Timothy's Thoughts

I had this weekend off. I needed the time away from work because we've been working a project that is mentally draining. I needed some time to do something other than look at computer code from morning til night. So what did I do this weekend? I looked at computer code from morning til night. There's a tool that I use that allows for the development of plugins to extend its capability. There's a feature that I've wished the tool had for a long time, so I decided to try adding it. It seemed like a simple task. I thought I would just mess with it for a few hours and see where I got. I don't know what I was thinking. I ran into problem after problem. The first problem was in figuring out how to get a plugin to work in the first place. There is documentation online about how to do it and I found a simple "Hello World" example, so I thought it would be easy. Unfortunately, the tool and the documentation are not in sync. So after several hours of messing ...

I ’ve been reading a book titled Code Complete . It’s the kind of book that if you write any computer code at all, from a simple webpage to a large software project, you ought to read. For the rest of you, you would find if very dull. But as I was reading it I thought about the similarity between software development and writing a novel. There is a debate, if you will, among novelists between the plotters and the pantsers. The plotters say you ought to outline the book first, then begin writing. The pantsers just grab a few interesting characters and jump right into writing. Which is better? One of the things Steve McConnell talks about in Code Complete is that no one ever develops software completely using a top down or a bottom up approach. The top down approach is similar to what plotters do, in that you start at a very high level of abstraction and subdivide it over and over until you reach the point where it is manageable chunks. The bottom up approach starts with the parts and...

T ears come. All throughout life they come. There’s always something to make us sad. Friends die. Plans fall through. Wishes are unfulfilled. That’s life. And yet, some people have this idea that if we really wanted what God wants then we would never cry. That sounds spiritual, but I’m afraid it is unrealistic. Even Jesus wept. He knew how things would turn out and he still wept. Sadness is part of life, so while we don’t like to be sad, let’s not something we can avoid. The fact is, this world is cursed. People die. Bad things happen. We desire things we can’t have. The end result is that tears come. But I think there’s more to it than that. God could wipe away our tears now, rather than later, but we learn from times of sadness. It is during the sad times that we learn to depend upon God. If things always went the way we wanted, we wouldn’t understand how much we need God. So he allows bad things to happen and we learn from those things. We may not understand why some things happen...

I ’m shocked sometimes by how lax Christians are concerning right and wrong these days. Now I realize that the Bible doesn’t out and out prohibit the consumption of alcohol, but the other day I was listening to a young man that I believe to be a Christian who was talking about plans for his brother’s bachelor party. He mentioned one idea which is what is called a “Grand Slam.” You know, of course, that a Grand Slam is a menu item at Denny’s, but this Grand Slam was quite different. The idea is that you go from bar to bar and eventually end up at Denny’s where you eat a Grand Slam, but you aren’t supposed to remember any of the bars you went to. I wasn’t in the conversation, but as I listened from some distance away, I couldn’t imagine why anyone would consider that fun. What’s the point if you’re so wasted that you don’t remember what you did? Not only that, but consuming that much alcohol is dangerous. Whatever your thoughts on Christians drinking alcohol, the Bible makes it very ...

I ’ve been working on a story lately. I love the concept and I think it will do well on the back cover. But I have a problem. I haven’t settled on the motive of one of the main characters. Unfortunately, that motive is central to the story. It not only drives the story, it drives the motives of some of the other characters. It defines who they are as characters, so the choices I make there could change who they are significantly. In this case, the character did something as a teenager that most of us wouldn’t do. That’s not to say that we might not have considered it, but if we’d gone through with it we would’ve come to our senses and realized that we’d made a bad choice. We would have turned around and undid what we did. But in this story, the character doesn’t attempt to undo it for fifteen years. She’s committed to what she has done. That means her motive has to survive even after she’s had a while to think about it. If I can find a great motive, I think this story will be good....

A t the beginning of every story, there is a point at which we realize that if something doesn’t change, the hero will die. Often, this is a figurative kind of death more than a literal death, but the hero also comes to the realization and makes the necessary change that takes us into the meat of the story. That makes for interesting storytelling, but so often we find that life isn’t that way. How often do we come to that point in life where we feel we have the weight of the world on our shoulders and if something doesn’t change we’ll surely die under the load. But unlike the heroes of our stories, we don’t often have the option of choosing to change things. It will surely kill us. But the thing about real life is that when you come to the realization that we’re on the verge of death and it is hopeless, we also come to the realization that death isn’t an option. Oh, death will come soon enough, but no matter how much junk life dumps on you, you don’t have the option of giving up. No ...

“ G odliness with contentment is great gain,” Paul told Timothy. Most people turn that around, believing that if they can gain a lot then they must be godly. I work in a corporate environment and all most people care about is what other people can do to help them advance their careers. That takes priority over the product. If producing a good product will advance their career, they’ll produce a good product, but what they really want is to advance their career. There are times that it’s hard to stay content in that kind of environment. People are always asking what you’re doing to advance your career or why you haven’t reached some level in your career. But I can’t help but think that another statement by Paul is very true in the corporate world as well. “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” Paul is referring to the fact that we can take nothing we gain in this world into the next, but there is some truth to that in the corporate world ...