Timothy's Thoughts

P op quiz: Who was named best actor last year? Which coach won the Super Bowl two years ago? Who wrote the best selling novel five years ago? What is the name of your favorite teacher from high school? What is the name of your favorite author? What is the name of the person who led you to the Lord? Don’t bother giving me your answers. I asked the questions to make a point. So many of the things that we think are so important are so easily forgotten, but there are other things that we never forget. Recently, Rachelle Gardner wrote about making writing a lifestyle . The argument seems to be that if we expect to be successful at writing then we’re going to have to take this thing seriously. We might have to make some sacrifices that take us away from our families and out other obligations. What no one has been able to show me is that doing that is worth it. The saying goes that the wish of a dying man is never I wish I had spent more time at the office. I think you will find that dying a...

L ast week, I attended the annual meeting of the Baptist Missionary Association of America (BMA) in Fort Smith, Arkansas. If you don’t know anything about the BMA, it is an association of churches that sends missionaries to many different nations around the world, broadcasts the gospel through radio broadcasts, publishes Sunday school material, facilitates conferences and a number of other things, but this post is about none of that. This post is about what happened outside of the meeting. My parents are members of another BMA church and have attended the annual meeting for as long as I can remember. We usually end up running around together during the week of the meeting. This time, as they were crossing southern Missouri on the way to the meeting, a turkey flew up in front of them and struck their windshield while they were traveling at 65 or 70 miles per hour. Now a wild turkey isn’t as big as the kind of turkey you might eat for Thanksgiving dinner, but he’s still a big bird. This...

A s things go in this online community, the death of Michael Jackson led to Michael Hyatt writing a post about that, with a link back to a post about Creating a Life Plan . I used to have a life plan, but I got off of it when I didn’t get married by the time I was twenty-four. That used to bother me—a lot. Now, ten years later, I don’t even remember that I’m not married most of the time. I find it much easier to say, “Whatever you will, Lord.” It isn’t that I have a problem with people making a life plan, but I would have missed out on some really good things if I had stuck to my plans. Mike also suggests identifying key accounts, ordered by priority. I’ll show you my list and then we’ll talk about it: God Family, Church and Friends Self Ministry Finances Career Hobbies (including writing) God must come first. If he doesn’t, I’m in sad shape. For the second item, I included all three because I have a real hard time keeping my family, my church and my friends separate. They all seem li...

Do you ever have the feeling that all we are ever doing is looking for a way to occupy our minds for our seventy years on this planet? We go to work each day, hopefully to a job we don’t find boring, so we afford to go home in the evening to do things that we find interesting. We do social things, such as attend church or other things, in part because that’s a whole lot more interesting than sitting at home twiddling our thumbs. When we are at home, we occupy our minds by watching television, reading books, working on hobbies or connecting with people online. When I look at some of these Eastern religions that meditate by trying to clear their minds of all thought, I can’t help but wonder if they have a death wish. Visit a nursing home and what will you find? In many nursing homes you will find senior adults with nothing to do but to push their wheelchairs up one hall and down the other. There are many things that cause people to approach death in haste, but I am convinced that many pe...