Don't Get Stuck in the Middle

Craig Groeschel, lead pastor of Life Church, once quoted that "You can experience God on the mountaintop, but you get to know God in the valley." When I first read that statement, I didn't take away the full significance of what Pastor Groeschel was saying, so you may want to reread his quote one more time. Then, pause to reflect on the depth of the true meaning behind Groeschel's wisdom.

 

Mountaintop experiences come in various shapes and sizes. Literally, when you are on top of a mountain, the view of God's creation is most definitely enhanced. Standing on top of a peak in the Great Smokey Mountains at sunrise, it is hard to deny the grandeur of our God. Other mountaintop experiences are more symbolic such as standing in the delivery room as your child is welcomed to your family, or when the job promotion you've dreamed about becomes a reality. Whatever it is that qualifies as being on the mountaintop with God, those are times in our life we experience the God who created it all! “I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1-2.

 

 Where mountaintop experiences with God are desirable and welcomed, I don't know too many people who ask God to create those valley experiences that Pastor Groeschel described. Valleys are dark, deep, and lonely to the point that you can feel abandoned or forgotten. Health valleys, financial valleys, or relationship valleys pull us down and make us realize we do not want to be walking alone, and we need direction, focus, comfort, and support. That is when we get to know God. We call on Him in our weakness and He is there. "Yea though I walk thru the valley of the shadow of death, Thou art with me. "Psalm 23:4. When we continue to seek Him through prayer, worship, and spend time in His word, we develop a relationship with God. We begin to realize that God was always there, and that it was us that had strayed away. 

 

Walking through the valleys alone is tough, Jesus even warned us that we would face hard challenges in life, but He also assured us that we would not go it alone. "... in the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John 16:33. Knowing that we are not alone, realizing that the same God that made the sun, moon, and stars made each of us unique and special to Him, and spending time with God on the mountain, in the valley, or anywhere in between gives us the strength we need to carry on! Spend some time on your mountain top with God, but build your relationship with Him through the valleys of this life!

 Coach Carter

 

 

The Risk Factor

There's a certain degree of risk in any venture. For the entrepreneur, charting the course of opening a new business has about as much potential to be successful as there is for it to be a complete flop. Taking a relationship to the next level can be a move in the right direction, but it also involves the risk of rejection or disappointment. Choosing to make a career change places the comfort of the known on the shelf and shifts our current lifestyle to the "at risk" category. The coach making the call to go for it on fourth down, the twenty-something year old who decides to join the Air Force, or even the chef who decides to tweak her recipe, every decision has a risk factor quotient.

 

So, common sense would cause us to ask the question, "Then why take the risk? Stay the course with the established and proven path and reduce the risk of failure." Play it safe, don't mess with the formula, I mean remember "New Coke"? It just seems logical to not rock the boat, right? On the surface that may appear to be the right choice, but in all actuality, the choice to not take a chance has the potential to pose as much of a risk factor as taking the plunge and falling short in the endeavor. At the end of the day, if success was a guarantee, then everybody would inch out on the limb a little further, but the hard truth is that even if you work your hardest and you have the best idea in the world since a pocket on a shirt, sometimes things just don't work out and the outcome appears to be failure. 

 

Yet, what if you don't take the chance? The risk of failing to launch may have more long-term detrimental impact than taking the shot and missing the mark. If you attempt and miss, you have the memory of what went wrong which provides the opportunity to improve those aspects of the process. Going forward the chances of being successful armed with the knowledge of what not to do are improved exponentially. Read Dweck's "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success" for a much deeper look into the idea of a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset. Taking a chance may have risk associated with it, but not taking a chance stunts our potential and limits our opportunity to impact the world! 

