Timothy's Thoughts

D id you know that the Bible never said you must obey the speed limit? But I think it’s safe to say that most Christians would agree that God wants us to obey the traffic laws. We might not like obeying the speed limit, but we all agree that God wants us to obey the law of the land. I would say that most non-Christians would agree that God wants us to obey the traffic laws. If it is so obvious that God wants us to do something that isn’t specifically spelled out in his word, why then are people so anxious to find ways to dismiss those things that are? If a person ran a red light—something many people do—and we asked them if what they had done is wrong, they would say that it was. But what about something like fornication? It seems that the writers of television shows think it is the most normal thing in the world for unmarried people to sleep together. Going by what they show, if you aren’t sleeping with one of your co-workers, you are practically Amish. The way they tell it, fornica...

J oseph Stiglitz says the American dream is a myth. Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel prize-winning economist. He states, “the U.S. used to think of itself as a middle-class country – but this is no longer true. Today, a child’s life chances are more dependent on the income of his or her parents than in Europe, or any other of the advanced industrial countries for which there are data.” It would seem that Stiglitz’s solution to this “problem” is to vote Democrat. I don’t agree that the gap between the rich and the middle class constitutes a breakdown in the American dream. Put simply, the American dream is that anyone from any social class has the opportunity to achieve prosperity through hard work. At an extreme, a person born to a crack addict could, through hard work, become the wealthy owner of a company. Granted, some people have fewer difficulties to overcome and having parents who will pay for college helps, but that doesn’t mean the American dream is a myth. There are a couple of ...

I hate to brag. I mean, I really hate to brag. I have this idea that my work should speak for itself. And I also find that bragging tends to shut down a conversation. I would rather come across as knowing less than I know than to miss the opportunity to learn from someone else’s perspective. Still, there might be something to be said for raising people’s awareness of one’s abilities. I have been responsible for one website for eight years. Recently, a man expressed interest in helping with the website. But this isn’t the offer for help that begins with “What can I do to help?” but rather, “I can show you how to do things better.” I’m willing to admit that there are people who know more than I do. I would be an idiot if I didn’t. At the company where I work, I’m surrounded by people who are brilliant at the jobs they do. At church, I see people with abilities that amaze me. So, when someone comes to me and says they know how to improve something, I’m inclined to listen. And when it...

D on Burke recently had an article in the Baptist Trumpet titled ‘Remember the Poor’: Are We Doing It Right? [June 13, 2012 issue] If you have time, I highly recommend you read his original article, but I’ll summarize what he said. He gave the example of stranger showing up at a church and asking for help to pay the rent. He went on to say that though it is common for people like this to show up at churches and we often help them, these are probably not the poor that Paul was talking about in Galatians 2:10 when he wrote, “Remember (to help) the poor.” Don suggests that this raises two questions: Who, exactly, are “the poor” and in what ways should we help them? Based on his study of the Bible, Don identifies four categories of poor: Those who want to be poor, those who are poor due to their choices, those who are poor due to short-term circumstances, and those who are poor due to long-term circumstances. As for how we should help the poor, he looked at what the Bible says about tha...

I magine you are a manager. But unlike most managers, you know your employees very well. You know them well enough that when it comes time to assign them a task, you know who will do the best job at each assignment. They’re all clamoring for the best assignments, the ones with the greatest responsibility, the ones that pay the most. You’re unmoved by that because you know that some of your employees can’t handle great responsibility. You know that for some the best thing they can do is play a supporting role. But ask yourself this: is there a time you might move one of those employees into a role of greater responsibility and move one of the others into lesser responsibility? Managers are people and people make mistakes. But God doesn’t . It is within God’s ability to not only know what abilities his servants have, but to know what situations they will face over a period of time. It isn’t likely that a manager would put someone they don’t think can handle a bad situation in a role of...

A s a writer, I suppose I should place more importance on first pages than I do. I very rarely read a first page before I decide I want to read a book, so I don’t imagine other people do either. So, I hate this idea that the first page has to be the hook. I think that concept has ruined many a first page. Too many authors get the idea that they have to being with something exciting or people won’t continue reading. As in any form of writing, the first page of a novel is an introduction to things to come. Often, that means talking about weather and setting. Some people think it is bad form to talk about weather and setting on the first page, but how else are you going to let people know what is going on around the characters. Some of the best stories ever written begin by talking about the weather. These days, weather may not be quite as important as it used to be because so many of us spend our days inside. But interior environments have their own kind of “weather”. Have you ever w...

