Month: August 2023

Something that continues to amaze me is the support that Charlie 22 Outdoors receives. It’s a daily occurrence. People believe in the mission and they want to support the cause. Volunteering at events. Financially contributing. Praying behind the scenes. Doesn’t matter. Belief is belief. Support is support. Serving others is the key. Veterans and civilians alike. We are all on the same path. Working together as the mission states. Showing a hope, love, and personal meaning, that comes from God‘s grace. 

It is so easy for us to get caught up with ourselves. We get so focused on our personal issues, that we lose sight of others. We live in our own little universe. When we do this, it’s easy to get complacent. It’s easy for us to point fingers at other people. To compare ourselves to other people. Jealousy even becomes an issue. Jealous of what others have accomplished. Or what they have. Instead of celebrating their successes. There’s a meme going around that states: “Be aware of those around you that don’t clap when you win.” And there’s truth in that. And that’s unfortunate.

I’d like for you to take a moment and think about 2000 years ago. Think about Jesus. Try to visualize yourself with him. What it must have been like to witness him serve others the way that he did. Even to the very last night. Washing feet. He washed feet! And he did so knowing what was coming. Talk about humbling. And that’s what we are called to do. Humbly serve others. Lift others up. To show God’s grace. So today, let’s make it more about others, and less about ourselves. Let’s focus on what God would focus on. Let’s get out of our own little universe and work on building others up. Do this, and I promise you that God will bless your efforts.

Last night was UFC 292. It was held in Boston. The fight of the night was between Sean O’Malley and Aljamain Sterling. It was for the Bantamweight Championship. Aljamain is considered one of the greatest ever at that weight. He held the belt going into the octagon. I didn’t get to watch the fight. But I saw highlights this morning. O’Malley defeated Sterling with a TKO in the second round. O’Malley sent him to the mat after landing a right hand. It was perfectly placed on his chin.

In the highlights this morning, the video of the punch is what caught my attention. Right before it connected, Sterling had missed a punch of his own. And he could see what was coming from O’Malley. In the last fraction of a second before he got hit, he was closing his eyes and grimacing. Almost as if he was thinking this is not going to be good. He didn’t see it coming until it was too late. And within a few seconds after that, the match was over. Just like that. He was no longer champion. O’Malley had taken the belt away.

Isn’t life like that sometimes. One moment we feel like we are on top of the world. One moment we feel like we are champions. That nothing can stop us. And then, the next, before we know it, we have been beaten down. We have lost what we had worked so hard for. And it happens so quickly. And there are times that we can actually see it getting ready to take place. But there is nothing that we can do about it. Our defense is down. But it’s reality. It could happen to any of us. At any time. Those of you that read these regularly, you see that I say a lot that is how Satan works sometimes. He strikes quickly. He strikes without us being ready. And he strikes with us seeing it happening at the very last moment, knowing that we are unable to stop it. Sterling lost last night. But I’m sure he will continue on. And that is similar to our fight with Satan. We may lose sometimes. We may take it on the chin. But we can continue on because we have a Lord and Savior. And he has already declared the ultimate victory for us. So today, let’s remember that no matter what comes our way, we are victorious in the end. Because Jesus paid the price.

Yesterday was one of those days where I was glad to see it come to an end. As soon as I woke up, I could tell that I was going to be busy all day long trying to correct some things. And I was. Nothing bad had happened. Just a bunch of inconveniences. Things that required my attention that kept me from getting things done that I planned on doing. But it comes with the territory. It comes with doing what I get to do each day. So, instead of being complacent, I chose to stick it out and get it done. And as I was doing so, it became apparent that God had orchestrated the whole day.

Doing what I had to do yesterday required me to make several stops. And what was awesome about it was that each stop lead to new relationships being created. Relationships that I see as working together in the future. Relationships that I see God using to serve others. And then to top it off, my daughter called me and asked if she could bring me dinner. As I look back at yesterday, it really was a blessed day. Sometimes we need days like that to put things back into perspective for us. As I said, nothing bad happened. Nothing that couldn’t be turned around. It just required me spend the day working on those instead of what I had planned on doing. And as I learn frequently, God‘s plans are greater than what I could ever plan for myself.

