Impossibilities Made Possible

 

There is a French proverb that goes something like this, "To believe a thing is impossible is to make it so". How true that is. Throughout my 35+ years of coaching I have witnessed that proverb playing out countless times and it bothers me just as much now as it did the first time I heard a student/athlete lament,
"I can't do it".  It hurts me to even write those words down, and I most certainly don't want anyone to think those are words in my vocabulary. There's just something about saying you "can't", it's almost like magic sprinkle dust that suddenly destroys our efforts and creates a losing situation. For anyone out there today that feels like they are in a hopeless situation and that you "can't" defeat that demon that is standing in front of you, I assure you there is hope, I'm in the making impossibilities possible business, and I have a business partner that makes "all things possible"!

I've had volleyball players who were struggling with successfully getting their overhand serve across the net. It's almost funny to watch, because one day it just starts clicking and then it was kinda like "What was I doing that I couldn't get the ball across the net?" The player really can't pinpoint the answer to their own question, but most certainly it is not because they had a mindset that they couldn't do it. Adversely, in pretty much every similar situation, the drive, the commitment, and the hard work that went into practicing their technique, and a downright belief that they could do it had everything to do with making it happen. 

Saying the words "I can't" are almost like creating an invisible force field that assures you won't breakthrough the problem that is in front of you. We call these invisible force fields barriers. Some may appear to be visible barriers, but I suggest that even a visible barrier has an invisible force field encircling it. Those barriers are sometimes harder to break because we are the ones that have created it in our minds and we are incapable of seeing around, thru, or onto the other side of the barrier standing in our way. These invisible barriers exist in our relationships, our work places, and athletic endeavors such as learning to swim, lifting a new personal best, or even serving a volleyball overhand across a net. 

It may be hard, it may be challenging, it may be downright close to impossible, but... not impossible. Ever heard of a man named Roger Bannister? Before he did it, the notion of someone running a mile in less four minutes was thought to be impossible. It was actually thought that anyone attempting to accomplish that feat would die trying. But on May 7, 1954 Roger Bannister did exactly what had previously been labelled impossible. He ran the first recorded sub four-minute mile at Oxford in England. I listened to a recording by Bannister and he told a story about how the Swedes had a runner make it to just above four minutes and that many in the sports science world thought that four minutes might just be a barrier that no one could break. It was impossible. Bannister's comment on that falsehood, "Just because they say it's impossible doesn't mean you can't do it". Today it is estimated that 1,497 humans have ran a sub four-minute mile and guess what there will be 1,498 then 1,499, and then well you get the picture. It was not impossible, it was an invisible barrier that had to be broken by someone willing to believe that all things are possible. 

Your barriers, invisible as they may be, are there to keep you from achieving what you want to achieve, but if you are willing to hold on to hope, trust in a power bigger than yourself, and work harder than anyone else around you, you can break through whatever is standing in your way. You know why I'm so sure of this? I have the testimonial from my business partner, listen to what he says about the words impossible and can't. "Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” Mark 10:27. The situation may appear hopeless, the circumstances may be dire, or the odds just aren't in your favor, but what I hear is that all things are possible with God in control. Trust, believe, work hard, never give up, and always, always give your best! 

Coach Carter

Here's a link to the news clip from Roger Bannister's record setting feat!

Roger Bannister 3.59 Mile Run

 

Shooting Stars

One of the benefits of being up around 4:30AM each morning is having the good fortune to catch a meteor shower on full display. I unknowingly, literally walked right into an early morning light show this past week and it did not fail to impress and set me up for an amazing day. It is hard to describe the smile that comes across my face when I am fortunate to catch a falling star in full descent. It happens so fast and many times you just catch a quick glimpse of the trail as it trails quickly to its demise. If you are fortunate enough to experience a meteor shower encountering over 100 shooting stars in a short period of time is completely possible. I hope I'm not writing this blog to someone who hasn't witnessed a shooting star, if there is someone out there who hasn't had the enjoyment of watching a falling star make its descent, I encourage you to search for the next one that will be occurring in your proximity and then make plans to find a dark sky spot and load up your blanket and a good friend to share this spectacle with. 

The unfortunate aspect about watching a falling star perform is that the whole thing signals the end of the star's life. There's an old rock and roll song by the band Bad Company titled "Shooting Star" which tells the story of Johnny who wanted to be a rock and roll star. Johnny reached his goal, but just as quickly as he reached stardom, his ultimate demise was hastened with a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of sleeping tablets beside his bed. Textbook "shooting star" example. Alas, this Flat Tire Ministry Thought is not set to focus on the lost potential of so many bright and shining stars, no today's message is one about potential gained not lost. 

