Second Wind: Sometimes All You Need To Do Is BREATHE!

By Thomas Wheeler

When life knocks the wind out of you, just remember,

• Language: English
• Publisher: HigherLife Publishing
• Release date: Nov 4, 2012
• ISBN: 9781935245582

Thomas Wheeler

Thomas Wheeler is a screenwriter, producer, showrunner, and the author of The Arcanum. He was the executive producer and creator of Empire for ABC and The Cape for NBC. In feature animation he wrote the Academy Award–nominated Puss in Boots, as well as The Lego Ninjago Movie. Together with Frank Miller, he is cocreator and executive producer of Cursed, based upon the novel of the same name.

Book preview

Dream

INTRODUCTION

NEVER ENOUGH

On an occasional Saturday, my best friend and I would hop into my Cessna 172 airplane, parked just behind my house, and fly it to Manassas, Virginia. There we would rent a Robinson R22 helicopter, tour Washington, D.C., and hover around our hometown of Annapolis, Maryland. We would complete our day by returning the aircraft to their respective airports, then race to the downtown Annapolis bars in a speedboat. Our night was spent partying. Although many admired this lifestyle, something about it still left me wondering if I wasn’t missing something even better. Life was not working out as I expected — I just couldn’t figure out why.

Has your life worked out the way you thought it would? Mine hasn’t. My expectations of life have always exceeded its reality despite my successes. At one point, life was so hard for me that I wondered if it was worth living. Maybe you have found yourself in that same place … or are you there now? Despite how hard you have tried to make yourself happy, happiness still eludes you. Or maybe you have learned to endure the hardships of life with a smile, a good attitude, and a busy schedule? You know something is wrong, you just don’t know what it is, and you’d prefer to ignore it rather than deal with it.

But when you are alone with your thoughts, you wonder, Is this all there is? If this is you, then consider this book to have been written for you. A book that explains the reality of the battle we are all fighting spiritually, and the truth about the air you need to breathe to get back to the surface and then to keep breathing. You, too, can find hope – the same hope I found.

Christmas philosophy

As a kid, I thought life was like Christmas. I would make a list of things I wanted, and getting them made me happy — for a while. Even if I didn’t get everything I wanted, my expectation of receiving them kept me satisfied. As I grew up, I continued to believe in this Christmas mentality although my toys became much more expensive, and I became my own Santa Claus. For instance, I bought my Cessna on a quarterly bonus check I received from my employer, Apple Computer, Inc. I thought becoming a pilot with my own airplane (at twenty-six) would make me happy. And for a while, it did.

How many guys in their twenties could fly back to their alma mater for alumni weekend in their own airplane? How many could fly to the beach for dinner when they had an urge for seafood? Nobody I knew.

But I could.

Eventually, I got tired of my airplane, so I started flying helicopters. I remember, after my father became a fixed-wing airplane pilot, I took him up in a helicopter to show him how cool they were to fly. We were traveling about 50 mph in the helicopter when I just reversed it, on a dime — no notice! One moment we were going north, the next south. I just thought that was the coolest thing! I turned to my dad in the passenger seat and said, Try that in your airplane, with a trace of youthful arrogance. Dad’s fatherly reply, Son, why would I want to? Right. Why would he want to? Anyway, the thrill of flying helicopters for kicks also wore off.

I can’t get no — satisfaction

While all of this was going on, I still thought I would marry my high school sweetheart. For ten years we had an on again, off again relationship. I finally proposed, knowing we needed to settle the matter once and for all. She said no.

That broke my heart.

But I had to get on with life. In fact, those were my most successful years at Apple. I traveled to Hong Kong, China, Germany, and Australia on an expense account. And these were trips I won for outstanding sales performance, not business trips — they were vacations. But I was still broken-hearted. Trips couldn’t fill that hole in my heart, even while exploring the world and challenging myself physically:

Witnessing the elimination of the Berlin Wall in Germany and taking down part of the wall with my dad.

Exploring the Great Barrier Reef in Australia with my brother Sam.

Hiking the Great Wall in Beijing, China, with my brother Pete.

Swimming across the Chesapeake Bay.

Lifting weights excessively.

Participating in one of the first sprint triathlons.

It was never enough.

