New Hope Christian Church youth pastor Tyler Smith is searching for God seven days a week.
The 2003 Southmont graduate spent most of 2019 taking compiled notes from almost two decades of memories and turning them into a 19 chapter book.
Smith recently completed his first book, “Searching for Seven,” and it will go on sale on next week.
The faith-based book is full of sports, messages and teaching points from Smith’s life. He also is the girls basketball coach at Crawfordsville High School. Smith played basketball at Southmont before playing at Lincoln Christian University in Illinois, where he graduated from in 2008. He is now a sports writer for Indy Sports Legends, primarily covering the Indiana Pacers.
“I actually begin the book by talking about how one basketball game changed the course of my entire life,” Smith recollects from a junior-varsity contest his sophomore year of high school. “From the faith side, as a Christian I believe we are suppose to put action to our faith and it’s suppose to be a journey and I need to be searching for truth and searching for God every day so that’s kind of where the number seven comes in.”
Smith got his inspiration for his first book from author Bob Goff, who is best known for his New York Times best seller “Love Does.”
“They are short stories from his life and some encouragement from what he learned,” Smith said of Goff’s writing style. “So those are the kind of books that I liked to read the most so it’s what I was shooting for with this. The overall tone is positive, and optimistic and encouraging.”
Smith looks at his book and compares it to a CD — each chapter is like a different song, but all 19 chapters are cohesive like an album.
Nearly the entire book are stories or things that have happened to Smith during his life, and he hopes to convey a positive and encouraging message to readers as they join him in searching for their own faith on a daily basis.
“I think one of the lines that I’ve explained a lot is ‘it’s hard to find what we aren’t actively searching for,’” Smith said. “and I feel like often times if you’re really looking for something, you’re going to find what you’re looking for if you’re really seeking after it. So I’m trying to portray this message that even if you doubt that God exists, if you believe that he possibly does exist, can he show up to someone who is not actively looking for him? He can, but I feel like for the most part it’s on us to seek after what truth is.”
The book, which is roughly 150 pages and includes discussion questions, goes on sale June 2, and can be purchased through Amazon and Barnes and Nobles. Go to www.searchingforseven.com for more details.
