The Gift of Today

 "This is the day that the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!" Psalm 118:24

I began journaling my prayers several years ago and that has made a tremendous difference in my prayer life. Not only has my focus improved on what I am praying about, but it has also had a lasting influence on my ability to listen and hear God's guidance and direction for this life He has so generously given me to live. My faith tells me that our prayers are just as much about hearing from God's Holy Spirit as it is seeking God's Holy Spirit to intervene on our behalf. When we start listening rather than always asking for answers to our situations, our focus shifts from someone who is always wanting, to a person who is always grateful and thankful seeking to serve and grow in God's will and way. For our Flat Tire Ministries Thought for the Day, I would like to share one of my recent daily prayers. Not that my prayers are a model to follow, but more so this particular prayer is one where I believe the Holy Spirit said to me, I made this day, will you rejoice in it and just be thankful for it? 

"Father God, You have given me this new day and this gift has been given to all mankind that wakes up today. There are different responses to Your gift, I pray that mine will be an attitude of appreciation and a sense of responsibility to not waste the gift from the Giver. Some will walk through the motions and some never realize they have a gift laid in their lap. For some they will complain about the day. From the moment they finally roll out of bed, they will complain about having to go to work, they will complain about the long line at their coffee drive-thru, they will be the most frequent contributor to the complaint department at work, and their friends and family will endure another day of gloom and doom that this person exudes. Some will embrace this day and they will impact their world just because that is who they are. Father God I want to be like that person each day, every day that you give me to live. Will the day be a great day every day? Of course not, but I pray that I will choose how I respond to the day. I know my approach to the day will be determined by how I perceive the things tha come my way. Challenges that present opportunities or opportunities that make challenges. Lord there will be some that do not receive this day. For a certain percentage of the population today will be their last day to wake or not wake. Father, I pray that I won't waste this day, and that I won't assume that tomorrow will be my next day I have to make a difference. I pray for those who do not have an appreciation for the gift of this day, and I ask that they will be able to see your day and the gift that they have received. Amen"

After typing out the prayer from my journal, I reflected on the purpose of this prayer that I submitted to our Creator and our Redeemer and concluded that this prayer isn't as much about what I was going to do with the gift of the day, but more about praying that I would be submissive to what God wants me to do today. The gift of this day wasn't for me to necessarily benefit personally, but rather the gift of the day is to have the opportunity to serve others, share the Good News of God's forgiveness, and His offer of eternal life through forgiveness of sins and the redemption of our heart and soul. 

As I continue praying, and as each of you open your heart and mind to God's will for your life, my prayer is that we become empty vessels eager to be filled with God's Holy Spirit! Eager to serve others before ourselves, and swift to lift up those who are downtrodden and in need. Ask yourself this question today. "Will today be a gift that God has given me for the benefit of those I come in contact with today?" May your days be focused on service before self and may your plans be directed by the same God who created Heaven and earth. 

Coach Carter

"Be"

"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

One of my distinct childhood memories is of a time as a small lad being challenged by my older brother and some of his friends to knock down a wasp nest that was situated on an old swingset that we had all outgrown. The teens told me that if I would knock down that nest they would let me go with them to the creek and around the farm. That was all the motivation I needed, being eight years younger than Bob and his friends, I would do pretty much anything to hang out with them. So I grabbed what I thought was a long pole and stealthily approached the bee's haven, nestled right there in the crossbeam section of the rusted swingset. You could say I was on guard, but unfortunately, the wasps were more on guard than I. As memory serves me, three wasps flanking me, one to the right, one to the left, and one straight down the middle landed on my face right between the eyes. What proceeded to happen next was a great deal of pain and swelling to my eyes, which led to screaming and crying from a six year old, and one mad Mamaw Whetsel who took a switch after not only Bob, but the other boys as well. Awwwhhhh, those were the days! 

That "bee" memory serves as the impetus for today's Flat Tire Thought. Jesus spent the majority of his time here on earth healing the sick, teaching all that would listen, and preparing us for life after His earthly death and resurrection. In many instances Jesus used parables and stories to drive home his point. There's definitely  multiple takeaways to be learned in my "bee" story above, yet the stories that Jesus shared were life lessons that have served hundreds of generations of followers of God our Heavenly Father. In particular is a warning that Jesus shared with His disciples in the Book of John. I shared John 16:33 at the beginning of the message today, but let me give you Chuck's paraphrase of this verse. Jesus warned His disciples and all of us to "be" on guard because we will "be" under attack in this world. But we can "be" comforted because Jesus has already conquered this world. As Jesus neared the time of His arrest and death on the cross, he warned the disciples to "be" on guard, because in this life they would "be" under attack. Just as the bees attacked me when I approached their nest with ill intent in mind, Jesus warned us that we, much like the bees in that nest, will "be" under attack in this world. 