Entrepreneur

To discover the American Dream, I resigned my lucrative job with Apple to see if I could find satisfaction as my own boss. It was just one more example of my life expectations exceeding life’s realities. Starting that business in a recession, just before the country was involved in the first Gulf War, was much harder than I imagined. But I got what I wanted. I was in charge. Unfortunately, the partner who was going to build all these great products to help the education market was a US Marine and was called into military service. While my other partner and I adjusted to our circumstances, managing the company to a couple million in annual sales, I still was not satisfied. Being in charge was not as satisfying as I had thought. That was about the time a good friend insinuated that successful people are unable to be fully satisfied because it is their drive for more that makes them successful. Hearing his remark was troubling for me. I thought that the entire purpose of life was to be happy, comfortable, and satisfied. But I wasn’t happy, comfortable, or satisfied. Perhaps you, too, are wondering why everything you’ve tried just isn’t enough.

The vices.

The jobs.

The relationships.

Life.

In the middle of the night, you silently ask the same question I did: Is this all there is?

Living forever

So, I began looking into things I once considered far-fetched or obsolete, like different religious beliefs.

Books about life after death and reincarnation. I still didn’t know what to believe, but I knew I was on the right path. I was getting some answers. Those books jarred a childhood memory that I had about death. I remembered being scared thinking about the finality of death at 6 years old. That fear was quickly followed by a thought that I would never die. At that early age, I somehow knew that I was not my physical representation but a spirit inside of me. I say that I somehow knew this because although my family went to church, church was a Sunday tradition when we could fit it in, rather than a belief system that ruled our lives.

Who will I believe?

I had no plans of getting duped by other people’s well-intentioned opinions either. I observed people talking about subjects as if they were experts without knowing much about the subject at all. Often times it appeared people thought they knew more about what was best for me than I did. Perhaps you know what I mean?

I recall my dad once saying he wondered if God really existed. I felt like the wind was knocked out of me when my father said that. If God didn’t exist, I reasoned, there was no hope. Though I sat in silence, gasping for air in my inner self, those comments woke me up. I chose to read and study the Bible myself, praying for God to reveal its truth to me personally, rather than hear someone else tell me what it said or what they thought about it.

I wasn’t afraid to find out the truth about the Bible — one way or another. If the Bible was false, it would be good for me to establish that for myself now, rather than believe a lie for the rest of my life. So, I pursued my doubts about the Bible and Christianity while being open to its truth. I concluded that the Bible was true. And the Bible says that God is not only real — He is personal, active, loving, holy, and He is in control. It implies that God is the air we need to breathe in order to persevere. He is our second wind and He has a plan for our lives. It also testifies to the existence of a real devil who is causing havoc on earth and who is our real threat. He is the one trying to destroy our lives.

I also learned that it was at my lowest point that I was most useful to God. During his induction speech, Dr. Tim Laniak, the Dean of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Charlotte branch), said that while most of us consider things that are broken to be of no value to us, God might consider people who are not broken to be of no use to Him:

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise (Psalm 51:17).

When we finally get the wind knocked out of us by doing things the world’s way — our way — we are in a position to heed the words of the Bible — words that tell us to turn to God for air. Air that will refresh us, restore us, like a cool breeze on a scorching summer day. Fresh air.

We all want to know God

My life wasn’t turning out as I expected because it was never intended to be lived the way I had been living it. I didn’t know it, but I was desperate for the God who created me rather than the things I pursued. All of those things were a cheap substitute for the real thing — God. The Bible says:

[God] has also set eternity in the hearts of men (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

God stamped a part of Himself on all of us. Until we find Him, we have a void in our hearts — a void many try lifelong to fill through cheap substitutes. In essence, we are lost and searching. But once we do find Him, He teaches us what is really going on down here. And that’s our point. We are in a war on earth, and our eternity is at stake:

Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring — those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus (Revelation 12:17).

According to that scripture, the dragon is Satan, the woman is Eve, and we are the offspring. The Bible explains that we are in a war. Behavior is often the result of a spiritual battle with an enemy, Satan. Blaming people for the mistakes they make isn’t enough. Those who do these awful things may simply be following the devil, rather than God. I know it can be difficult to understand or even believe, but it’s true. Satan’s main objective is to separate us from God, so that we follow him right to hell.

Jesus

Since God longs to spend eternity with us in heaven — our originally intended destiny — He sent His Son to bring us home. Without Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we all end up separated from God for eternity. Jesus is who we need. He is our ticket to heaven, not our good deeds. In fact, depending on good works to get us to heaven, according to the Bible, gets us nowhere. While we complicate the message down here on earth by all of our scholarly approaches to life and the Bible, the message is fairly simple. Because God loves us so much, He sent Jesus to die in our place to satisfy the problem of His holiness and our sin. When we believe in His plan for our salvation, we receive the resurrected Spirit of Jesus Christ and live with Him forever after our physical death. Because Satan hates God so much, his objective is to get as many people as possible to stand in defiance against God by rejecting Jesus.

