Real Stories of Life with God

Ep 35 | A Paramedic Experiencing God and Quiet in Nature

May 25, 2022 Episode 35
Real Stories of Life with God
Ep 35 | A Paramedic Experiencing God and Quiet in Nature
Show Notes Transcript

John TY Smith was such a fun friend to talk with for the podcast. He and Charlene have been in my life for years and they are some of the kindest. John, who spent many years as a paramedic riding the ambulance, now works in a more leadership role. They have 3 boys and one grandson and are loving this season of life. John talks about how he experiences God in nature, how valuable giving slow, quiet space is for him as a paramedic. We also talk about the value of "practicing the faith," staying involved with things like Scripture, Church and prayer. One of my favorite parts of this conversation is his sharing how life-giving the phrase "but God" is in the Bible and in our lives. Enjoy, friends!

Chelsea Eubank:

Hey friends, welcome to Real stories of life with God, a podcast with a pretty explanatory title, because that's what we're here for a conversation with real people about their unique life with God. I'm your host Chelsea Eubank, and I'm so glad you're here. Let's jump into today's episode. Tell us a little bit about

John Smith:

you. Right, well, John T was married Charlene, we have three boys and the grandson have been in Augusta since I was a guest areas in South six weeks old. My dad was in the Air Force, and I was actually born in New Mexico. Oh, cool. And we came here after six weeks I've been here ever since a paramedic would go cross love doing that. I've been at Kochi for probably 16 years or so. Grew up Roman Catholic. And there were there are a lot of Catholics in the Christian. Lot of Christians in the Catholic Church, but I wasn't one of them. And didn't come to faith till I was 15. went to West Side for high school grew up and rest McCain and met a kid there who were transferred from Westminster, to Westside. And we kind of got to be friends. And he was asking me to go to youth group with him. And I kept blowing him off because you know, Catholics don't go to projects that youth group. And finally, Chelsea one day I just told him, I'd go, just to get him to leave me alone, right. And so when Friday night, I went, and I don't remember who spoke now, but a guy shared his journey to faith. And I thought, Man, this would I mean, this is what I'm looking for. And I didn't tell him I couldn't wait to go back the next Friday. And for those of you in podcast land, you can't see me but I'm like five, five. And at that time, I weighed 120 pounds maybe. So the guy that shared that night is big six to 300 pound Forster, just a mountain of a man solid as a rock and share his testimony. And so if anybody wants to know more about Jesus, I'd be glad to talk to you. So I have little old skinny me walks up to this great big guy in the room was crowded. It was so noisy, we couldn't hear each other talk. So we went in a bathroom. And he talked with me again and we prayed together and I became a Christian in the bathroom. Oh, yeah. So

Chelsea Eubank:

can happen anytime, anytime, anywhere. Person. Yeah,

John Smith:

anywhere. So that's kind of it for me. Grew up in a healthcare kind of family. My father, my grandfather was a hospital administrator. My grandmother was a public health nurse. My dad was personalizing it a food company. And I didn't really get into EMS till late in life. Okay, ask you that. Yeah, how safety actually in school, and got my EMT and then a few years later, got my paramedic.

Chelsea Eubank:

What sparked? Do you have a like, uh, could you think of a moment or like a catalyst or something that happened? They're like, this is what I want to about face. I want to do something totally different.

John Smith:

Well, yeah, we were. I just had always been interested in healthcare, like I said, and just always interested in wanting to be involved. And our kids were grown and Charlene and I had our own business. At that time, the economy had kind of gone south a little bit. And health care was very expensive health insurance, and I thought, you know, I need to do something to get some health insurance. And so we talked about it, prayed about it, and I went to go stag went EMT school, because on an amo, she worked for 24 hours, and you're off for 48. Okay. And so we had our own business at the time, as I said, and so I could work on the ambulance, and still have two days to do other stuff, right, eight or nine days a month on the aimless. Wow. And so I had a full time job with pay and benefits and vacation and still was doing my other work. Well, it's worked really well, it did. Perfect. I mean, God was just so gracious to do that and loved it. And that's when I went and got my paramedic and kind of went on from there. So hey, cool. Yeah. Got to orchestrate it all now. Yeah. Yeah, we've kind of talked about Steven I had talked about for such a time as this, because I was going to karaoke. And now this guy was out there, who's a dentist, doctor, and we got to work with the COVID stuff at Taurus and kind of set, some protocols are working through that. And now we're developing this medical and safety team and have been able to be involved in that. And it's all because of where God's taking me in my life. You know, it's nothing that I can say that idea and it's all where God took me and I like to think of a tapestry. You ever looked at the back of a tapestry? It's amazing. The front is gorgeous. And so, you know, and it wasn't an easy road to be in to go on to paramedic school and EMT school. And as I said, you know, the economy had tanked. And I mean, it was It wasn't like, you know, things were just all rosy. You know, otherwise I would have been looking for something full time with benefits. But God used all that. Amazingly, actually. And thankfully, it's super

Chelsea Eubank:

cool. So two of my questions kind of originated in a passage in Matthew 22 Jesus is asked, which is the greatest commandment in the law and he says Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind is the first and greatest commandment and the second is like it Love your neighbor as yourself. My first question for you is what currently stirs your love forgot,