The Bible tells us to be thankful in all things. the Bible tells us to praise God through all things. The Bible tells us that his plans for us are glorious. Sometimes we lose sight of what the Bible tells us. It’s easy to do. We are human. We get caught up in the day-to-day things that we face. But what’s important is that we don’t let what we have to do…blind us from what we are called to do. What is important is that we don’t let what we have to do…keep us from realizing that God is in control. I know it’s hard to see the glory in times that are difficult. Times that we struggle. I know it’s hard to see the glory in times where we don’t understand why we are going through difficulties. But if we look, if we truly look, we can see God in everything. So today, let’s try to do that. Through the good and the bad. Through the thick and thin. Let’s try to see God in everything.

In basketball, what the coach tells the players to do isn’t a suggestion. It’s a command. It’s an order. The coach wants the players to do it. Or at least try to do it. There’s no question. I remember being a player and wanting to hear the coach tell me to do something. Obviously, not if I messed up. That usually meant I was going to be running. But working on shooting form. Working on dribble skills. Working on defense. All things that I wanted to get better at. And I had “Faith” in my coach. Especially Coach Armstrong. I had faith that he was teaching me correctly. Showing me the right way. I didn’t question him. Or at least I tried to not question him. And I bet this is all very similar to soldiers. Officers give orders. Not suggestions. And they want their orders followed. 

The same can be said about our Lord and Savior. We should have faith in him. We should have faith that his word is correct. We should have faith that his word is perfect. Having faith is our way of obeying God. Just as a coach in basketball gives commands, so does God. And his commands are for our good. Because God knows what is best for us. Even when we want to question it. And I know that most of us, if not all of us, have questioned God at some point. I know that I have. Several times. I’m not proud of it. Especially the times that I intentionally questioned him. It’s easy for us to question him when he’s telling us to do something that is out of our comfort zone. Like witnessing to family. That’s a hard one. But it’s also easier for us to accept what he is telling us when we feel like it’s what we want. 

Something that’s pretty cool about us having faith in God’s word is how much more intimate we become with him. We grow closer to him. And when we do that, we will begin to believe in him more. Believe his word more. Believe that he knows what is best for us. This is not gonna be easy all the time. In fact, it might be very difficult. But it’s doable. And it’s something that we should strive to do. If you find yourself having a hard time having faith in God, work on drawing yourself closer to him. Working on letting him take control. Work on responding to him when he is giving you clear direction. When he is convicting you. And I want to remind you of one more very important thing for us to remember. We are free from sin because of God. We are free from the power of sin because of him. And I believe that having faith in God is another way of us, thanking him for providing us the pathway to this freedom. 

So today I talked to a woman that recently moved back to Missouri. She actually lived in Carthage at one time. That was after I had gone through high school there. Anyways, as we were talking, I could tell she is really struggling with her situation. But she wouldn’t give me any details on what caused it. So I moved the conversation to Charlie 22 Outdoors. Doing so allowed us to start talking about God. I could feel that she needed to be witnessed too. As we began talking about faith, I could sense that she was relaxing. Which was awesome. 

I asked her if she is a believer. She said yes, and then began sharing some of her backstory with me. Talking about trying to rekindle a relationship with God. Trying to get past her mistakes. Her choices. She talked about not having any relationship with family in the area. And that was difficult for her. And I told her that we can learn from our mistakes. That God is always listening. And he gives us a chance to make choices. How often we go it alone and mess things up. She agreed with me on that. Something that stuck out to me was her saying that failing does not mean she’s a failure. That she has learned from her failures and try to build on those. I reassured her that she is 100% correct. We ended the conversation with me telling her I’m praying for her. And I asked her to pray for us.

Point is that we must always have our ears and our eyes open to what God is telling us. Where he’s pointing us. We never know who he’s going to put into our paths. People we know. People we know of. Strangers. We never know who he is sending our way. But we must be ready and willing to share with them. If we do so, the Holy Spirit is going to take hold and direct the conversation. God will bless the conversation. That’s exactly what happen today. I am a better person for listening to her. Letting her share with me. I’m not lifting myself up. I’m just saying that I left there better for being there. Because I got to hear from a woman who is really struggling. And trying to figure it out by letting God take control. Which is what we all should do. I often say we should turn all of our attention to God. And I’m saying it again. Today, tomorrow, every day…let’s work on always seeking God first. Even when it comes to a perfect stranger. 