As controversial as it might be to some, our actual destination is eternity. Life on earth is merely a stepping stone. We are not physical people deteriorating day-by-day until death takes us to the abyss as many believe. We are souls being advanced moment-by-moment until God takes us home or until we choose to be led astray. Hard to believe, isn’t it? It was for me, too. That is, until my life didn’t work out as expected.

Second Wind

It seems most of us take life for granted until our good life, the life we expected, is shaken up or knocked out of us. Then many of us wonder if we’ve missed something along our life journey. Something important in our search for the truth. In our search for purpose. In our search to understand why on earth we are here. Because the basis for my beliefs is the words of the Bible and because those words have become so distorted by those who try to make it say what they want despite what it says, I have used select movie clips and my own personal stories as modern-day parables to simplify its truth. If you feel like you’ve had the wind knocked out of you, my hope is that Second Wind clarifies the mystery of life on earth, what is at stake for our eternity, and the solution to many of our unanswered questions, according to the Bible. I also hope that despite your current situation in life, you will find renewed hope. Because, despite the war we find ourselves in, God wins.

We just have to choose His side.

And that becomes a matter of faith for all of us — including you.

Thanks for reading Second Wind.

May God bless the reading of this book and use it for His purposes and glory. Amen.

— PART ONE —

NEEDING A SECOND WIND

The whole world is under the

control of the evil one (1 John 5:19).

– CHAPTER 1 –

EPIC BATTLE

Pow, pow, pa pow, pow, pow.

The sounds outside my bedroom window startled me from a deep sleep. Jumping up on my knees, I cracked the blinds to see who was setting off firecrackers, disrupting the dawn’s silence. Nothing. I leaped to another window, cracked the blinds, and saw a pickup truck idling in Johnny’s driveway in the Hoskins/Thomasboro area. I dodged from one window to the next looking for the culprit, as the truck vanished.

The early morning silence returned. What is wrong with these people? was my last thought before I drifted back to sleep in my new neighborhood.

Good morning Johnny, I said to my new neighbor several days later. Did you hear those firecrackers Sunday morning here in the driveway? They lit them off right outside of my window! I casually said with some emphasis, as if it were small talk to start the day.

Firecrackers? Johnny responded with a chuckle. Do you mean the gunshots? Shot a hole right through Ronnie’s window. Bullet missed him by inches, probably over drugs. Looks like our blessed Ronnie might not be practicing what he preaches!

Johnny showed me the window with the bullet hole. What? I said with the shock Johnny expected. Gunshots! Is Ronnie OK? Chuckling again, Johnny said, Yeah, and I think that might have cured his drug use.

I thought Ronnie was clean, I said naively, without understanding the reality of addictions, the lies addicts tell, and the masks they wear. Did you call the police?

Johnny responded matter-of-factly, Nope, wouldn’t do no good. This kind of thing happens all the time, and they can’t really do anything about it, or maybe they just won’t.

But at least they would know it happened! I said, surprised by his casual attitude.

Welcome to the hood, I thought silently to myself. What have I gotten myself into this time?

I walked away, shaking my head, thinking, War. This is a war. (Author’s journal entry, April 7, 2003)

And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray…. But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short (Revelation 12:7-9, 12).

The fight between good and evil

We are in the fight of our lives. We are in a war. I am not talking about the war that took more than 4,400 American Troops in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the massacre in Syria, or the continual fighting in other parts of the Middle East. I am referring to the war where the primary battlefield is on our turf — the spiritual battle between good and evil. War expresses itself on those physical battlefields, but also the battlefields in our own homes, businesses, schools, communities, and minds. For instance, what possessed twenty-one-year-old Adam Lanza to kill 20 first-graders in Newtown, Connecticut? Or why would a twenty-two-year-old man shoot a congresswoman at point-blank range in Tucson, Arizona — similar to what happened at Columbine and Virginia Tech? Or what was really behind the random killing of 12 people by James Holmes while movie-goers were watching the latest Batman movie? I am referring to that war, the one that crosses all social, economic, educational, religious, and political boundaries. The one that crosses into the lives of politicians, religious people, businessman, professional sports personalities, students, and educators, regardless of age, gender, race, or title. It’s the same war you are fighting in your own life that may have knocked the wind out of you.

