"Gods Perfect Timing: Breaking the Cycle of Poverty with Education and Faith is about how important events in our lives happen according to Gods timing, not our own. Come with me on a spiritual journey through poverty, child abuse, and my struggle to overcome dyslexia through special education. I share a chilling account of how I survived being struck by lightning at football practice at the beginning of my senior year of high school. After my dream of becoming a professional athlete got shattered, I survived on the streets with dangerous criminals."
Can you make lightning appear and cause it to strike as you direct? (Job 38:35)
Lucky to Be Alive
For on August 18, Caruth was standing in the defensive backfield during Coronados football practice when an incredible event knocked him right off the football field and literally into medical journals. Dressed in full football gear, Caruth was struck by on the head by a bold of lightning. The bolt burned through protective padding in the helmet at the point where a metal screw was fixed, blacked the neck of his jersey, singed his pants, and left his socks looking as though they’d been treated with a blowtorch.
I spent my career as an educator, youth developer, advocate, counselor, role model and minister transforming the lives of countless young people caught in tumultuous life circumstances beyond their control or choosing. The aforementioned perspective allows me to understand and appreciate the profound power contained in Gods Perfect Timing: Breaking The Cycle of Poverty with Education and Faith, by Dr. David D. Caruth. Brother Caruth unapologetically takes readers into his world and lays bare horrific childhood events namely: physical/sexual abuse, hunger, deprivation, physical, emotional challenges as well as the need for special education.
If this were not enough, David, as a promising high school football player, with dreams of turning pro, was struck by lightning while on the practice field100 players were leveled by the bolt, David was the only one that did not get up. The story could have ended right there with yet another African American child failing to thrive, doomed to living in the now all-too-familiar clutch of poverty, crime, drugs, gangs, incarceration, nihilism and neglector dying too soon.
The seeds of failure were clearly sown into the life and psyche of the author. Yet the reader will discover that in the midst of seemingly insurmountable odds, David is able to change the odds. This social miracle was accomplished by seeds planted by David’s mother, namely the seed of faith revealed in the telling of biblical stories like David and Goliath (a Divine metaphor if you will).
This book shows educators, faith leaders, policy makers, parents, young people and yes, even the naysayer, how the cycle of poverty, perpetuated by low self-esteem, academic indifference, victim thinking/blaming and dysfunctional family life can be broken once and for all.
So beloved, come on the arduous and ultimately triumphant journey of David D. Caruths lifetime. If you accept this invitation please be open to the reality that the same power that found a young boy at his most vulnerable time; the same power that snatched him from the sure grip of death; the same power that helped him overcome staggering life obstacles and receive a terminal degree, is the same power that can change the lives of readers now that Gods Perfect Timing is in full effect.
The Reverend Alfonso Wyatt has four decades of experience developing young people as well as working with public, private, community based youth serving organizations and the faith community involved in the same effort. Reverend Wyatt, a D.Min candidate at New York Theological Seminary, is an ordained Elder on the ministerial staff of The Greater Allen Cathedral of New York and he and his wife are co-authors of Soul Be Free Poems Prose Prayers