What are you dedicated to? What is it that you are devoted to? Sometimes you’re hear musicians talking about a song being dedicated to a certain person in their lives. Sometimes you hear about athletes dedicating games to a coach or someone else. Maybe you’ve done something similar. Maybe it’s with a piece of art that you’ve painted or something else. We are all dedicated to something I would presume. We might not dedicate some thing that we’ve done to someone else. But I believe we are all dedicated to something in our lives. Nothing wrong with that as long as we have things in perspective. If we have things prioritized. 

The Bible tells us to love God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind. That we should love God first. So I would suggest that we should all be dedicated to God. How we do that is the question. I think it starts with our mind. Dedicating our mind to God will then lead to the rest of us doing so. Our emotions. Our actions. Things that we do. And I think that dedicating ourselves to God is worshiping God. Showing him that we love him. And what is awesome about that is that he will bless us in return. Because God loves it when we surrender our hearts. When we do that, we are open to learning better how to serve him. We are open to having our thoughts and our attitudes built on serving him. So why wouldn’t he bless us if we dedicate ourselves to him? The answer is pretty clear. 

Something to remember that’s very important is that this is a daily thing. We don’t dedicate just one action to God. We don’t dedicate one thought to him. Dedicating our life to him is daily. Ongoing. Forever. And to do so, we must include him in our daily lives. I often talk to God while I’m driving. I even ask him questions. Sometimes his answers are pretty funny. And I’m sure he laughs at me. Thinking that I must be a knucklehead. To which he is right. So today, let’s focus on dedicating our lives to God. Let’s do this I promise you…you will fill a peace like never before. You will become intimate with God and he is going to show you “Grace” like never before. He wants to show you these things. And he will. So today let’s make that step towards dedicating everything to him.

I remember taking my son to a basketball tournament in Fayetteville, Arkansas a few years ago. They had a guest speaker for the boys. I’m not gonna mention his name. But he is an ESPN celebrity. Basically, he told the boys that they had to put themselves first. Put their desires first. Their goals first. He even questioned them if any of them were millionaires. He asked the millionaires in the room to raise their hands. Of course, none of the boys did. But the billionaire owner of Tyson Chicken raised his hand. Which was kind of funny. We live in a world where we were told to “man up” daily. To go get ours. It’s a day and age where we put ourselves first. And if you don’t agree with us, we can’t be friends. It really is an interesting phenomenon to me. 

What’s even more interesting to me is how our Lord and Savior knows our hearts. No matter what our desires are. He knows our hearts. I think some of us have internal conflict where we are trying to pursue our personal goals. But at the same time we realize that we should put others first. And I think some of us also have conflict that are just the opposite. We serve others, but our hearts are focused on ourselves. When we do it like this, we can’t be honest with God. Actually, we’re not being honest with ourselves. It’s kind of funny if you think about it. Because God knows everything about us. Everything! So that means he knows exactly what we were thinking. What we are feeling. What we are wanting to do. He knows it all.

Here’s what’s awesome about our God as well. He wants to be with us through all of this. He knows we can’t do it alone. He knows we’re going to fail if we try. So his grace covers us. Even when we have our hearts in the wrong place, his grace covers us. And that can help us refocus on what we should be doing. That can help us refocus by making us be honest with God. Being honest with ourselves. Here’s a quote from something that I read: “Thoughts become attitudes and beliefs, and attitudes and beliefs become actions.” When I first found God, I had to learn how to refocus my thoughts. It was a struggle for me. Even today, there are times that I need to refocus my thoughts on God. I work on allowing the Holy Spirit to control my thoughts. That then helps me to get my heart in the right place. And that is something that he can do for all of us. Daily. So today let’s working on that. Let’s allow the Holy Spirit to take hold. That will that help us with our thoughts. That will help us with our beliefs. That will help us with our actions. And that is awesome. 

In the Bible, we read about Haman. It’s a story we can all learn from. We read that he left Esther’s banquet happy. That he was in good spirits. That all changed as soon as he saw Mordecai. Because Mordecai refused to show him honor. This is where things turn south for Haman. When he got home, he let his pride get into the way. He began bragging about how much money he had. About how the king had honored him. He even talked about Queen Esther inviting him to her banquets. But as much as he was prideful about these things, he wasn’t gonna be satisfied until Mordecai would pay for dishonoring him. He plotted a way for revenge. He let his pride begin to dictate his actions. His thoughts. His desires. And that is where the danger lies.