 

What is the difference in the person who doesn't take a chance and the one that breaks the glass ceiling and impacts the world in which they live? I believe the deciding factor is faith. Faith that says "He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world" I John 4:4. Faith that faces adversity and doubt and moves forward boldly and confidently, "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." II Corinthians 12:10. Faith that says I may get knocked down, but I will get back up again! "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33. Faith that says take the risk, you are not taking it alone! "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." Psalm 23:4. As we noted earlier, any venture has a certain degree of risk associated with the choice. The risk of failing to make a choice carries a much greater risk, the risk of failing to fulfill the purpose God placed you on this earth to fulfill! 

Coach Carter

Through It or In It

 

As a former English teacher, I remember planning out creative ways to help students remember different parts of speech, notably, prepositions. For those of you who may have hit the snooze button during your own prepositional tutorial, prepositions normally proceed a noun and provide a relationship to another object. "The boy, on the bicycle, rode by my house." The preposition on explains where the boy was in relationship to the bike, he was on it. So, if you did happen to miss out on your own educational pursuit of prepositions, possibly this introduction to today's Flat Tire Thought may suffice. Beyond that, this week's thought for the week does deal with two prepositions and both are directly related to where you are in relationship to what is going on in your life right now. Today I am posing the question, "Are you living through "it" or are you living in "it". 

 

I suppose we should first define "it" since I have placed a certain degree of emphasis on this tiny pronoun. "It" can be whatever "it" is that you are experiencing in your life. I've always said you may be just coming out of "it", headed towards "it", or you may be smack dab right there in the middle of "it" as you read today's message. "It" may have a beginning and end mark, or it could be that "it" is something that you may have to endure for an extended period of time. "It" could be something that unless God intervenes and performs a miracle in your life you will deal with "it" for the rest of your life. Back to my previous question, the crux of the matter isn't about the duration of whatever "it" is, but more so where you are living in relationship to whatever "it" is. 

 

"It" as a pronoun can be the subject of a sentence, "It was as big as an elephant." So, for our purpose today we will utilize "it" as the subject of what you are living through or in. "It" represents something of significance that is impacting your life in an adverse way. "It" could be a health issue, "it" could be a relationship matter, "it" could be a financial situation, or "it" could be any of a plethora of issues or situations that you are dealing with in your own life. Regardless of what "it" is, today I am asking you to reflect on how you are dealing with whatever your "it" is. 

 

God has a plan for your life, Jeremiah 29:11 assures us "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." God's plans are not going to always line up with what we had planned out for our lives, many times what happens to us would never have been something we would have put into our plans if we were the sole narrator of what happens to us in life. I don't think any set of parents would have written out a plan that would have their child be born deaf, blind, and mute, but Helen Keller most likely would never have inspired and touched the lives of so many people had she not been handed exact set of conditions in her life. Joseph would not have risen to the position of second in command in Egypt if it were not for the series of events in his life that journeyed the spectrum of being sold into slavery by his brothers, cast into prison for a crime he didn't commit, and then enduring his prison term long beyond what he should have. Yet it all came down to how Joseph thrived in the hand he had been dealt. At the end of Joseph's odyssey in Genesis 50:20, Joseph assures the same brothers that sold him into slavery that "You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people." To coin an old phrase, Good took some lemons in Joseph's life and turned them into some sweet lemonade!

 

Circling back to our original question, I would ask you to reflect on your own position in relationship to what is going on in your life. Are you living through "it", standing still waiting on God to miraculously heal your infirmities or cast aside the adversity in your life that you believe is holding you back from fulfilling your life's destiny? Or, are you living out the best life you can live while God's plan is being fulfilled as you live in "it"? As I stated in the previous paragraph, God has a plan for your life, it is your choice to live through "it" and just go through the motions of living and breathing, or you can make the choice to live in it and seek out what God has in store for you. "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28." I choose to live in this life God has given me to live, and I will attempt to fulfill whatever plans God has for me to live out. What will you choose today? Will you live through ups and downs of life, or will you live in those very same ups and downs and impact the world you live in for the God who made you just the way you are?

