Timothy's Thoughts

W atchers – characters who work from the sidelines, influencing other characters to take action. Dr. Who is one example of a character like this. Though he is also the main character, his actions are such that he watches out for the people of Earth and makes an appearance when they need him. He always has people with him who he encourages to take action, putting them in danger, when he himself really has nothing to fear. That’s one of the interesting things about watchers. They usually have more knowledge of the situation than anyone else and yet they seldom reveal what they know. If we include a watcher in our own writing, we’d better have a reason why the character doesn’t reveal what he knows. Perhaps it is because he doesn’t want to worry people. If you knew that the world was about to explode, would you create panic by telling them or let them go on their merry way? What’s the point of making their last few minutes miserable? Or maybe the character is the type who is trying to ...

I f you don’t have a clear vision, no strategy will save you. – Michael Hyatt G ood leaders create a vision, passionately articulate the vision, and relentlessly drive the vision to completion. – Jack Welch I believe that there’s no such thing as a leader who doesn’t have a vision. – John Maxwell R ecently, my employer went through the mid-year review process. They also combined it with career discussions, so I had the opportunity to sit down and talk about the direction of my career with my boss. There are a couple things it made me realize. First, I’ve had very little say over the direction my career has gone. I’ve moved from position to position within the company because they needed someone willing to do the work, not because I felt like a change in position would be good for my career. The second thing I noticed is that not only has my career not had any direction, I don’t know where I want it to go. That’s probably not the best thing to tell your boss, but it is true. If I...

I n a 2010 debate between Delaware Senate candidates Chris Coons (D) and Christine O’Donnell (R) there was a disagreement concerning schools being permitted to teach creationism as a competing theory to evolution. Coons made the argument that the First Amendment has been interpreted by the Supreme Court to imply separation of church and state. O’Donnell interrupted and the following was the exchange: O'DONNELL: "Let me just clarify, you're telling me that the separation of church and state is found in the First Amendment?" COONS: "'Government shall make no establishment of religion'" O'DONNELL: "That's in the First Amendment?" I’m conservative, a Christian, and I voted Republican straight down the ticket in the last election, but I’ve got something to say to my fellow conservatives. When we become so focused on winning the argument that we fail to consider what we’re saying, we are in danger of losing the freedoms we hope to ...

S ome of the families of those killed in that Colorado theater have said that they “do not want” the death penalty for the man who did it. Good for them. At least I think it is good for them until hear some people say that they think it would be better for him to spend the rest of his life in jail thinking about what he did. It makes me think that they don’t believe he’ll have to think about what he did if he goes to hell. But that is more of a faith problem and has nothing to do with whether the man should be executed for his crimes or not. While the Bible tells us in Genesis 9:6, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed,” it also says in Numbers 35:31, “Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death.” Often, it seems like people have the idea that murderers should be executed so the families will get justice. God doesn’t take satisfaction in the death of a murderer and neither should we or the families of the victims. Instead o...

A church website hosting company recently posted an article stating that web hosting is the biggest cost of a church website . It became clear that they were promoting their own services when I saw the following list: Take these example costs from a variety of church website providers. The number you see is the monthly cost. Mychurchwebsite.com: $49-$119 Buildachurchwebsite.com: $54-109.95 Clover sites: $20 Siteorganic.com: $99-299 Faithpulse.com: $59.95 Sharefaith: $14.99 (Best Value) My first thought when I saw this list was that these are annual costs because my own church is paying about $80 a year for web hosting and I know there are other hosting companies that have even more economical rates, if you are really looking for the lowest price. But these are monthly rates and that means that Sharefaith is charging more than twice as much as you really need to pay. Even so, $180 a year isn’t really that bad if you’re putting the website to good use. But is that really your biggest...

T oday is Chick-Fil-A Appreciation day. I’m looking forward to a chicken sandwich for supper. But if they have so many people stop by that they run out before I get there, that would be okay too. I really like this, because instead of having to show my support for Christian values by not doing something, I get to show my support by taking action. I’ve always hated boycotts because I don’t shop at many of the places that I’m supposed to be boycotting anyway. But I can go buy a few more chicken sandwiches. And though I don’t think I could eat chicken sandwiches all the time, one of the things that impresses me about Chick-Fil-A is that they serve quality food. Their sandwiches are among the best. Their ice cream tastes like homemade. Their lemonade is the real stuff. Even their diet lemonade tastes good. Where else can you get diet lemonade? And it isn’t enough that they just have it; it is good. So it doesn’t put me out at all to buy a few more chicken sandwiches. It’s a little out ...

N ever do today what can be put off until tomorrow.” I don’t know who first said that, but I often find myself doing it. I set up these tasks in Outlook to remind me when it is time to do certain things. That’s helpful when it may be a year between each time the task must be done. The only problem is that Outlook has a snooze button. Rather than doing the task when it pops up, I put it off a few days. I have one task that I’ve been putting off all summer. One task was scheduled to show up at the first of July. I didn’t actually do it until yesterday. The thing is, I hate procrastination. I put something off and the whole time I’m telling myself that I need to get it done or it will be late. It is so much easier when I just do the task and get it out of the way. I know this, but I still put things off. And it’s not like there are other things that are pressing for my time. Occasionally, that is true, but I could make time for the things I need to do and then I would be free to relax w...