Universal Soldier

As I was flipping channels this weekend, I got stuck on a movie called Universal Soldier. It starred Jean Claude Van Dame and Kurt Douglas. The premise was about creating soldiers that were indestructible. They were soldiers designed using the best parts of different people. They were fast, strong, smart, tactical, logical, and they could endure anything. It was a fascinating movie and I really got stuck on the premise of creating the best by taking the best parts of other people. Is it possible to create a universal person? I think we have the opportunity to create the best person possible by stealing the best parts from other people. Let me explain.
We all are given talents and gifts, and those cannot be duplicated. We cannot change our physical beings very much. In other words, if my jumping ability is a 3, then the most I could improve would be to a 5 or 6. I can steal the developmental tricks of the best jumpers but without their gift I will probably never be able to jump like them. However when it comes to those things that do not directly relate to talent, then we can steal from the very best. For example, I do not handle stressful situations very well, but my friend is an ace at it, so I watch and learn how to be better and emulate my friend in stressful situations. How I handle certain things is not necessarily a gift or talent, some of it is learning and emulating those who handle those things the best. If you are a 3 when it comes to communication with others, then I think you can become a 10, if you learn from those that are 10’s. The key is to find those that are great at the things you want to improve on and then watch them and try to mimic what they do and how they do it. I think you can become the universal person.
I want to be a universal person. I think Paul was a universal person and I think Timothy spent time learning from Paul how to be universal as well. If I could take the best parts from people, then here are the ones I would choose: I want the gentle spirit and patience of every elementary teacher; the caring and authentic personality of Doc Farrar; the servant attitude of Coach Hawley; the wisdom of Dr. Lacey; the vision of Mr. Glenn; the humility and humbleness of Charlie Ward; the loyalty of Mrs. Sandahl; the communication skills of Mr. Farris; the work ethic of the Ramirezs’ and the ability to love like God. The good news is I am with most of these people almost every day, which means I get to learn from them and make myself the best person I can be. I have the opportunity to be with God every second of everyday, so even if I never get great at the others qualities I can be great at loving others as God loves me.

Finding Balance

We are into our third week of school, and most everybody is settling in to a routine. I am also settling into my routine. Routines are good for me; it gives direction for the day. The problem is trying to find balance in all the things that I want to accomplish in a day. I have real trouble deciding how to divide my time so as to give all the things I want and need to accomplish in day equal time and effort. I am starting to believe there is no such thing as true balance. If they made a play about my life there would be about 5 different roles that needed to be filled; athletic director, teacher, coach, father, and husband. I do I give them all equal time, and equal effort?
Is there balance? I even find it funny that when I start to feel that one area is getting too much time and attention (off balance); I will stop what I am doing to over compensate for the area being neglected. (off balance). About a year ago, I had real trouble playing all the daily roles and feeling fulfilled at the end of the day. It felt a lot like my favorite movie-Cool Hand Luke- I was digging a hole to later find out that I was putting the dirt on the wardens ground, which I had to put back into the hole. It was frustrating and on top of it all I was concerned about my own spiritual well being. I cannot find time to accomplish all the task others were putting in front of me, how would I ever find time for God? Through the summer I think I came back to center-I found a way to get the dirt out of the hole and keep it off the wardens ground all at the same time.
My biggest concern was where God is going to fit in my daily life. I found that I could commune with God my actually doing by daily work. As the athletic director, coach, and teacher, I severed others, I taught children, I cared and I loved. As the husband, and father I got to pray with my family, serve my wife and kids, go to church together, and worship together. I found that God was in all these things. I realized I was missing God because I was not looking. Once I started looking for Him in my daily activities; He was there and had been there all the time. I finally realized by playing my roles, I was actually getting closer to Him, because I was doing in love. Love for Him and for those I was around. I was keeping the two most important commandments. I was also found as I was looking for Him in all I did, balance became easier. I wasn’t working any harder or even accomplishing more, the spirit of what I was doing changed. I found balance. I realized there were only two things I needed to balance: Love God with all my heart, and love my neighbor as I love myself.

To My Mom.

I enjoy watching both my mother-in-law and my wife interact with my two children. My wife is a great mother. I have said before that is something that is both natural and learned. I think about again as tomorrow is special day in history. It is the day my mother was born. I am very thankful for my mother for obvious reasons; without her there would be no me; but it goes much deeper than that.
My mom was the cornerstone of my family. She was the most consistent, most dependable, most predictable, and the most loyal. She picked us up, dropped us off, fed us, clothed us, tucked us in, read us books, took us to church and worked a full time job. She never complained, never whined, was never late, and never called in sick. She was patient, kind, caring, compassionate, understanding, forgiving, and disciplined. She taught us lessons both in words and by her example. She always encouraged us to do our best and was always pleased when we did no matter the outcome. I love my mom.
My mom was special. She was the best mom in the whole wide world. I am because I had a mom and dad that cared for me more than anything in the world. I believe that the closest I could ever get to understanding God’s love for us is in the example my mom set for my sisters and me. God loves us unconditionally, despite the mistakes, the shortcomings, and hang-ups. My mom loves me unconditionally. All the things my mom did for me and my sisters was not because that was her job or what she was required to do but it was because she understood love and how to give it unconditionally. You hear soon to be moms and young moms say that it is hard because there is no directions manual to raising kids. I disagree; the Bible serves as a pretty good manual and the most important lesson to learn is the power of unconditional love. That doesn’t mean it will not be hard, but if you love unconditionally usually the hard parts are short lived.
Happy birthday mom. Thanks and I love you very much.

