Month: May 2020

Consider the Source

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My wife and I are opposites in many ways, but I guess it’s one of the things that keeps our relationship interesting. Consider how the two of us eat and read. When I’m finished eating, Lori will often be only half way through her plate. However, while she can read a book in a day, I’ll take weeks to plod my way through the same tome. Of course, those are inconsequential things in the bigger context of a marriage. Right at the top for both of us in a list of priorities for maintaining our relationship would be our faith. Our goal individually and as a couple is to check our attitudes toward every aspect of our lives through the prism of how God sees it. God is our most reliable source. Hebrews 13:8 ESV says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. In our lives, where so much is uncertain, we can always count on the teachings of Jesus to be our solid and reliable guide. If Jesus is your source, if he is your rock, in a game of rock, paper, scissors, rock should win every time.
Although currently the reputation of the news media as a whole is under fire, ideally, professional journalists should rely on multiple sources when the truth of a story may come into question. Reliable sources are a news organization’s life blood. The reason is if a story is proven to be untrue, it can cost that organization readers or viewers, which will translate into lost business. While we’re on the subject, remember that “the media” relies on advertising dollars to exist. When you click, view, and read you are telling advertisers what you support. In that sense, the media is us. It will live or die based on the attention it receives. But even if selling news isn’t your business, other people are judging your credibility every day. We’ve probably all had conversations with others regarding whether we can believe what someone else has said. If something that person said didn’t ring true, we might say, “Well, consider the source,” meaning the person in question didn’t have a reputation for telling the truth. When it comes to our relationships with — I guess just about everyone, trust has to be at the top, and once you become known as someone who lies, mishandles information, or is in other ways untrustworthy, you can expect that bond of trust to become broken. Truth and trust help to bind us together and free us to be the men and women of God we were always intended to be. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. John 8:32 NIV

Since I started this post off by talking about my wife, and thinking about the racism and hate that’s been so present in our national discussion lately, I thought I would mention something she taught me about the subtle racism that can infect our everyday speech. Let’s say you’re relating a story to a friend. The story involves a person of color, let’s say, black. When you tell that story, is the fact that the story involved a black person relevant? Would you have mentioned their color if they were white? Our descriptions of people can play into all sorts of stereotypes designed to divide into categories of inferior and superior without our being aware of it. When we allow racism and hate to become part of us in even subtle ways, we are pulling away from the source of love, truth, and eternal life who is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I don’t have to tell you who the source of hate, division, and the father of lies is, do I?

“Laundry is the only thing that should be
separated by color.”
Author Unknown

Be the change.
Reflect the source that flows through you,
perfect love that casts out all fear.
Be the hope,
the good news of salvation,
of changed lives,
and dried tears.
Strength doesn’t always
reflect expectations,
and soft words
can turn away wrath.
Offer to kneel with another,
an other.
Encourage a better path.

©Joel Tipple 5/31/2020






Value Added

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The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.
Psalm 9:9-10 ESV

It’s tough out there, isn’t it? File that under all time greatest understatements. If you aren’t suffering yourself, you surely know many who are. If we weren’t already convinced of our interconnections with everyone else on the planet, we should be now, as we’ve seen how a new virus can impact the world’s physical and economic health with little respect for national boundaries. If you care to involve yourself in the abundance of finger pointing and opinions found on the various news outlets and social media, you can take your pick. However, if you redirect your focus to what God’s word says about the human condition, you will see evidence of mercy, grace, healing, love, and redemption no matter what trouble we find ourselves in. The beauty and challenge of the Christian walk lies in transforming how we automatically react to events to how God would have us react. There is reason to hope for and expect change for the better, but I believe this hope must be founded on the results gained from submission to God and his will for our lives. If we allow God to have his way with us, I believe the value the Holy Spirit adds to us and draws out of us individually will bring a corporate change in our homes, communities, and world.

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Ephesians 2:10 NLT

When God proved his love for us by sending his Son to be crucified and then raised from the dead, he settled for all time the question of how much value he places on each human life. Yours. Mine. Everyone we will ever meet. I am convinced God has placed particular value within you. But I am also sure that potential value will die, no one will ever see it, and the world will be the poorer if you do not do the work to seek it out, nurture it, and give it life. Each of us have certain gifts. They do not have to look like someone else’s gifts. Indeed, comparing ourselves to others is often the best way to derail our dreams because it’s much easier to see the end product of success than the muddy failure ridden process which often precedes it. You are not too young. You are not too old. You are not too anything to be exactly what God wants you to be. For God to use your gifts and abilities, no matter how significant or insignificant you may now believe them to be, you must see them through the lens of steadfast faith in his eternal design.