John Smith:

for me it's been outside its nature is being quiet and listening to the wind blowing through the leaves and the birds saying crickets chirping frogs and just the different colors and the shapes of the trees and the different birds and all that and I just, I think about Romans were were really without us keys because what can be known about God he's made plainly known. And in that sin, the the quietness and the beauty of nature. And I remember one, one service, we had it Oh, karaoke, Easter sunrise service. It's great. So we're down and you're outside. It's early in the morning in Steve's given the sermon, and he stopped. And we just listened to the sales. And Jesus in Steve said, they knew that Jesus had risen. And that's stuck with me all these years. And you know, you think about creation groaning and all that and that's, that's what does it for me just to be quiet and just looking at what God has done.

Chelsea Eubank:

Do you have any habit or rhythm where you're like, you know, for my my soul's health, I try and do it every week. You know, I try and spend you know, I try or every day you know, something, I try to take a walk or I try to sit outside, you know, like, or am I just be as we go? any day, any moment.

John Smith:

Yeah, I do. Charlene loves go to exercise when she goes down to the Kroc Center. And she's got a group of ladies that she exercises with. And usually don't get home till seven o'clock or so. I'm usually home from work by about six. So I'll go sit outside on the day, me and tuck her our 12 year old black lab, we go sit out on the day, I can just have some quiet time. And, you know, I might be thinking about something I might not, I'm just just sitting and enjoying being outside and listening. We live in a circle. So we don't have a lot of traffic doesn't interfere with the nature, we don't have the noise. And I'll walk in the mornings. I'm a morning person. I'm not not a night person. And so for 35 o'clock in the morning, I'm out for a walk. And that's I tried to do that three or four days a week. And that's kind of that's prayer time. For me. There's hardly anybody else moving again, we live in a circle, you know, it's not a lot of traffic. So I get to be quiet and pray as I walk in. And Lauren, I just talk and you hear people talking about a still small voice. And there's occasionally I'll hear him say something to me. You know, I will ask a question. And he answers me. And so those are my two. Yeah. When we had kids could have done that. Absolutely not, you know, but as you said, this station of lie that that works for me.

Chelsea Eubank:

I, as I'm listening, I'm hoping others are listening. Because I feel like today is even harder to get like you have to intentionally get in a quiet place, right? Whether you want to call it our cell phones, or entertainment or news, TV, anything, it's just a very noisy, time to be alive, which maybe everyone would say that because every every generation has had their own thing. Right? Even if it was an iPhone, it was something else, you know, like telephone, everybody's had their own thing. It is a, it takes a lot of effort to get from point A to point B to get from that noise to that quiet, but the benefits and the reward are kind of unmatched.

John Smith:

Oh yeah. They're huge. They're huge. And I need that time to not only for my own spiritual life, but just being an EMS, being a paramedic, I kind of do more administrative stuff now. But I'm still involved with with the day to day and you see things and you do things and you kind of see the worst in humanity at times, but you also see the best. And it's kind of nice and quiet time just to work through that, too. So it works out very well.

Chelsea Eubank:

Yeah. Sweet. Sweet. Okay. On the other hand, is there anything that currently stifles your love for God?

John Smith:

For me, it's not practicing the faith. It's not busyness, you can be busy and still be I love CS Lewis. And he talks a lot in various ways about practicing the faith, quiet sacraments, going to church, you know, not for a second the fellowship together and if I don't do that, then I start to struggle I get I have kind of a short temper, believe it or not, and I get snippy, and that's not good. out early in my Christian life I heard story of a man with two knives good story of a farmer who lived out man country and he would go to church on Sunday. Prichard route three, equally common in the farmer got visited by the preacher a couple of times. And you know, I'll I'll come, I'll be there. And you know, and you never showed up. So one winter night pastor wrote out, didn't say anything knocking on the door came in, they sat quietly, fire burning in the fireplace, the preacher got up and got the tongs, took an ember out, set it on the floor outside of the coal, set back on the chair, and just sat there with his former Watson, while it grew darker. And when our pastor got up late next Sunday, farmers in church, so if I don't make the time to spend the time with God, to come to church, to fellowship with others, to practice the faith to, you know, to recite the Lord's prayer or the Apostles Creed to remember those trees, then I start getting a good deal.

Chelsea Eubank:

What is that? I can't remember who says it West, Dan quotes and all quoted all the time about how valuable it is to preach the gospel to yourself every day, right? Yes. Do you think it's just going to haphazardly happen? It's really not. It does. Like I like the word, practice, use the word practice. It's not perfecting it, it's not performing it, it's practicing it.

John Smith:

When I first woke up in the morning, I tell the Lord, good morning. Love that. And try not to let everything's gonna need to go on that day. Be my first thought, you know, and to push that out. And just a few minutes of just thank you, Lauren. Appreciate the morning. Good morning. Just to start the day, like that makes a huge difference for me. If I get up and start thinking about all this kind of stuff, and I'm really not focusing on the Lord, then I can get sideways.