Teaching is a Gift

Teaching has allowed me a lot of really cool things. I get a chance to be in school-I loved school. I get a chance to interact with kids-I loved being a kid. I get a chance to educate-I loved to learn. I get a chance to be an example-I loved my mentors. I get a chance to make an impact on the future-I love learning an improving the past. Because of all these things comes an awesome responsibility. I love the responsibility, it can be hard to handle at times, but I stay the course because I want to impact others the way others impacted me.
This summer I really learned the awesome responsibility associated with teaching. As I have shared I went to Poland to teach basketball camp. I taught 17-23 year olds the game of basketball as I knew it. I was there exactly ten days and regardless of what I did for ten days, I had a return flight to America. I literally could have done nothing; I was going home and they probably will never see me again. I chose to do something different-I took it has an even greater responsibility. I had to teach because they might not ever see me again. I would not have been able to live with myself if I didn’t give them all I had. Even as I boarded the plan to return; I thought of things I forgot to tell them.
The responsibility to teach could not have more evident than when I walked into the gym the first day and met Dorata. She was 30 minutes early for the first practice. I thought to myself, by the end of the week she will be so tired there is no way she will come early to practice. I even made it a mission to wear her out and make her use her free time for rest. She won that battle. She stayed in the gym, she never left, and she was a sponge. The only time she left the gym was to eat. I had to learn more about her. Dorata was 22 years old, she is the daughter of Christian preacher in Poland, and she does not play organized basketball. I was stunned. She was at camp to get better, learn and because she loved basketball. I was stunned. She is the type of student I want to teach. She wants to work hard to just be better. Most kids have a motive- to play more, to score more, to be the star. She just wants to be better. She worked harder, spent more time in the gym than anyone in camp. People like Dorata make teachers accountable and responsible. She was the epitome of a sponge. I even found out later she kept a notebook the whole time, and wrote down every word I said. All the kids in camp play on a team and their motive for learning was different than Dorata’s. Dorata got better that week, and I became a better teacher.
Teaching is a gift. It is a responsibility. I have a responsibility to teach because there are a lot of Doratas’ out there who do things because they just want to learn. I hope I never miss an opportunity to teach and share. Who was the master teacher? Jesus was the master teacher and he never wasted an opportunity to make people better.

Does the Inside Match the Outside?

Who are you? I give the illustration sometimes about purchasing items at the store. You go to the shelf and choose your item usually based on the outside of the box, you expectation is what’s on the outside matches what’s on the inside. You never open the box in the store and try it first, that would be rude yet funny. You have to trust that you are getting what you paid for. Think how disappointing it would be when you got home and opened up the box and something totally opposite of your expectations came out of the box.
Let’s say you were given an index card and told to write your name on the front and pin it to your chest. Now we were going to use that card to play the match game. Here are the rules-on the side opposite of your name, the side pinned to your chest; God is going to write all the word and phrases that describe who you are. God should know, He created you, He knows what is in your heart, and He is with you all the time. On the outside of the card, the side where you name is, your friends will now write who they think you are. They should know because they are your friends, they are with you all the time. Now take the card off your chest and look. Do the words on the inside-God’s words-match the words on the outside-your friends words? Try the game this way; God writes the words on the inside and you write the words on the outside. Do they match?
Just like the store illustration, it is very rewarding when the outside of the box matches the inside of the box. It is also very rewarding when God’s description of us match the same description given by others. I want to be good in God’s sight, and since God measures the inside, the inside is where I do all my work. The problem becomes when I change the outside to please people forgetting about what’s on the inside and what I truly want to be. I need the outside to match the inside. Is what’s inside my box match the advertising on the front of the box?