The bees in the nest attacked me in a physical manner which I definitely can say I remember that feeling! The attacks Jesus warned against may not be physical in nature, yet the attacks that we face today sting more deadly than the venom of a nest full of wasps! Marriages will come under attack as pressure mounts and some folks check out. Drug and alcohol addiction is an attack that has decimated individuals and families. Abuse, neglect, debt, or crime, all of these are prevalent in our society today, and Jesus warned us in advance, "be" on guard, because you will "be" under attack. That was the warning in the state of "being" that Jesus shared. Yet in spite of the warnings that Jesus shared, he continued to encourage and comfort us with the rest of his message. 

"Be" of good cheer, because I have overcome the world and I will "be" with you to comfort you and support you! That was the promise of Jesus and His promises hold true today. In the Book of Hebrews, verse 13:5 tells us that He will "never leave us nor forsake us", so we have His promise to "be" with us and to never leave us on our own as we face the "bees" of our life's journey. We can "be" assured, God is with you, He knows where you are and He knows what you need even before you ask. I challenge you today, "be" diligent in prayer, "be" confident in the power of our Lord and Savior, and "be"aware that you are never alone nor will you ever "be". 

Coach Carter

The Proper Perspective

 Guilty. Have you ever arrived at your dinner destination only to be greeted with the news that the wait time for a table is going to be 45-60 minutes? Standing there waiting on your table, the frustration you felt upon hearing the news of the wait begins to morph into a bit of anger and you start to wonder why you are having to wait so long when there are obviously empty tables available and you have noticed that some of the wait staff are just standing around anyway. You might say you moved into the stage of being "hangry". That frustration turned anger blinds us as the reality of the situation is that within a few minutes you will be waited on hand over foot, and the quantity of food presented to your table will surpass the palette of even the most hungry at your table. As a matter of fact, the quantity of food that will be left uneaten would be enough to feed another family of four. Yet, you and your party make your way to the register, flip out your debit card and sign off on the very meal that some in the car will be complaining about on the drive home. Guilty. Does that sound a little too familiar, or maybe I'm the only one that has experienced even parts of that scenario. If so, maybe another situation would "fit" better. You stand in front of a closet filled with shirts both long and short sleeved, pants, shorts, sweaters and vests, and the very words that come out of your mouth are I don't have a thing to wear today! Or what about the temperature in the room where you happen to be stationed. Too hot, too cold, we may be trapped in the Goldilocks syndrome of trying to find the room in the building that is "just right". As with most of my writings the list goes on and on of life examples that may fit your situation in life better. New car to replace the old one, less sunlight coming in my corner office window, the wait in line at the pharmacy, and on and on we go! Whatever your life status is right now, I'm going out on a limb a bit to gather this conclusion. If you are reading this post from your phone, laptop, or other electronic device, you actually have a pretty comfortable life. Your life conditions may feel uncomfortable at times, yet when you take the proper perspective of your life's current status, I believe you should be able to agree that you have it pretty good. Could life be better, different, or easier? Absolutely, yet the idea that I am conveying today isn't about the scale of how comfortable your life is on a scale of 1 to 10, but more about how you perceive your life whether it is a 9+ or a -1 on that same scale. 

The key to perspective is found in the notion of what you put in is exactly what you will get out. If you dwell in the world of comparison then maybe you shouldn't be comparing your life to that of the "Jones' family", but instead maybe your life compared to the roughly 26% or 1 out of every 4 people in the world that do not have safe drinking water. Or possibly we could consider the plight of the 673 million people around the world who do not receive adequate nourishment each day when we push ourselves away from the uneaten, food laden table where we sit. I'll never forget the story my nephew/son Bogi shared with me after one of his journeys in the Air Force that caused him to look at life from a completely different perspective.

Bogi was stationed in Djibouti, located in the horn of Africa several years ago. There he witnessed destitute poverty, rampant drug abuse, and almost zero hope for a better tomorrow. He shared with me that in the doorways of buildings he entered, children were laying there much like a dog we would step over as it stretched out across the floor. The infrastructure did not provide opportunities for jobs, so limited access to income, certainly not wealth was the norm, and as I stated above the hopelessness was only punctuated by the utter dependence adults and children relied on found in the stimulant crop khat that grows there naturally. Much like other amphetamines khat is highly addictive and the people there walked around high as a means of coping with their life's station. The proper perspective aspect of this story is found in one of Bogi's return trips to the United States on a commercial airline. During the flight the cabin crew wheeled out a hot meal for passengers who were traveling a day's journey across continents. The person beside Bogi received their meal and before even tasting the food they were complaining about the quality and quantity of food they had just been handed while they sat on a jumbo 747, air conditioning flowing down on their head and body, situated in a padded seat, with access to water, tea, soft drinks, or coffee with a push of a button. That was a hard moment for a young airman transitioning back to the land of flowing milk and honey. I believe it is safe to say that was a moment of putting things into their proper perspective. 

