Ben Milstead

I’ve had amazing things happen over the last two weekends.  I’m still trying to come to grips with some of it in my mind.

I was with Brenden, Collin, and seven other friends at a motocross track last weekend (eight days ago).  On Sunday morning I had a wreck.  I went over a jump thinking there was a landing ramp.  There was a ramp but unfortunately it was about 20 feet behind where I landed.  I came down on the front end and went over the handlebars into the ground. 

The track EMS guys took me to my car where I thought I could recover.  After about five minutes I was convinced I needed a hospital.  I’ve never EVER been admitted to a hospital.  I’ve never had a broken bone.  So a friend drove me over two hours back to Anderson Memorial.  I felt fine in the car but when I stepped out at the ER it all hit me hard.

Long story short, I broke my scapula (shoulder blade), fractured my arm (up in the ball joint area), three ribs, and both lungs were partially collapsed.  I got to stay in the hospital until Tuesday evening because of the lungs.

I can’t tell you how lucky I am.  Its eight days later and I feel great!  The Orthopedic Doctor said it would be three weeks before I had significant motion in my arm and six weeks before I have no pain.  I was able to raise my arm above my head today with very little pain!  The ribs are getting better by the hour and my lung capacity was at about 95% when I tested it last night.  Trust me; I’m NOT a tough guy!  I hate pain.  I’m a baby when it comes to pain.  But for whatever reason, I’m not really hurting all that bad.  It’s a God thing as far as I’m concerned! I’m also lucky that it wasn’t worse and I thank God that he showed mercy on me and protected me from a much more serious accident.  I looked at my helmet and chest protector this past Wednesday.  Both had obvious damage and I realize that I could have been in very bad shape if my head would have taken the hit my shoulder took.  If God was trying to get my attention, he got it!

 I don’t know if I will ride again or not but I do know that I will never ride the way I was riding again.  I believe that this is a sport that can be done safely if you respect your limits.  I did not respect mine and paid for it as a result.  My kids absolutely love to ride!  It’s been an important thread in our father/son relationship and has been something that is ours.  I don’t want them to get hurt!  On the other hand I believe they are more careful than me and they have both started riding at a real young age so they are going to be much better at it than me. I just don’t know at this point.  What I DO know is that taking a deep breath no longer goes for granted.  Hugging my wife means more.  Hold my son is more special than ever.  The hussel and bussel of life doesn’t seem all that bad at the moment.

This past weekend was much more pleasant.  With the help of a couple of friends I was able to do my normal routine at Clemson.  It was a special weekend even though Clemson lost.   The highlight for me was that I got to lead the team through the first ever Tiger Walk.  I was supposed to interview Coach Swinney at the end of the walk.  By the time I got to that location, the only way to get the golf cart to the end of the walk was to lead the walk.  So I did!  It was amazing!  And we have been invited to do that every week now.  If you didn’t see the walk you can’t understand it.  But there were 10,000 people cheering on the team all in close proximity to me.  It was just amazing.

Is the glass half full or half empty?  Your perspective changes everything and it’s nice to be reminded that, no matter how bad it seems to be, things could always be worse. 

-  Your house isn’t big enough?  Tell that to the single mother living in a one bedroom apartment.  I talked to “that woman” this week.  All she wants is a house that belongs to her with more than one bedroom.

- You don’t have enough money?  There are 1.2 billion people in the world that live on less than $1 a day!  Another 1.8 billion live on less than $2 a day.  I’ll bet the $1 people think the $2 people are rich…..

-  Don’t like what you are eating for supper?  Around 45,000 people die EVERY DAY from starvation!

- Gas prices are too high?  90% of the worlds population do not own a vehicle.

-  Don’t like the taste of your water?  12 million people die each year from lack of water.  This includes 3 million CHILDREN!

- Finally, you think your kids behavior is bad?  I read this story today….

 SYDNEY, Australia —  A blank-faced 7-year-old boy broke into a popular Outback zoo, fed a string of animals to the resident crocodile and bashed several lizards to death with a rock, the zoo’s director said Friday.