Adding To the Mix

We started our school this week. Usually the best part about school starting is the end to teacher in-service. I have never been much of a fan of meetings and especially the ones we have during in-service. But I got to say I enjoyed this in-service more than previous years. I think the thing I enjoyed the most were the devotionals. There were two devotionals that stood out during that time; one given by Coach Hawley and one given by Mr. Farris. Coach Hawley spoke about 5 people he met in China while on a mission trip and Mr. Farris spoke about our school, “where amazing happens.” I thought I would use those same two topics and write my own thoughts based on their titles. I will start with the 5 people you meet.
People and places make a large impact on who we are and who we become. I imagine myself as a large mixing bowl, where people add a little here and a little there to create some kind of great meal. The problem we have sometimes is we are not always aware of what’s going into the mix and will it make the outcome better or worse. I think a real sign of maturity and growth is when you can take the bad things thrown into the mix and make them work with all the good things to create a sensational dish. We all experience bad people and bad things, what we have to do is find out how it will make us better. So, I came up with a list of a couple of people who made be me better even though they were only adding bad flavors to a hopefully sensational flavor explosion. (I do realize I am talking about myself, and I feel I am pretty sensational). I will not use their names only give their stories and how it affected me.
I was not the model child in elementary school. I was very active, I like to move around and I needed to be challenged constantly. I had a teacher who could not understand what I needed and tried to use cruel discipline to change behavior. She made me better. I learned that not every kid is alike. She made me a better teacher. I am better at trying to understand my students and meet them where they are and take them further.
I loved basketball. I played all the time. I was not very good in middle school. In fact I was on the 3rd string my 7th and 8th grade years. I hit a growth spurt before my 9th grade year. I also spent the whole summer working on my game. While others were at the pool, I was at the gym. I had a part time job at the local recreation center and that summer before my 9th grade year I had to take a vacation to go to team camp with the varsity basketball team. I remember telling my supervisor and he laughed and told me that I was not good enough to play on the varsity. I played on the varsity. I started on the varsity. Basketball paid for my college education. He made me better. I am a better coach because I don’t see kids for what they are right now but what they could be. I try to turn potential into action.
Sometimes we learn more from those that try to hold us back instead of lift us up. I cannot imagine where I would be without those people. I would even like to honor them because I think they really did a great thing in my life. They caused me to learn how to deal with students and teach kids. They have affected as many lives as those who poured great examples into my life. I am thankful for those experiences, and I will continue to use their bad examples to do great work and change lives for the better. Don’t get me wrong, I never said they were bad people. They were good people; they forgot they were contributing to a young person’s life. I am sure sometimes I have forgotten. I try to remind myself daily that I am chef contributing something to everyone’s mixing bowl. Ask yourself the question-what did you add to the mix today?

Day 3- Comfort At Last

Ok, to recap-I was finishing my second day in Poland. I had already had several experiences that were leading me to an early return home. But I am warrior-I was going to give it one more day, plus in two days I had only seen the gym but had not had the chance to work out any players. I had to at least see if they could play.
Day 3- I am an early riser, especially in the summer time, but usually I get up and it is still dark outside; in Poland the sun comes up a little earlier-like 4:30am. Yea I said it right-not dawn breaking sun, I mean full sun. It was weird. The early sun brought the tiniest little problem on day 3-the fly! This fly began its torment of me at 4:30am. It began buzzing around my face and ears. I did not want to get up and try to kill it; so I found shirt to tie over my face. I spent the next two hours smelling my own morning breath and sweating to death because I had a shirt over my face. When I got up about 6:30am, I decided that sometime during the day I would not only look for my fly but to be safe I would kill every fly in sight. It was going to be the only way to make it through the week. I was now on a mission.
I was off to a rough start; I had been up since 4:30am, I had been tormented by a fly; I had three things to look forward too-my shower, my breakfast, and basketball work-outs. I went to the shower thinging about how refreshed I would feel after a nice warm shower. The shower set up was a little different-it had one push button that started the water. That's weird; where was the hot and cold knobs or maybe it was just all hot water; because no one takes a cold shower. Wrong! It was ice cold. I pressed that button three times before I stepped in; in hopes that eventually someone would turn on the hot. No luck. I took my first cold shower for the week-strike one. I went to breakfast thinking it has to be uphill from here. For breakfast they served bread, butter, jam, hot tea, cool milk (not cold), and salad. Yes-salad. I was getting use to the hot tea in the summer, but I draw the line at salad for breakfast. I am all for healthy, but that is too far-strike two. One more strike and I promise my American backside would be on a Lufthansa flight to the U.S.
Work-outs started at 8:30am. I was going to work-out the girls first and then the boys. It was going to be 3 hour work-out. (1.5 for the girls, 1.5 for the boys). I walked into the gym with a scowl. (Some would say that was normal-but it was a result of my morning) There were kids already shooting and warming up, they had no idea what they were in for. We beagan to work-out and they worked as hard as any group I had ever coached. They were sponges! They wanted to work and improve and I was ready to give them all they could handle. We could not verbally communicate very well, but their actions told me everything I needed to know. They were just like me-searching and working to be excellent. After about 30 minutes, it was like the scene from the Grinch, my frown was turned upside down. I had found my comfort zone. I was in-anxiety gone. I was going to make it. I did make it! It took me 3 days, but the next 7 days were some of the greatest moments of my life.