Shooting stars, we are not. Although today's message is about the beauty and power observed through the demise of a literal falling star, your life isn't meant to end in such a manner. It is our job to assure that when the light in our star is exhausted, it isn't just a meteorite rock that remains as evidence of our existence. Your legacy, your impact on your family, friends, the community in which you live, the state where you reside, the country you align with, or your impact on the world are all things that you have control over and I want to challenge you to make a positive difference in as many of the aforementioned aspects of your influence. 

I am inspired and motivated by the proclamation of Solomon in Proverbs 17:6 "Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of a son is his father." In other words, if we do our job the way God intends for us to live out our lives fulfilling His purpose for the life we have been given, then the confirmation of a job well done will be found in our grandchildren's lives. In addition, our children will be a "shining" example for their children. Don't lessen the impact you will have not only on your own children, but also on the lives of so many other children, adults, and even institutions or movements. You were given a purpose on purpose, if you don't fulfill that purpose, your life will be much like the meteorite rock scattered across a field with no purpose of meaning accomplished. Or, your life can glow, flame, and impact so many others much like the brilliant stars of the night sky and spectacular performance of a shooting star. Don't allow your light to fade out of existence, leave your impact of this world in the lives of those you live with, work with, and spend your time with each day. Our shining example to follow is Jesus. Jesus wasn't going to be a shooting star, His plan wasn't to shine just while he walked this earth, but to continue shining into eternity! Won't you join Him as he moves us to action, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."  John 14:27 What legacy piece will you leave?

Coach Carter

It Only Makes You Stronger

 

I had something brought to my attention earlier this week and it definitely was one of those "Aha" moments. I was listening to a sermon by Pastor Chip Ingram, and in the sermon, Ingram made a reference about lifting weights and building muscles. The obvious point was that anyone who lifts weights wants to develop their overall strength, or improve a certain body region, arms, legs, chest, back, so on and so on. You may lift weights just to maintain your muscles, but the majority of people who lift do so to build their muscles. So, with that being said, the desired muscle growth will not happen if you don't progressively add more weight to the bar. After the body gets "conditioned" to a certain amount of weight on the bar the muscles plateau. To continue to build more muscle mass you have to add additional weight and/or change the exercises to alert the muscles to get busy and grow. Basically, what happens is the increased resistance produces more muscle tissue as the weight lifter trains and pushes his or her body to the point of exhaustion, the whole "no pain, no gain" idea. 

Unfortunately, if we aren't growing our muscles just the opposite happens. If you don't use a muscle for a period of time the muscle will become weaker. Go outside today and do about fifty squats and see how your legs feel the next day. Squatting that much just isn't something that we do on a daily basis so it only stands to reason that we will probably experience some pain in our thighs after a round of squats. We don't want our muscles to atrophy so we exercise, we run, we stay active to avoid the negative impact on our muscles and overall physique. 

Well guess what? This analogy fits perfectly with how we grow through our adversities and even our afflictions. We don't want to experience bad or negative events in our lives, but for us to grow and "exercise" our faith muscles this is exactly where it happens. Think about it, if life was easy we would definitely or should definitely be content. No sickness, no conflict, no work issues, kid issues, financial woes, and your marriage is bliss. Wouldn't that be nice? Well it would be nice for a day or maybe a week, but if we really stop and think about it, when we go through something in life is when we actually go to work on finding a solution, remedy, or fix. That search is where the growth opportunity lives. 

I'm not suggesting that we jump up and down the next time that a life event happens, but instead to change our attitude and perspective about what is happening and how we approach the situation. Instead of taking the stance that we are the victim in every situation, how about we look at it as an exercise for growth. Maybe your faith muscles are at a place where they have atrophied. Could it be that through the cataclysmic journey you are traversing currently, you are headed exactly to the place that will be your next area of impact? I don't know and I can't give you guarantees, but I can assure you if you don't grow through it you will get stuck in it and that is where our muscle memory starts to fail us and atrophy most certainly does exist. 

The good news is we are not going to lift that weight by ourselves. Just as any weightlifter has a spotter coaching them as they lift that heavier weight, we are not alone as we "lift" life's challenges and circumstances. We have a promise that should reassure us in those times when life is feeling too heavy to lift found in Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” When you feel all alone, remember you are not. As you lift that heavy weight hold tight to Paul's proclamation "I can do all things through Christ which gives me strength." Philippians 4:13. 

You got this!