P lans often fall apart. Last night, I had a committee meeting at church. I’m the chairman of the committee, so I tried to have all my ducks in row. I sent out an agenda before the meeting. I printed out copies of the biggest thing we were going to discuss. I thought I was ready. We had three items of business—or so I thought. We made it through the first two and someone brought up something that I didn’t know anything about. It was appropriate to handle it, but it took me by surprise. Then we got to the “big” item. I had been thinking about the best way to handle it, but the strangest thing happened. The need to handle that piece of business vanished. The meeting went much differently than I expected. So why do we bother making plans when they fall apart on us anyway? While it may feel like we never accomplish what we planned, we almost never have a situation in which nothing we planned is accomplished. Plans give us a place to start. Plans give us a goal to reach. It’s like plannin...

platform a place or opportunity for public discussion P latform is one of those terms in publishing that we spend a lot of time talking about, but many people don’t get. Some people hate the term because they know it is something they are expected to have, but they don’t know how to get it. Others spend a lot of time doing all the things they think they need to do to build a platform (blogging, etc.), but they don’t seem to be getting anywhere. Instead of thinking of platform in terms of having a blog, being on Facebook, Twitter and whatever else, ask yourself what it would take to get people to notice you and listen to your message. A few years ago, there were some guys going around putting signs on bridges in a guerrilla marketing campaign to promote an animated television show. It created a bomb scare and far more people heard about the show than the number of people who saw the signs in person. Doing something illegal may get you noticed, but I don’t recommend it. Still, the...

T here’s no better time to write about something than when you’re in the trenches doing it. I used to didn’t think that. I had the idea that it would be better to write about it after having had the experience and at a time when you could look back at all you mistakes with 20/20 vision. But now, I’ve decided that isn’t the case. A few years ago, I was the chairman of a committee at church. It was the first time I had been the chairman on a committee and I had all these ideas of how I should handle it. Overall, I was successful at it. After two years, I went off the committee and I forgot about. During the time that I thought would be the ideal time to write about something like that, it wasn’t important to me. I’ve served on other committees, but I didn’t have to be concerned with the job of a chairman—until this year. This year, I was elected to the position of chairman on another committee. All those ideas about how a chairman should handle the job have come rushing back to me. If ...

H ave you ever told someone you would do something, but you didn’t do it? I imagine we all have at some point. We aren’t perfect. But have you stopped to think about how that person must have felt? Suppose it happened like this: The teacher of an adult Sunday school class calls a student in the class and says, “I need someone to pick up some booklets a printer is printing for us. Would you do it?” The student says yes, but then gets busy doing other things and doesn’t make it to the printer to pick up the order. The teacher gets to class on Sunday, expecting the student to bring the booklets, but they aren’t there. His plans for the lesson are shot. Moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. I remember seeing a statement to the affect that a leader must first know how to follow. We see so many people writing about how to lead people these days. They talk about “casting a vision” and lots of other things. But if there’s one thing that is more important than all...

W e often draw a distinction between a gift and a purchase. If we say that someone gave us something, we often mean that they didn’t charge us for it. If we paid for it, we say they sold it to us. This can lead to confusion when we talk about giving readers something. We’ve heard that if we want to sell books, we have to give our readers something. With the concept of a gift in mind, some writers begin giving away free books on their websites, hold contests for free items, and hand out bookmarks. I won’t say those things won’t help, but we need to look at “giving” differently. What is it that a reader wants you to give them? For a non-fiction writer, what the reader may need a solution to a problem. For example, if the reader is a mother, she may want to know how she can better raise her children. So, she buys a book about raising children. The reader of a novelist’s work may be looking for a few hours of escape, so he buys a novel that he can get lost in for a while. But notice that...

Q uoting a verse from scripture is a good thing to do, don’t you think? It never hurts for someone to read God’s word. But it isn’t quite that simple. Open a Christian non-fiction book and you are likely to find many references to Bible verses. Sometimes, those verses are just references to tell you were to look to find supporting evidence for what the author is saying. Other times, it may be a quote taken from the Bible. Open a Christian novel and you may find that the author has put a few of their favorite verses at the beginning of each chapter. Or maybe one of the characters recites a verse to another character. I have a love for God’s word and yet I find that I often skip over some of the verses authors include in their work. I figure there are a couple of ways I can look at that. I can take a self-deprecating attitude and say that I don’t love the scriptures as much as I should. Or I can look for another reason. The thing we need to ask ourselves is why devout Christians who ...

I t’s been several years since our church website has been updated, so I decided to look at some other church websites. No two churches are alike, but it is always good to have an idea of what seems to be working for other people. On one website, I found a link to a volunteer page. I have visited the church in question and it is several times the size of our church. The size of their church necessitates activities that our church doesn’t have. So, I was expecting to find an extensive list of volunteer opportunities. Here is what I found: Sunday Morning Greeters Sunday Morning Information Desk Sunday Morning Parking Team Children’s Area: Welcome Desk Children’s Area: Sunday School Teacher Preschool: Preschool Junction Greeters Preschool: Junction Classroom Teachers This was on a form on which a person could provide his name, e-mail address, and phone number. He could then submit the form after checking one or more of the items. It would seem that a volunteer at the church in q...