Carlos Enrique Whittaker - Moment Maker: You Can Live Your Life or It Will Live You

Carloss passion for life comes through in this book, inspiring us to not only live in the moment but create the moments that make life worth living.

Ann Voskamp

New York Times bestselling author

One Thousand Gifts

When we look back on our lives, we wont remember watching television or playing video games. We will remember the moments where some kind of love or acceptance was exchanged. The premise of Carloss book is those moments dont have to be accidental. We can make them happen. Im grateful hes showing us how.

Don Miller

New York Times bestselling author

Blue Like Jazz

Over the past several years, Ive watched Carlos and his family live out the message of this book and Im honored to endorse it. They see life through a lens that inspires me to be attentive and willing to create marked moments in my life as well as the lives of those around me. Truly, it isnt just a collection of great stories; its more than that. Moment Maker is a book that will change the way you capture life and share it with others, and it will no doubt inspire you to be constantly searching for opportunities to embrace the greatness that blooms in the ordinary. Grab this book with excitement, knowing that youre about to enter into a place where moments will no longer be seen as fleeting, uncontrollable, and short-lived. Instead, theyre yours for the taking; better yet theyre yours for the making. Isnt it time you started?

Angie Smith

Women of Faith speaker and bestselling author

I Will Carry You, What Women Fear, Mended,

Audrey Bunny, and Chasing God

Leaders are moment makers. And memory creators. My friend Carlos Whittaker is a leader who lives out what he believes, puts into practice the idea of cherishing each day, and has assembled a book that is a game changer. What are you waiting on? Seriously. Buy this book. Change your perspective on what it looks like to squeeze the life out of each day!

Ive worked together with Carlos the last six years on creating moments at Catalyst, and Im incredibly pumped that finally Los has captured some of his own moments, memories, life stories, inspiration, and wisdom into a kick-butt and take-names, game-changing book that will give you fresh perspective on making the most of your own moments, and creating memories in your own life. Buy this book!

Brad Lomenick

author, The Catalyst Leader

advisor and brand ambassador, Catalyst

If youre tired of slugging through the monotony of life and feeling like a spectator in your own story, then Moment Maker is determined to fix that. This book is a life-altering, direction changing, apathy-busting invitation to live our lives to the fullest. You cant read it and not be changed. I loved it!

Mike Foster

People of the Second Chance

Carlos Whittaker is a gifted musician and communicator, and I love how his personality is translated in his writing. Moment Maker points out the importance of paying attention and seizing the opportunities God has placed in front of us to create memorable moments in our own lives and the lives of others.

Perry Noble

senior pastor, NewSpring Church

ZONDERVAN

Moment Maker

Copyright 2013 by Carlos Whittaker

ePub Edition February 2014: ISBN 978-0-310-33798-0

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Drive SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Whittaker, Carlos, 1973

Moment maker : you can live your life or it will live you / Carlos Whittaker.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-310-33797-3 (softcover)

1. Christian life. I. Title.

BV4501.3.W48 2013

248.4dc23

2013039708

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published in association with the literary agency of The Fedd Agency, Inc., Post Office Box 341973, Austin, Texas 78734.

Cover design: Curt Diepenhorst

Cover photography: Tomas Rodriguez/Corbis

Interior design and composition: Greg Johnson/Textbook Perfect

Printed in the United States of America

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 /DCI/ 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my wife, Heather

For the moments you could have left, and you stayed

For the moments you could have hated, and you loved.

For the moments you could have despaired, and you hoped.

For the moments you could have destroyed, and you healed.

The face of Jesus never looked better.

CONTENTS

I remember the moment.

It was wrapped in the scent of Play-Doh and the sounds of Karen Carpenter crackling softly on the record player in the corner of Mrs. Stephenss preschool room in Decatur, Georgia. The air was thick and damp. In that basement of a 1970-something Presbyterian church building, there was no telling what was growing in the corners.

I was a shy kid, a Panamanian/Mexican with an Afro parted down the side like Gary Coleman on his best day in a land of bright blond hair, deep blue eyes, and thick Southern accents.

And it was the day this shy kid dreaded the day we found out what part we would play in the Thirteenth Annual Rehoboth Presbyterian Church Preschool Circus. The year before Id been a lion.

I remember being mortified as my scene had come up. Roar,Carlos. Roar loud. Roar like you mean it. Roar like Adam Shaverroars. No. Roar louder than him. Roar like Adam Shaver wishes hecould roar, I thought, trying to psych myself up.

My classmate Adam was about three times my size and, I swear, at four years old already sounded like his dad.

When the time came for me to roar, I can only describe what came out of me as the sound a kitten makes when you step on its tail. I remember the crowd erupting in laughter and my four-year-old world imploding as I hung my mane in shame.

And I have to do this again? Please no.

Mrs. Stephenss eyes were staring down through her brown-rimmed glasses at a forty-five-degree angle, studying the clipboard in her hands. Every so often, she would lift just her eyes and scan the room. My heart pounded.

Mary Helen Addison... a dancing bear.

Brandon Bugg... a clown.

Jay Clements... a muscle man.

She went slowly and meticulously through the alphabet. At this point I was furious that my dad was birthed into the Whittaker family. Couldnt we have been the Andersons or something?

As she worked her way down I noticed all the outgoing kids were getting picked as acrobats and clowns. Then I realized that all the animal parts were taken. Sweet. Maybe this meant I was going to be one of the twelve or so balloons and only had to stand on the stage floating from side to side with no chance of verbally failing.