Chelsea Eubank:

We have a, I can totally relate to that. We have a quote, Dallas, Willard taped, this has been taped up on the fridge for about a year and a half. And the first line is the first and most basic thing we can do to care for our souls is to keep the Lord on our minds to be thinking about the Lord. And I love how simple that is. But how transformative that is, you know, because I'm naturally going to be caught up in different things. But just to reorient even just my mind, just to think about him throughout the day. True does a lot.

John Smith:

Well, we were redeemed, but we're not. We're still have seen nature. Right? You know, we're still selfish in some ways, and it's easy to be distracted. And it is practicing the fun.

Chelsea Eubank:

Yeah, I like that a lot. My next question is fill in the blank. The truth that God is blank means a lot to you, because like,

John Smith:

this is gonna sound a little strange. But my two favorite words in Scripture, but God, and so the truth that God is, but God means everything to me. You know, if God isn't God, what's the point? And but God, I would still not be a Christian would not have met married Charlene wouldn't have the children we had, when had the friends we have. Wouldn't have the career that I have. I mean, all of that is, but God every time you find those two words together in Scripture, God has done something amazing. And, you know, Christian life not complicated. And we talked about EMS. Well, you know, Eric goes in and out, blood goes round and RAM. You fix that? If it's not, that's not what it's doing. You know, that's what it is. Here. It goes round and round. And I mean, it goes in and out. Blood goes round and round. And but God,

Chelsea Eubank:

yeah, and I think you phrased it. If God isn't God, then doesn't matter. Yeah, there's something about what's the point? Right, right. There's something about the thing is really helpful is allowing God to be God, or treating him as God and not as something that I'm creating myself like an image of him, right? It's like the more we practice the faith, right? The more we study, the more we learn about the nature of God, who he is apart from me, God being who he is, should inform and influence and challenge me and inspire me in my life as opposed to a God that I'm forming by my feelings or by my fears or something like that. So

John Smith:

I guess you want him to do or be right,

Chelsea Eubank:

right? So maybe there's something in What you're saying that he is, but God, God, and that changes everything. And so for me to operate from that gratitude from that faith from that trusting from that obedient place, keeps me on the path with him. That's abundant life. Right? In all kinds of areas.

John Smith:

Right? Right. It kind of puts everything in perspective. Yeah, you know, we think we're all there. But, but God has made us all that. I mean, we're His children. Now. We've no merit of our own no reason. But God chose us. You know, when anything I did one because I'm so good looking. Or athletic, or it was just purely,

Chelsea Eubank:

but God, and there's like, for everything, there's a book God, you know, there's a book God, right? Whether it's positive or negative, whether what I'm dealing with is really heavy and hard. But God is this way, and he promises to be this for me, or whether I am, we're wrestling through pride. But God is God and I should humble myself. You know, like, there's I really kind of like that phrase as kind of a realigning truth for myself. Yeah. You got on the bracelet. So true. That's

John Smith:

a little daily reminder for me. Yeah. leather bracelet with the says, But God, yes, I

Chelsea Eubank:

think it's great.

John Smith:

Yeah, you think back and I'm a little older than you. So you know, I can see some of the bug guards in my past. And there's gonna be gods in the future, too. I mean, I could turn out to be a juvenile delinquent. I mean, really, my father and I were not close. And I had two wonderful grandfather's who raised me and Charlene and I have talked off and about, but if it hadn't been for them, you know, but God put them in my wife. So, and they were both believers, you know, so. But God,

Chelsea Eubank:

yeah, I think it's a really sweet, good posture to live in. A like mind and heart fixed on the Yes, this is true in my life. This is the state I find myself in this is the circumstances around me. But God is blank.

John Smith:

I wish I could say I do that all day, every day, you know, practice,

Chelsea Eubank:

practice.

John Smith:

I had to remind myself, but God,

Chelsea Eubank:

center is good. My last question is, what is something you're looking forward to?

John Smith:

Well, our grandson is six. And he's been full, he lives here, he was more he lives here. I'm looking forward to spending some time with him. And fortunately, they do live here. And we see them quite a bit. I don't want to be a grandfather to him. But my grandfather's were to me, and just loving him spending time with him, sharing with him. Showing him nature, you know, how you can see God and nature and then let God work in him as he will go. I mean, there's a lot of other things I'm looking forward to, to but that's probably the biggest thing is just being able to be there with him. And you know, is y'all get older and your dad may or may not. But, you know, I look back at mistakes I made with my kids and things I wished I'd done differently. And grandchildren are a chance to redeem some of that and, and do differently with them. And it's different with grandchildren because they're your they're not your responsibility, right. You know, relationships, a little different relationship is different, you know? Yeah. And I'm not young and working hard, like I was then. And young families, you know, it's just a different dynamic. And God's done that in so I want to be able to take advantage of that. Yeah, it'd be a good granddad.

Chelsea Eubank:

Super cool. Well, I really appreciate you a lot.

John Smith:

Thanks for having me on. Glad to do it.

Chelsea Eubank:

Yeah. Listening friends. It means a lot that you added us to your day today. Thank you so much. Wherever you find yourself on your journey with Jesus. I hope you finished this episode with your faith cheered refreshed or strengthened. Until next time