The boy jumped a security fence at the Alice Springs Reptile Center in central Australiaearly Wednesday, then went on a 30-minute killing spree, using a rock to slay three lizards, including the zoo’s beloved, 20-year-old goanna, which he then fed to “Terry,” an 11-foot, 440-pound vsaltwater crocodile, said zoo director Rex Neindorf.

P.S.  Clemson fans!  You think your team is bad?  At least you aren’t a Gamecock fan!  Happy Friday.

This is a statement that was read over the PA system at the football game at Roane County High School, Kingston, Tennessee by school Principal Jody McLoud, on September 1, 2000. ”It has always been the custom at Roane County High School football games to say a prayer and play the National Anthem to honor God and Country. Due to a recent ruling by the Supreme Court, I am told that saying a prayer is a violation of Federal Case Law.

As I understand the law at this time, I can use this public facility to approve of sexual perversion and call it an alternate lifestyle, and if someone is offended, that’s OK.

I can use it to condone sexual promiscuity by dispensing condoms and calling it safe sex. If someone is offended, that’s OK.

I can even use this public facility to present the merits of killing an unborn baby as a viable means of birth control. 

If someone is offended, no problem.

I can designate a school day as earth day and involve students in activities to religiously worship and praise the goddess, mother earth, and call it ecology.

I can use literature, videos and presentations in the classroom that depict people with strong, traditional, Christian convictions as simple minded and ignorant and call it enlightenment.

However, if anyone uses this facility to honor God and ask Him to bless this event with safety and good sportsmanship, Federal Case Law is violated.

This appears to be at best, inconsistent and at worst, diabolical. Apparently, we are to be tolerant of everything and anyone except God and His Commandments.

Nevertheless, as a school principal, I frequently ask staff and students to abide by rules which they do not necessarily agree. For me to do otherwise would be at best, inconsistent and at worst, hypocritical. I suffer from that affliction enough unintentionally. I certainly do not need to add an intentional transgression.
For this reason, I shall, “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s,” and refrain from praying at this time. 

However, if you feel inspired to honor, praise and thank God, and ask Him in the name of Jesus to bless this event, please feel free to do so. As far as I know, that’s not against the law—-yet.”

In 1990 I traveled with a singing group from Southern Wesleyan University. We traveled on the weekends during the semester and the entire summer.  Our last concert of the summer was the p.m. service at a church in Maryland just outside of D.C.  We didn’t leave the church until after 11:00 and we were going to drive through the night to get back to South Carolina.  My parents lived in Greensboro, NC at the time so the plan was to drop me off at their house on the way back.

It was sometime around 2:00 a.m. and we were on I-95 in Virginia.  We had stopped for food and to change drivers at 1:30.  I was driving and Roy was in the passenger seat.  Everyone else was sleeping.  We had passed a conversion van several times that was full of people.  The light was on in that van and we could see in it pretty easily.  Roy would waive at a little girl as we would pass.  Then they would pass us again and she would waive.  It was a fun little game to help keep us awake.  As we started up a long incline, our 15 passenger van that was pulling a heavy 16 foot enclosed trailer, couldn’t keep up with the other van.  They went on ahead of us by several minutes.  All of a sudden, as we topped the hill, the other van was on its side in our lane!  I remember that the back tires were still turning.  Fortunately, we saw it in time and were able to stop before hitting the wreckage.  There were no major injuries in the other van and we helped them exit thru the back doors.  We sat with the victims until help came.  I don’t think I even blinked the rest of the way home.

We made it to my parent’s house in Greensboro about the time the sun was coming up.  I walked in the house and into the den where my mother had been sleeping on the couch waiting on us.  I had not seen her all summer and expected a big hug, tears, etc.  Instead, I got this:  “What happened at 2:00?”  I asked her to repeat herself and she did.  I wanted to know why she was asking me that question.  She said, “I woke up at 2:00 thinking that I was having a heart attack because my heart was pounding so hard.  Then I realized that I had just had a dream that you and your group were about to be in a wreck.  I started praying for you right then, that God would protect you on your trip home.”  The next few minutes were extremely emotional and this occurrence is still one that is emotional when recounting.

I don’t believe in coincidences!   I don’t think that anything happens in our life by coincidence.  There are christian leaders I admire and respect that would disagree with me.  That’s fine.  I just don’t believe that anything happens by coincidence.  My life has been full of things that some would call, coincidence, right place at the right time, mother’s intuition, lucky, etc.  You can call it what you want.  I call it God’s perfect timing.

