked at it through her human eyes, she saw something unfamiliar to her and it invoked a certain degree of fear. She didn't really know what to expect or how to trust that if she took that first step she would be safe. After she took that first step the rest of her ride on the escalator put a smile on her face and she wanted to ride it over and over again! Regardless of what "first step" you are facing, you too can have that same comfort by trusting in God to hold your hand and guide you along that journey. The only thing you have to do that nobody else can do for you is take that first step! You are not alone, that is the promise of our faith and we walk in faith because we believe. 

Coach Carter

Brake Lights Ahead

 

One of the worst things to see when you are traveling on the interstate is a series of cars ahead of you suddenly pumping the brakes and the accompanying red lights that signal traffic is stopped ahead. Well that happened to me yesterday as I was headed up towards Lynchburg, Virginia to deliver our granddaughter, Ivy, to her mother and siblings. Ivy was asleep in the back seat, snuggled up in a blanket, counting sheep as best as she could be considering the comfort level of sleeping in the back seat of a Honda Accord at 8:00 in the morning, when just as mentioned above, the brake lights ahead of me shone bright red. My immediate reaction was "Oh no, we are going to be stuck in traffic for the next hour or two just sitting here creeping along at the speed of a snail!" Much to my chagrin, the delay was only a slight pause in the flow of traffic as a tractor trailer tire had gone flat and shredded across the interstate, creating the need to slow to a crawl, move into one open lane, and navigate the large rubber obstacles scattered across I-81 north. In my mind, I had already convinced myself that the brake lights ahead were a signal of a long, dreary stretch of bumper to bumper traffic, moving inches at a time, and extending the trip by hours at best. That was not to be the case on this particular Saturday morning! Thank God!

Often times figurative warning lights of various kinds go off letting us know that danger is just ahead. Our immediate reaction, similar to my brake lights experience, is to go directly into worry and despair mode. Injuries, strained relationships, unexpected bills, and unanticipated situations cause us to stress and worry even before the actual experience takes place. Sometimes the event does occur and at other times the wave of despair that we created in our minds turns out to be a ripple in a baby pool. 

Our reactions and responses are products of something much deeper than my worry that our trip might be extended courtesy of a traffic jam. When our faith is strong, we confidently drive forward encouraged with the understanding that all things happen for a reason, and it is our responsibility to seek out what God wants us to gain through whatever is happening in our life at that particular moment. When we do not rely on our faith in life's situations then the experience itself dominates our thoughts and it is impossible to see God's will and purpose due to our self-created despair and worry. 

For example, when the brake lights beamed danger ahead, it didn't have to be signaling a bad thing for our trip, in actuality the delay and stoppage of traffic would have provided Ivy and I some time to play a road game, or just have a more one to one time to talk and share some good news about God and our relationships with Him in life's trials and tribulations. Wouldn't that be a much better use of my time and the time that had been created through whatever stopped the traffic ahead? Praying for potential traffic accident victims ahead, using the time to map out a new ministry that you have been wanting to start, or taking some time to make a list of friends and family to pray for and then pray for them are also much better things to do rather than worry and stress. 

The apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4:6-7 "Do not worry. Learn to pray about everything. Give thanks to God as you ask Him for what you need^. The peace of God is much greater than the human mind can understand. This peace will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (NLV) What a far greater response to adversity in praying rather than worrying. The next time you feel like you are getting ready to run into a traffic jam on life's interstate, stop, pray, and reflect. You may just find that what you are driving into is not near as bad as you want to think, and that God's purpose and plan for your life is so much bigger than anything we can imagine on our own. 

Coach Carter

Freedom Isn't Free

Let the fireworks begin! July 4th is here and our nation will be in full barbeque mode this weekend, with cookouts, corn hole games, baseball, hotdogs, and apple pies everywhere you look. At the core of this weekend's celebration is our country's independence from Great Britain some 245 years ago. Our nation was much like an indentured servant to the King of England, bound by government more than any other familial circumstances. Gaining our “freedom" allowed the United States of America to be born signaling that the chains of taxation without representation were broke and that the bells of freedom will ring forever more! Our country has certainly been blessed over the last two centuries, I believe that we need to be reminded often that the cost of that freedom is not free. Actually, I would like to suggest that freedom isn't a personal thing to be enjoyed, but instead it is more of a gift we have been given and the responsibility that freedom carries is to give our freedom away for the benefit of others that need freedom more than we do ourselves.

So, am I suggesting that I am free, but that freedom requires me to be indentured? Exactly. Think about it for a minute, the men and women that fought and gained our independence from King George gave up their personal freedom as a sacrifice for the bigger picture of freedom for a nation to be born so that in turn their children's children would be free to serve others in the same exact way their forefathers sacrificed for them. It's perpetual, we covet freedom, but to be free is to be completely bound to assuring that same freedom is available to ALL people, everywhere. 

If you stop and really think about it isn't that what God did for us? Didn't Jesus leave Heaven to break the chains of sin that enslaved men and women, old and young, Jew or Gentile? God gave His son as a sacrifice to assure that we could be free. When we accept God through Christ's sacrifice we accept that our freedom wasn't free and we have a commitment to assure others come first and we commit to securing that same opportunity to be free for our friends, family, and those we haven't ever even met! 

The apostle Paul exhorts us to place the needs of others first in the book of Philippians, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” When we gain salvation from the chains of our sins through Christ, then it becomes our duty and responsibility to be that same type of servant to the mission of Christ. We fight for those that are helpless, we care for those that are sick or in need, and we give of ourselves and our means to those that need us physically, emotionally, or in whatever figurative context we can imagine. Freedom isn't free, whether it is freedom from the physical chains of slavery, or if it is the freedom from pain, addiction, or suffering, we who have been given the gift of freedom are indentured to the plight of those that are in need. 

As we set up the picnic tables and the corn hole bags are getting ready to be tossed today, keep in mind we have this freedom because a price was paid by somebody else. We owe the next generation that same commitment to "pay it forward" to them. Jesus paid that same price with His death on the cross so that we could be free. We owe Him that same exact commitment to pay that forward as well. 

Happy Fourth of July!

Coach Carter