Bee Visible

 

How much attention can one tiny bee accrue? Well just sit back and watch a family enjoying a picnic at the park, postured on a blanket, sorting the containers of sandwiches, sides, and other delectable dishes, when all of a sudden, a small buzzing bee arrives on the scene. The once tranquil scene suddenly becomes match point at Wimbledon, forehands, backhands, and the eventually slam, all because an insect not much bigger than a thumbnail decided to buzz upon a family picnic. Of course, the family picnic scenario isn't the only setting where a tiny bee garners immediate attention. Spectator stands at a baseball game, Saturday afternoon barbeques, or unfortunately as an uninvited guest to your daughter's picturesque wedding, the difference that one tiny bee can make is notably obvious. But why? Grown men and women averaging well above 5 to 6 feet in height, 150-250 lbs. in weight, all with varying amounts of strength, courage, and educational experiences swatting and swinging at one tiny insect, the question begs to be asked, why? 

The obvious answer, fear of getting stung, comes to mind instantly, but I'd be curious to see the data on how many people have actually gotten stung by one of those tiny invaders during a Kentucky Fried Chicken weekend spread. I would gander a guess that actually it is more about the weaving in and out, buzzing here and buzzing there that actually draws so much attention to our little arthropods. Definitely the potential of getting stung exists, but I personally have not ever been stung in such a setting as any similar to the ones listed above. (Not saying I haven't been stung more than once in my life, just ask my brother Bob, but that's a story for another time). If you stop and think about it for a minute, it is truly amazing that such a tiny insect could so quickly gain so much of a group's attention, and really by not doing anything more than what a bee naturally does. Buzzzzz!

Think about it, a tiny bee who is just buzzing around, doing what a bee is supposed to do, gains the attention of everyone in the room just because bees buzz, bees fly in and out, and because bees are attracted to bright colors and sweet smells! We suddenly focus on a tiny insect who isn't bothering anyone, just because it is doing exactly what it is supposed to be doing. If a jellybean sized honeybee can draw the attention of a group by just buzzing around, how much more visible should our relationship with our divine Creator be to the people we interact with each day?

Just as the bee buzzes around searching out nectar from nearby flora, we too buzz in and out of the lives of those we live with, work with, and interact with each day. As we draw closer to God, our lives change and we develop a deeper understanding of what our purpose is in this life we have been given to live. And just as bees get noticed for doing nothing more than what they are supposed to be doing, our relationship with our Heavenly Father should be obvious to those we encounter. Your countenance, your demeanor, your empathy, the way you serve, and the way you see others are all equal to that little bee buzzing in and out of your outdoor event. The bee doesn't have to sting you to get your attention and we shouldn't have to necessarily announce our Christ-likeness to those we encounter. 

How we live our lives should be our testimony to others. A hard work ethic, an “others before self” mindset, resiliency in life’s challenges, and a “how can I make this world a better place” attitude are all ways that others should be able to see God living in you and living through you each day. Paul exhorted the church in Colossae with this charge, "... whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Colossians 3:17. We should be buzzing each day, sharing the sweet nectar of God's love and pollinating the lives of those we live and work with so that they too can develop their own relationship with the God of all creation. The bee impacts nature by doing what a bee is supposed to do, are you impacting lives in a positive manner by doing what you were created to do? Do you share pollen or poison? Nectar or noise? Unwarranted fear, or unconditional love? We don't share God's love for our own vain benefit, we do so for the benefit of the Kingdom. Be like the bee, "bee" visible! 

Coach Carter

 

Stuck in the Middle

One thing is for certain, you do not want to find yourself stuck in the middle of the road. Picture yourself attempting to cross a busy interstate and just about the time you make it halfway across the traffic from both directions is so thick that you are literally stuck right there in the middle of the road. Never a good place to be, the potential for disaster is definitely on the high end of that spectrum. In our spiritual walk we face that same dilemma, will we traverse on the "right" side of the road, the wrong side of the tracks, or do we attempt to straddle the middle of the road? Where we choose to walk on a highway has implications that can impact our health and well-being, but where we choose to walk in life has eternal implications for ourselves and others that we love and serve. 