There’s nothing wrong with having pride in what you do. It helps us keep focused on the task at hand. It helps us keep focused on priorities. But that requires us to keep our pride in check. Requires us to be in control of it. I take pride in being a good husband and father. I take pride in being a good Opa to my grandkids. When I was teaching and coaching, I took pride in what I was doing. And now I have pride in watching Charlie 22 Outdoors, working in peoples lives. But I consider all of these things blessings from God. Trying to make sure I keep him as the focus. Trust me, there are days that I fail at this. But I do what I can to make sure I keep God first and foremost.

Today, let’s all take a look at ourselves and see just how much we let pride dictate our actions and our thoughts. Let’s all look to see if our pride causes us to be arrogant. Let’s all look to see if we are becoming self-centered. We can probably even look and find what it is that causes us to be to prideful. Let’s work on making sure that we don’t allow ourselves to be so prideful that we don’t submit to God. That we don’t follow his purpose for us. Let’s try to be humble. Let’s try to have servant hearts. Let’s focus on lifting others up. Helping them succeed. Let’s thank God, and give him all the glory in all that we do. Let’s praise him. Let’s even pray for him to help us from being too prideful. If we do these things, God will bless our efforts. And that will be awesome.

Today marks a significant anniversary that my family will never forget. August 13, 2021, I got a phone call that I needed to get to the hospital to say my goodbyes. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it in time. While I was in route, I got the phone call that Bobby was gone. I just sat there. Didn’t know how to react. What to do. Couldn’t believe it happened. 

Ten days earlier is also a day I will never forget. Mom and Bobby were both battling COVID. Juli was there giving us updates daily. The morning update was pretty good. Mom was doing better. And Bobby seemed to be stable. Then around 2 o’clock I got a phone call that I better go see him if I wanted to talk to him before he gets intubated. I was floored. I went to his hospital room window. He saw me and spent around and gave me the victory sign with his fingers. He couldn’t talk because the oxygen mask. But I could see his smile. What happen next was like a scene in a horror movie. Two people walked in wearing hazmat suits. I could tell that they were talking with Bobby. I watched him sign some paperwork. Then they wheeled him off. And that was it. It happened that quickly. That’s the last time I saw Bobby. It’s still hard to even think about today.

We never know what life is going to deal us. We never know what kind of curveballs life is going to throw at us. We never know. One thing that we are promised when we are born is that life is going to end at some time. It’s going to happen. What we do with our lives is up to us. And that includes our decision to accept Christ into our lives. It’s up to us. Unfortunately, some of us never do so. And that is terrible. But the invitation stands open for everyone of us. It’s there. All we have to do is make the choice. I was blessed to be able to lead Bobby’s memorial service. It wasn’t easy. But I’m thankful I was given the opportunity to do so. During my message, I made a point that there’s only one way for us to see him again. And that’s by accepting Christ into our lives. That’s it. That’s the path. That’s the only way. So today, if you haven’t done so, turn towards Jesus. Accept him. Let him take control and lead you. It’s the most important decision you will ever make. 

Jennifer Simpson is an American middle- and long-distance runner. She’s a four time NCAA National Champion. She won the gold medal in the 1500 meters at the 2011 World Championships, silvers at the 2013 and 2017 World Championships, and a bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She was the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in the event. She represented the United States at the 2008 Beijing, 2012 London, and 2016 Rio Olympics. She entered the 2021 Track and Field trials with hopes of returning to a fourth Olympics. She missed the top 3 spots and did not qualify for the Tokyo Games.

Can you imagine the disappointment? Athletes train for years to compete in the Olympics. And to be so close, yet so far from making it at the same time. Instead of feeling sorry for herself, Jenny immediately went to congratulate the three who did qualify. She took defeat graciously. We can all learn from that example. No matter what life brings us, we can step forward with confidence. We can let God take control. We can love him. Put our trust in him. And show our faith in him. Surrendering our lives to him. Stepping forward for him.

There’s another example of this that we can learn from and follow. One that we NEED to follow. That is Jesus. Jesus knew that he had to surrender all of his own desires. He knew that was what it was going to take for our salvation. And just like you and me, I believe he had a choice. He could’ve chosen to not go through what he did. He could’ve turned away from why he was here. I might be wrong thinking that. But he was human while he was on earth. Therefore he could choose. And he chose to step forward. So the question for us all today is, “Will we step forward even when times are hard?” That’s a great question. But it’s one that we should all ask ourselves. So today let’s challenge ourselves to answer that question honestly. And let’s find ways to step forward.