The Apostle Paul lived a life of luxury before his conversion from the persecutor of Christians to his lifetime service to the work of teaching and expanding Christianity. The conversion did not come without lifestyle changes, beaten, imprisoned, hunted, and abused Paul not only accepted his life's situation, he embraced the trials and adversity he experienced. "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through Him who gives me strength." Philippians 4:11-13. To what extent are you and I willing to carry the cross of Jesus? What level of comfort, or probably better to ask what level of discomfort, are we willing to accept as possibly this is exactly where God has placed us at this moment in life and in this moment I will not only survive, but I  will thrive? 

Jesus warned His followers, which means He was warning us over 2000 years ago that we would face adverse conditions, and life would not always be easy. In John 16:33 Jesus shared, "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." This message from Jesus tells us that life is not going to be full of that proverbial bowl of cherries, but instead there will be ups and downs, good and bad, and at times it may feel like it is all bad, but at the end of the day, Paul's proper perspective of "I have learned to be content in any and every situation" coupled with the assurance from the words of Jesus that we will overcome in Him, should give us a better attitude and an opportunity to illuminate this world with our own perspective on life. God's proper perspective!

Coach Carter

Be the Bridge...

 Last year my friend and colleague Sarah Akard attended the National Youth Homelessness Conference. In the United States of America, homelessness for a child or family should not be a reality, yet close to 2 million children face some form of homelessness each day in this land of abundance. That in itself is a national, state, and local issue that screams "HELP!" The tagline for the conference "Be the Bridge Between Now and Next" stuck with me, as the concept of now and next sent my mind darting in multiple directions. Our children need bridges to opportunity and to hope and our society is in desperate need of a view of where we are now and where we should be striving to be next. 

Just as homelessness should not be a thing for children or their families in our nation, the harsh reality is that it does exist. It is also a reality that drug addiction impacts nearly 49 million people today in the United States. Another alarming statistic here in America is that close to 24% or 61.5 million adults were identified as experiencing mental illness issues in 2024. Crime rates, divorce rates, and the rate of families living below the poverty line are rampant and seem to be on the rise each day we live. For a guy who's mission is to inspire and uplift his fellow man, the stats I'm sharing aren't very inspirational. Yet, as I often say, "we have to take the lemons life hands us, and make some sweet lemonade to share with others". Where problems exist, whether they be societal such as the homelessness crisis in our country or if it is a personal issue with some type of substance abuse or addiction, we each have a job to do. It is our responsibility to be a bridge, the bridge from what is the current status of a person or our society, to the place of what this world can and should be next. 

Here is where our inspiration exists. We each have the responsibility to become the bridge of hope for the hopeless, and the connector of inspiration for the lost and downtrodden. In Jeremiah 29:11 God spoke this message into the heart and mind of His prophet Jeremiah. "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." Bridges aren't constructed without first developing the architectural design and ultimately creating a set of blueprints that guide the builder's plans and actions. God designed the plan for how we are to become that bridge for someone in need, and then He gave us the blueprint for us to become that bridge through the life of His Son Jesus. God's Word became a living blueprint for our lives and the hope of all mankind. It is our responsibility to build that bridge from where someone is stranded now to where they can be next. 

The Apostle Paul wrote this message of guidance to his younger protege Timothy, "The whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives; it straightens us out and helps us do what is right." II Timothy 3:14. As I referenced above, when Jesus came to this earth He became the living embodiment of the Word and thus became that living blueprint for us to become the bridge from now to next. (John 1:1) Just as Jesus became the Golden Gate bridge example for mankind, His teachings provide us with the floor plans of His blueprint for service to others before self. That principle is core to our responsibility of being the bridge for others to cross from disparity to an undying faith grounded in hope and trust. 

So, if Jesus is our blueprint, and the Bible serves as our master copy of God's blueprint then the lessons taught and the truths shared in the Bible become the nuts and bolts of what holds the bridge between now and what is next together. The Spirit of God provides us with not only the nuts and bolts of bridge building, He also provides us with the trusses and beams that ultimately are used to construct that bridge. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23. As God's bridge building workforce, we must utilize the tools listed above to share, serve, build, and even reconstruct the hope of those that we come in contact with each day. Homelessness and hopelessness go hand in hand, we have the tools to bridge the gap between hopelessness to hopefulness!

It is our job to be the inspiration for someone else, the message I want to convey today is for us to not be waiting to be ministered to, but instead to provide us the opportunity to minister to someone else in need. Bridges aren't built for the bridge's benefit, bridges are built for the sole purpose of allowing others to cross on the back of their bridge. We must become the bridge from what is now to the bridge of what is next!

Coach Carter