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...