Coach Carter

 

Playground Rules

To say I loved my ten years as principal of Union Heights Elementary School would most definitely be a true example of an understatement. Actually, I could say the same thing about my sixteen years at East Ridge Middle School where I taught and coached in the first stage of my educational career, and now for the past five years as the Career and Technical Education CTE Supervisor for our Hamblen County School system. It rarely has ever felt like work, thankful to be in the profession I feel like I was purposed to be a part of from the beginning. Blessed. Okay, note to self, stay on topic. 

As a principal one of the major roles you carry out is to be the extreme conflict resolution center for the school. Students who wound up visiting my office for behavioral issues normally had missed the opportunity to reach a resolution in the classroom, or even better before the teacher got involved. Classroom conflicts happen, albeit more rarely, when organization and structure are evident in any classroom. There just isn't too much room for misinterpretation of the expectations in an elementary teacher's class. Head down to the cafeteria and, for the most part, the same set of expectations from the classroom apply in the cafeteria. Stay in your seat, keep the conversations at a table level, eat the food on your plate, if you make a mess please clean it up, and don't mess with another student's food. All pretty much anticipated wouldn't you say? Walking to and from in the hallways, morning and afternoon bus duty, each of these had rules and expectations to help make transitions doable and efficient. The one place that I did not create a set of standard rules was on the playgrounds at our school during recess time for each grade level. 

The simplistic, general rule of thumb on an elementary school playground is allow the students to work out problems they encounter as much as possible. The "rules" set for this structured “free for all” time are fairly simple and for the most part can be easily maintained. That being said, I have many fond memories of being present on one of our playgrounds when one of our teachers would have to provide some minor conflict resolution guidance to some not so content playground participants. I can vividly picture a pair of sweaty, little seven-year old’s coming to their teacher to settle a touchdown related dispute, or times when inclusion just wasn't happening and feelings were devastated between two friends whom moments before were as thick as thieves. The responses from our teachers that I generally heard could have been written on stone tablets and posted on the outside classroom posts. The rules were so consistent whether it was on the Kindergarten - 2nd grade playground or up on the bank at the 3rd-5th grade location. I. Thou shalt share. II. Thou shalt play nice together or if you can't go find someone else to play with. III. Name calling is not allowed. IV. No fighting. V. Thee shall include everyone, this is not your personal playground. Of course, there were myriad nuances to this set of rules, but for the most part these five standard bearers could pretty much address most anything that occurred during recess each afternoon. 

Were these five "commandments" never broken? The question goes without being asked, yet I'll answer it with another question, "Are the ten commandments never broken?" Simply stated we are not humanly capable of not breaking from Moses's contribution to the standard rules for mankind. Yes, the rules did experience deviators, but that was what the teachers were there to provide resolution for when necessary. I can pretty much guarantee you though that the teachers were always striving for students to solve their disagreements on their own when at all possible. 

So, my question today is this, "What happened between our days on the elementary playground where we all had to get along or wind up sitting out on the sidelines, and where we are today where the only person that matters in most cases is "me"? Think about it each of the playground rules apply in the adult world of work, home, and even during our daily travels. Sharing? Aren't we taught that it is better to give than it is to receive? Play nice? Well if you don't like the way something is going in your world I suggest you either figure out how to get along, or go find somewhere else to go play, remember it isn't your playground anyway. We are just borrowing this world we live in from our grandchildren, let's leave it better for them then how it was when it was given to us. Name calling, fighting, those actions aren't allowed for our kids on the playground, in the classroom, or out in public, why is it okay for adults to behave like that? It isn't. We should be the role models so that our teachers won't have to do our job on the playground. The fifth playground rule was include everyone. Beyond popular belief, you are not the judge. You don't get to decide who is right and who is wrong, you can have your opinion, but this is not your playground so you don't get to decide who plays on it or who doesn't. I didn't write the rules, I'm not judging anyone, all I'm echoing is the commandment that encompasses all of the ones above. Jesus of Nazareth, Son of the Living God proclaimed in Matthew 7:12 "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law...". I suppose the "in everything" and "to others" Jesus stated includes everyone regardless of their skin pigment, I think everything includes our relationships at work, at school, at home of course, and how about on the roads and highways we travel each day. I won't digress towards the topic of road rage, but keep in mind those roads aren't yours, you are just as much a guest on the highway as the person that sat an extra :10 seconds after the light changed to green. 

I firmly believe our elementary school playgrounds are an outstanding learning platform for our children to learn how to get along and play well with others. Maybe we all need to take a break and go for a swing? "I want to leave you equipped with two verses.  

"Hatred stirs up strife but love covers all sins" Proverbs 10:12.

 "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." I Peter 4:8

Coach Carter