Coach Carter

The Fourth Man

If you follow American college football then you most likely have heard of the Twelfth Man, the belief that the fans in the stands can have the impact of a twelfth player on the field. Call it home field advantage if you like, but the energy produced by a roaring stadium of fans is impactful. Both teams line up with eleven players on the field, but that twelfth man, although not visible on the field, has the potential to affect the outcome of the game. 

 

In the Contemporary Christian song entitled Trust in God, the band Elevation Worship alludes to a similar” twelfth man" scenario from the Bible, "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine, He's been my fourth man in the fire time after time". Much like the influence of the twelfth man in the stands the lives of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were impacted by the fourth man in the fire!

 

In the Old Testament Book of Daniel, you'll find the story of these three followers of God who were tossed into a fiery furnace for paying reverence to God over King Nebuchadnezzar. When the King looked inside the furnace he saw not three, but four men in the fire. When the men were retrieved from the fire not even the hair on their head was singed and the king himself started praising God. Talk about a fan in the stands!

 

As you walk through the fiery trials of your life, keep in mind that you are not walking alone! It doesn't matter what it is God is always present right there with you. Does that mean we will never feel pain and suddenly all of our worries will disappear? No, that is not the promise, God's promise is that He will be with us, just as any father would be with his son or daughter. We serve a limitless God that is with us through whatever life drops in our lap. Mightier than any twelfth man, God is with us and He won't let us go it alone! "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isiah 41:10. Trust God, walk with Him and you will never walk alone. 

 

Coach Carter

Heavy Load

 

I don't know what it is about making multiple trips back and forth to the car to unload groceries, but I kinda take pride in being able to strategically position as many plastic shopping bags on my arms, around my neck, in my mouth, and at least one or two dangling from my pinky fingertips to get it all done in one trip. Well, I might be exaggerating a tad bit, but seriously am I the only person out there that wants to get all the groceries in the house in one load?

 

I don't want to digress too far here, even though it is relative to our FTM Thought today, but it isn't what we are trying to carry, but more about the weight of what we are trying to carry that I'm most interested in today. With the grocery bag scenario, one bag in each hand doesn't really weigh us down, yet when we try to carry all the bags at one time there is a certain degree of strain that exists. The further you have to carry the load the more strain there is. I can recollect a time or two when I carried a 50 lb. bag of dog food, a gallon of milk, and several bags of grocery items which definitely qualified as a "heavy load". When I reached the kitchen counter and finally laid all the items down the sudden relief was felt throughout my body. 

 

Maybe you've experienced a similar instance where you were carrying something heavy for an extended distance. Maybe it was groceries, maybe it was tools, or maybe it was a couch or chair, whatever it was you were carrying, my guess is that when you laid down the weight you were carrying your body and mind suddenly felt relief. The strain of carrying a heavy load is only magnified when you are carrying it all by yourself. When someone willingly lends us a hand the weight of the load instantly gets lighter and the strain or stress we experience dissipates as well. 

 

In life we all have a load that we carry. Family matters, work issues, health concerns, financial strains, you name yours, we all carry a load. At times that load may begin to feel overwhelming and the strain can feel like it is more than we can bear. We need someone to lend us a hand and lift the burden off of our back. Jesus offers us that helping hand when our life's load is too heavy. In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus said, "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.” Jesus is telling us that we don't have to keep trying to carry our burdens on our own. Whatever you are dealing with He wants us to bring it to Him and allow God to carry our heavy load. Jesus didn't say our burdens would disappear, yet He does say we will find rest and peace as we learn to trust Him with all our cares and the ups and downs of life. 

 

Maybe you aren't in the middle of a "Heavy Load" experience in your life right now. Could it be that today's Flat Tire Thought is meant to spur you to be God's hands and feet in the life of someone else? At times we need someone to lighten our load, maybe today somebody needs you to help them carry their load. I encourage you today to look for opportunities to be God's hands and feet!

Coach Carter