Religious results

The story of Ted Haggard is an example of this other war. In 2006, Reverend Haggard was the respected senior pastor of New Life Church, which had a 14,000-member congregation. Many leaders, including President George W. Bush, sought his counsel. Haggard passionately preached the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ while being adamantly against issues such as homosexuality. In November of that same year, a homosexual prostitute, Mike Jones, became unhappy with Haggard’s opposition to same-sex marriage. Jones revealed he had been having a homosexual relationship with Haggard.¹ We know of other sexual incidents with Catholic priests and other spiritual leaders, as well, whose behavior puts their entire careers and reputations on the line.

Political and professional examples

Governors Eliot Spitzer, Rod Blagojevich, and Arnold Schwarzenegger made headline news for their behavior. Eliot Spitzer resigned as governor of New York after being involved in a high-priced prostitution ring.² Rod Blagojevich was removed from office in Illinois after being convicted of corruption.³ Arnold Schwarzenegger finally disclosed that he secretly had a ten-year-old child with one of his personal servants. Another politician, Senator John Edwards, fathered a child with his mistress while being named father of the year in 2007. Dominique Strauss-Kahn was considered the next favorite to be elected president of France until a sex scandal got him arrested in 2011.⁴ Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison because of his multi-billion dollar securities fraud, the largest in US history.⁵ Going back a few years to make sure we know this isn’t new news, President Clinton denied having a sexual relationship with his intern Monica Lewinski — before he admitted to the affair.⁶ Richard Nixon was the only US president to resign the presidency after his staff broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters, and he covered it up. Same war.

Everyone is at risk

Jerry Sandusky sexually assaulted at least eight boys putting the entire Penn State Football program in turmoil (CBS News, Grand Jury Report / Washington Post Sports, Steve Yanda, July 23, 2012). After lying about it for a decade, Lance Armstrong finally admitted to using performance enhancing drugs and bullying anyone who tried to stop him - hurting the entire cycling community. Kansas City Chief football player Jovan Belcher murdered his girlfriend before committing suicide at Arrowhead Stadium (Kansas City Star, Glenn E. Rice, December 1, 2012). Amy Bishop, a biology professor at the University of Alabama, shot and killed … three of her colleagues at a faculty meeting after being denied tenure.⁷ A grandmother is reported to have sold her eight-week-old grandson for $75,000 to a stranger.⁸ Same war. There are also approximately 42 million abortions worldwide each year, making it more of a casualty on human life than war itself — regardless of our own personal thoughts about the right to abort a life.⁹ And there are thousands of rapes and sexual assaults, robberies, murders, cases of abuse (both domestic and political), and other crimes in the US each year. Over 25 percent of women experience domestic violence.¹⁰ A report on US sex trafficking estimates up to 18,000 women and girls are trafficked for sex in the US each year, while another 300,000 are at risk of being involved.¹¹ Over 30 million children are estimated to have been sexually exploited worldwide.¹² Human trafficking has become a $32 billion worldwide industry, claiming up to 12 million sex slaves each year.¹³ Pornography is a multi-billion dollar worldwide industry.

Including me

We are not excluded from this war.

I mentioned some of my personal story in the introduction without mentioning my own dark side. I have one, though. In my younger days, I was a recreational drug user and a binge drinker. I would drink and drive. I once started a barroom brawl and was arrested for assault and battery. I got a ticket for reckless driving and had my license suspended because I was doing exactly that, driving recklessly. As a single man, I had sex outside of marriage as the norm. I have been involved with pornography without conviction. Years ago, I stole money from a former employer because I figured out an easy way to do it. I justified it as not such a big deal (I ended up writing my employer a check for what I thought I had taken after God brought that old memory to my mind. I also admitted to my former employer what I had done.) I ran out on a check without paying after running up a fairly large tab at an expensive restaurant — while I was on an expense account. I just wanted to see if I could get away with it, and I did. Although this doesn’t begin to describe the extent of my list of faults, it gives you an idea of the dark side of my own life. I have one. Just like the other people I’ve mentioned. Just like you.

Haven’t you ever behaved contrary to your character? That’s what I mean.

The invisible battle

Why do we do things that could hurt or ruin us? According to the Bible, you and I are in a real war against a real enemy — a war often invisible to the naked eye, a war misunderstood as someone playing with fireworks when it’s really gunfire. Few understand this war. Most of us face its consequences rather than fighting as soldiers. We are participants in an unseen cosmic battle that is happening all around us. We are living behind enemy lines.

That’s the bad news.

But before you write this off as Hollywood fiction, or explain it away as too farfetched, consider other forces that we deal with every day and which we take for granted as normal. Most of