Isn’t it funny how most people will believe that a story like this was a God thing and not a coincidence?   A person stops breathing and there just happens to be someone close by that knows CPR and even the non-believer will say “God was watching out for us.”   But what about the little things?  What about the friend that you run into at the store?  What about the person you are sitting beside in the restaurant,  the gym,  the ballgame?  How about the promotion that you DIDN’T get a work?  Maybe that was a position that you wouldn’t have been happy with but you are going to love the next one that God sends your way. What about the time you were driving through town and every light was green.  That made you happy and you called it luck.  Maybe God called it protection because you missed the wreck that just happened three blocks behind you.

What if you looked at everything today as an opportunity and not a coincidence!  Let’s see God for who He is and give Him credit for all things, not just the convenient ones.

 They walked in tandem, each of the ninety-two students filing into the already crowded auditorium.  With their rich maroon gowns flowing and the
 traditional caps, they looked almost as grown up as they felt.  Dads swallowed hard behind broad smiles, and Moms freely brushed away tears.
 
 This class would NOT pray during the commencements  —not by choice, but because of a recent court ruling prohibiting it.  The principal and several students were careful to stay within the guidelines allowed by the ruling. They gave inspirational and challenging speeches, but no one mentioned divine guidance and no one asked for blessings on the graduates or their families.
 
 The speeches were nice, but they were routine until the final speech received a standing ovation.  A solitary student walked proudly to the micro phone.
 He stood still and silent for just a moment, and then it happened.  
 All 92 students, every single one of them, SNEEZED!!!!
 
 The student on stage simply looked at the audience and said, ‘GOD BLESS YOU’. And he walked off stage.  The audience exploded into applause. This graduating class had found a unique way to invoke God’s blessing on their
 future with or without the court’s approval.
 
  It happened at The Washington Community High School 2001 Graduation, Peoria, Illinois.

Comfort

In Lou Holtz new book he writes:  ”Humans aren’t wired to push themselves beyond their comfort zone.  Sometimes you have to push for them.”  I like my comfort zone.  I don’t like to be pushed.  But when forced outside of my comfortable spot I can look back and say that those are the times that I’ve grown the most. 

Play along…. You are sitting in your office one day and you get an email.  The email is offering you an opportunity to enroll in a seminar and the leader is Jesus Christ himself.  It doesn’t tell you what the topic is or how long it will take.  It promises that you will learn something important and will be a better person because of it.  There is a warning though stressing that it may cause you some temporary discomfort and that it could be confusing at times.  Do you sign up?  Most of us would in a heartbeat.  How is this different than the opportunities He’s given you today?

Randomness

*  Played golf Friday.  Whoever said that golf is a relaxing game needs to have their head examined….or needs to see how far I can throw a 3-iron!

*  Mother’s Day was just incredible.  I was challenged in the area of generosity and am looking forward to the next opportunity!

*  Collin visited a cemetery with my wife to put flowers on his great grandmothers grave.  She pointed out the grave of a distant relative that died at the age of 6 (his age).  She said he stayed behind and prayed for the little boy then went and cleaned his grave stone!  Kids are alot smarter than we give them credit for!  I wish I had a heart like that.  Must have gotten that from his mother’s side.

* Darkening the doors of the gym today for the first time in three weeks.  Praying that the knee is better! 

I apologize in advance for this story but it was just too good to pass up.  I blame our government all the time of coming up with stupid laws and taxes.  This one “blows”.

Estonian authorities have slapped a flatulence tax on farmers to compensate the country for the methane gas produced by cows.  Farmers this week received their first ‘fart tax’ demands asking them to pay for the greenhouse gases their cattle produce.

A single cow is thought to produce on average 350 litres of methane and 1,500 litres of carbon dioxide per day from flatulence and burping.  It is thought that cattle are responsible for up to 25 per cent of methane gas emissions in Estonia.  Opposition politicians have slammed the tax however. Jaanus Marrandi, spokesman for the opposition People’s Union of Estonia said: “This is unprecedented in any EU country.”

Have a good weekend and great Mom’s Day!