 

So, in literal terms, it is pretty easy to determine if you are walking in the right place on a road or highway. Those little white lines marking the lanes on the road let us know that outside of those lines is definitely the safest area to be walking. Most definitely, the double white lines that divide traffic going east and west would qualify as the worst place to be spending your time walking down a road. But, how do we determine where is the safest place to walk in our relationship with God? That question can be answered in the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 6:5 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." I believe that is pretty plain in determining where our feet need to be traversing as we walk in our relationship with the God. Love God with all our heart, our soul, and our strength, in other words be all in, there is no room to get stuck in the middle, and we certainly do not want to find ourselves on the other end of that pendulum! 

 

Most likely it would be a safe wager to say that if asked most people would say they believe in God and that they believe in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of God's son Jesus. Yet, does that alone mean we are walking with God? Well according to James 2:19 just believing may not get us in the safe lane on life's highway, "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." In other words, just believing in God doesn't necessarily mean we are walking with God. When everything is good and all systems are full steam ahead, it is easy to say yes, we believe and of course we walk with God, but as we all know, life isn't just a straight interstate that we travel. Curves, bumps, road hazards, and traffic make driving, let alone walking, a challenge on the highways we travel. The same is true in life, we will face adversity and we will have to endure affliction, who do we walk with during those seasons of life? 

 

This is figuratively where the "rubber hits the road", do we turn to God in life's challenging situations and trust that He has a plan and it is our job to seek out God's will and then stay steadfast in our walk with Him? Or do we start questioning God when life happens? Health issues, financial matters, relational struggles, work problems, or even death in our families happen, who do we turn to in times of need? Do we even call out to God when affliction occurs? Is our life one that when things are good we confidently say "I follow God, I trust in His infinite wisdom, and I know He has a plan"? But, when the traffic gets thick on our life's highway, do we want to slide towards the middle of the road and begin to question why a God that loves me so much would allow my life to be affected in such a negative manner? 

 

Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight". If we trust in God, then we walk with God, good or bad, easy or tough, smooth or rough we walk with God. In the Book of Revelations, we are told that God knows whether we are hot or cold, and if we are lukewarm we aren't walking with Him, stuck in the middle. I'll conclude today's message with this declaration from Joshua. After Joshua became the leader of the Hebrew people, he faced many of the same challenges that his predecessor Moses had dealt with during their 40-year trek through the wilderness. Joshua made the decision to walk with God and he made no secrets about that decision. "But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15. All in, walking with God, regardless of the circumstances or conditions of life we too must choose where we will walk. No longer stuck in the middle, choose to walk fully with God!

 

Coach Carter

 

Hope, Patience, and Prayer

Earlier this week during one of my morning devotionals I was reading Romans 12:12 in which Paul was writing to the church in Rome. Paul was encouraging them to be strong and faithful through the persecution they were experiencing. "Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer." Interestingly, Paul could have possibly been encouraging the church in Rome while he himself was sitting in prison enduring his own set of trials and tribulations. During that same devotional time, I turned to Psalm 23 and as I read verse 4 it brought me back to Paul's guidance to the church in Rome. It almost sounded like Paul was providing a commentary on David's faith.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." Psalm 23:4. Although I am walking through the valley of the shadow of death, I will be "patient in my affliction" and I won't fear adversity or affliction because I am "rejoicing in the hope" I have in God. As David proceeded he wrote that he wouldn't be afraid because he knew God was with him. How did David know God was with him? Because King David was "persistent in prayer". 

 David prayed for strength, for comfort, for forgiveness, and for guidance. Paul prayed those same prayers over a thousand years later, and we can confidently pray those same prayers today. Our strength is found in our hope in God alone. We gain confidence in that knowledge through prayer and through perseverance. Paul wrote to the church in Rome to encourage them to have hope, to rest in that hope, and to continue to talk to God through their adversities. The good news today is that we can do the same thing. In Matthew 7:7 Jesus tells us to, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." The only way to ask is through prayer, the path to seek Him is through reading His word and then applying it to our lives. And the only way to knock on God's door is to know where He lives. As we build our relationship with God, we begin to understand more and to see his plan for this life He has given us to live. 