Give me eyes
to view myself as you do,
God,
embracing
the ways in which you work.
When has the sculpture
ever told the sculptor,
“No, not there”?
Help me mine, like gold
the value you know within me
Without your help
I would never see it there.

©Joel Tipple 5/17/2020







Communication

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This photograph of someone else’s hands on a manual typewriter keyboard reminds me of my college days. My fingers slipping off the keys, getting stuck in between as I wrote a paper. If I made a mistake I would slip a little piece of paper with white out on one side between the offending key and paper and press the key again. It was a relatively slow, pains taking process. The typewriters we used in Journalism classes were IBM Selectrics. These ubiquitous preferred electronic office typewriters were much faster and easy to use. Also, they didn’t eat fingers. The third keyboard in my student life was a VDT (video display terminal). We used these keyboards attached to small monitors to download stories onto diskettes. Fast forward 40 years or so and the writing I do now is different, but still influenced and benefited by the analytical/critical skills I learned in school. Who, what, where, when, why, and how still often find their way into my writing. Something a favorite professor of mine used to say was, “Our job is not to tell readers what to think, but rather to tell them what to think about.” That puts the onus on us as communicators. After determining the topic/story, whether speaking with someone face to face, or writing, I still believe the ability to get a message across is one of the most important skills any of us can cultivate. If we aren’t careful though, comprehension can be the drowning victim in a flood of communication. Unfortunately, the age of social networking encourages worship of the podium and “like” addiction. It’s easy to fall into the trap of chasing applause from the same audience over and over again. Too often, the participants in platforms like Facebook foster an atmosphere of us vs. them instead of appealing to each other’s hearts and what we have in common.

Since today is Mother’s Day, you might be asking yourself what any of this talk about communication has to do with it. I’ve always believed the best communicators are great listeners first. Anyone with a loud voice can make a speech, but not everyone is a good listener, which is a hallmark of quality communicators. My mother was a wonderful listener. Looking back, I know she put as much or more effort into hearing than she did in being heard. This was one of her gifts to the world, and to the degree it is mine, she deserves much of the credit. As a Christian who believes the gospel message must take primacy in my life, I recognize that my words matter. I alone am responsible for them, both the ones I utter and the ones I choose to mull over and process.

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;
James 1:19 ESV

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Ephesians 4:29 ESV

“It is not the voice that commands the story; it is the ear.”
Italo Calvino

“I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.”
Truman Capote

Lord, inform what we say and write
to the exclusion of words
that tear down and divide.
Help us work the muscle
between our ears
to devote more attention to what we hear.
Focus our discernment
toward what you say
through your word
and our brothers and sisters today.
Then if reconciliation and peace
are worth being preached
like the song says, “let it begin with me.”

© Joel Tipple 5/10/2020






Mayday

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Mayday is the word used around the world to make a distress call via radio communications. The call signals a life-threatening emergency, usually on a ship or a plane, although it may be used in a variety of other situations. Mayday got its start as an international distress call in 1923 and was made official in 1948. It was the idea of Frederick Mockford, a senior radio officer at Croydon Airport in London. He came up with the idea for “mayday” because it sounded like the French word m’aider, roughly translated as “come help me” in English.

Yesterday was the first of May, otherwise known as May Day. Although the two are not related, it made me think about mayday, and the fact that many of us, even though we might not actually be in a ship or plane at the time, have wished we could pick up a radio, call “mayday” and be rescued.

We do our best to be strong and prepared for what life throws at us, but just as the pilot of a vessel must know when to ask for help, so must we. One factor I try to remember is that the help I receive is inevitably help for my family and friends as well. Pushing the shipping analogy a little further, the aphorism, “a rising tide lifts all boats” applies here. If we seek God, and seek his help early and often in our lives, those whose lives are affected by ours will benefit. For my family, friends, and community, I believe in God, believe he rewards those who seek him, and believe he hears us when we ask for help in our time of need.

Help for rescue
Lord, amazing rescue
My joy abounds
for God, you rescued me
And every day I need it
you’re my life preserver Jesus
you’re so good to me

Help for rescue
Lord amazing rescue
Though my ship’s plunging
you lift me up on wings
You’re never late, you meet my faith
Every time you bring me in
for a safe landing

Help for rescue
Lord, amazing rescue
When I’m uncertain
you point me home
When I go forth, you’re always north
I can’t be lost,
you’re my forever compass bearing

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
Psalm 139:13-16 ESV

© Joel Tipple 5/2/2020