Timothy's Thoughts

H ow easy it is to say something wrong. The other day, someone asked me a question and I gave an answer, but after she walked away I thought about what I had said and realized that I hadn’t given her the correct answer. It wasn’t an important question. She was asking it more as small talk than anything else. This particular person picks up the trash where I work, so she speaks to many people throughout the day. Now suppose she repeats what I said. That person will also have the wrong information. That information could spread, simply because I misspoke. We all know that gossip is wrong. We’ve heard that all our lives and yet there are so many people who engage in it. I think what happens is that people don’t see what they are doing as gossip—they’re just repeating information someone else gave them. Of course, we all know that gossip is talking about the personal details of other people’s lives. The danger in gossip isn’t so much that we’re talking about people as much as it is so ea...

I saw an interesting statistic. In 2010, there were an estimated 1.8 million single fathers. That in itself isn’t particularly interesting until you consider that the same source estimated that there were 70.1 million fathers in the United States. I realize there are problems in the American home and many marriages fail, but the fact that of 70.1 million fathers, less then 3% are considered single fathers ought to tell us something about the value people place on marriage. To be fair, I think the statistics left “common law” marriages out of the single dad figure, but the fact is that people still place value on a man and a woman raising children together. Maybe they’re confused about the need for people to get married and stay married, but they believe that children need the influence of both women and men.

W e get upset about some of the dumbest things. I was once told about a man who worked in an area where the janitors didn’t go in to collect the trash, so the people in that area would have to carry their trashcans out and set them outside the door for the janitor to dumb. This man, apparently newly hired to work in the area, came into work one morning and saw all of the trashcans sitting outside the door. Trying to be nice, he collected them all and put them back beside the desks. When his coworkers came in, some were furious. It so happens that in that area there were round trashcans and square trashcans. Only the higher salary grade people were supposed to have the square trashcans and the lower salary grade people were to have the round trashcans. I’m sure the lower salary grade people didn’t mind getting the square trashcans, but the higher salary grade people who ended up with the round trashcans were very upset. As silly as that sounds, it was told as a true story. The work en...

T here’s a difference between nice people and good people. Often, when people say that a person is a good person, what they actually mean is that they are nice people. A lot of people are friendly. A lot of people will do nice things for you. It wouldn’t surprise you if someone said they visited an unmarried couple who are living in the same house and while visiting them he had an enjoyable time talking to them over a delicious meal. And yet, the Bible tells us that the lifestyle of these people is not good. In fact, it tells us that fornicators don’t go to heaven. The sad truth is that there are a lot of nice people who are on their way to hell. The day will come when they will stand before God and all they will have to show for a reason for him to let them into heaven is that they were nice people. They will have done nice things for other people. But God will look at them and tell them that the requirement isn’t that they be nice, but that they be good. We like nice people and w...

S ome homosexual activists sat down with some Baptist leaders the other day and demanded that they apologize for what Baptists teach about homosexuality. The meeting went about like you would expect. It was cordial on both sides. The homosexuals questioned by the Baptists would apologize about what they had once taught about non-Caucasian races and the Baptists essentially told them that they were only teaching what the Bible says. They can’t change what the Bible says because they didn’t write it. When you consider this issue, the difference between what many Baptists once taught about the various races and what they are teaching about homosexuality is that the racial lines were drawn on the color of a man’s skin, which he is born with and cannot control. On the other hand, what the Bible says about homosexuality is always about the actions. If you define homosexuality as being attracted to someone of the same gender, then it is no sin and any Baptist who is worthy of calling himsel...

T he Bible says that it rains on the just and the unjust. But that doesn’t mean that you get rain whether you are just or unjust. Consider how God stopped the rain for three and a half years because of sin. Or consider the great flood. The whole world got wet, but Noah and his family stayed dry. But here’s the thing, if a just person prays for rain and God sends it, his unjust neighbors are going to get part of that rain. You won’t see a selective cloud that dumps rain on just one house. I won’t got out of my way to stretch this thought more than I should, but if you want to be blessed, hang out with the people God blesses. When their cup runs over, you’ll get the overflow.

I t’s taboo in writing circles to call writing a hobby. Needless to say, I’ve upset a few people in writing circles, but frankly, I’m not overly concerned because I think there are a lot of writer types who think too highly of themselves. What is wrong with calling writing a hobby? I think the reason it is taboo is because so many people attend writer conferences and hear the so called experts tell them that they should view it as a business rather than a hobby. For tax purposes and expense purposes, I totally agree, but the reality of the situation is that if writing is a business, most writers are pretty lousy businessmen. It takes about three months to write a novel. The author then takes the manuscript and sends it off to a bunch of people, usually only to receive a rejection letter from some and no feedback at all from most. After having had the manuscript rejected, the typical author sits down and writes another and then another. After doing this a few times, a few of them actu...