If prayer, faith, and hope were good enough for David and for Paul, don't you think those same traits would serve you well? The world changes, but in so many ways it definitely stays the same! Hope, patience, and prayer, same God, same path to find Him, never changed and never will!

Coach Carter

 

 

For Whom Does Your Phone Ring?

 

I recently listened to a sermon by Chip Ingram on the subject of a "calling" in life. I know I really enjoyed it because I have shared parts of that message in several conversations lately. When I was trying to decide on this week's topic for our time together, I was like "Duh, why wouldn't you share your takeaways from that message?" So, here we are and here we go, if you have a phone and it rings shouldn't you answer it?

 

The above reference to receiving a phone call is actually related to the meaning of the word vocation. In Latin the word "vocation" comes from the base word "vocare" or, to call. In other words, your vocation, the work that you do the majority of your waking hours should be a "calling". Well, in the world that I have worked for the past six years my primary focus has been to help young people find their "calling" or at least get themselves pointed in the right direction. My work inside Career and Technical Education or CTE is all about helping young adults think about where they will make an impact on the world in which they live. We can have a job, we might want to label it a career, but ultimately, I believe we all are "called" to make an impact within the work we do. You and I are called to do something, we each have a purpose that we were created to fulfill, as a matter of fact, we each have multiple "purposes" we were created to embrace. It just so happens that the thing that we as adults spend over one third of our life doing is work. If we are going to be invested in giving over one third of our life to working, shouldn't we be doing what we were called to do?

 

Today's title is a reference to a literary work by Ernest Hemingway, "For Whom the Bell Tolls". The meaning behind the phrase "for whom the bell tolls" is related to the funeral bells that rang out signaling the death of a person in the community. I chose this title not because of its relationship to the idea of bells tolling signifying the death of someone, but more for the idea that we each have a calling in life. It is our job to answer that call, much like we answer our phone when it rings. 

 

Personally, I believe I have received numerous "calls" throughout my educational career, and ultimately each "call" has led to a new chapter in my vocational career. I can honestly say I cannot recollect a day in over 31 years that I have dreaded going to work. Of course, there have been better days than others and there have been hard days that challenged me or even possibly got me down temporarily, yet overall I have thoroughly enjoyed every position inside of education that I have served. I believe I found my calling back at East Ridge Middle School, on a wrestling mat coaching grapplers about moves and techniques, but more about life and how to grapple through adversity and affliction to become the leader each of them was created to be. 

 

I am fortunate, I found the career field in which my "calling" exists. I am thankful that God has been able to use me to fulfill His purpose for the life He gave me to live. A staggering statistic that Pastor Ingram shared in his message was that four out of five adults do not like the job they do each day. My question here is are those folks doing a "job" or are they doing what they were called to do? I believe I can answer my own question, most likely not! There is a couple of items to consider when we start talking about folks and their calling in life that I believe are important to understand as we wind down our time together today. 

 

First, you have skills that are unique to you. You may be sitting there thinking to yourself that you don't have specific skills that would relate to your career, but believe me each person was created uniquely by design and on purpose. The key is have you identified those skills and are you using them in the place where you spend the majority of your waking hours each week? It is possible that you are working in exactly the place where you were purposed to be, yet you haven't realized it and therefore have not reached your full potential? "Whatever you do, do it with all your heart as if you were doing it for God and not for man!" Colossians 3:23. Giving your best and seeking the impact you can possibly have in your field of work makes a difference. You are a light unto the darkness that exists where you live and work. Shine brightly. 

 

The other possibility is that you are not in the place where you were designed to be. In the message from Chip Ingram, he points out that men and women of all ages find there calling and leave a tremendous legacy when they find that place where they were actually created to be. Not discounting all the work that you have done to this point, all work has value, and what you have been doing may have been necessary for the work you are about to take on. Don't ever stop growing and never discount the benefits of being a lifelong learner! Nola Ochs became the oldest person to receive a Bachelor’s degree at age 95. And then there's the rest of the story. At age 98 she completed her Master’s degree. Nola encourages others to never stop learning and uses her own example to inspire her grandchildren, "If Grandmother can do it, you can!" 

 

God has a calling for your life, will you answer the phone? 

 

 "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." Proverbs 16:9.

Coach Carter