Words Matter

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Brenda’s Blog – December 15, 2015

“Speedo Repair”…

The reader board caught my eye as I traveled through Dallas. I could see the small Speedometer store on the side of the interstate, but it didn’t interest me until… I saw their brief notice.

What do you think? Was that cryptic offer to rejuvenate out of kilter speedometers? Was that a humorous double entendre crafted to get attention?

The way we talk has influence and impact. We recognize accents, styles, and word choices. We make value judgments based on the vocabulary, articulation, and expressions.

When I was young my parents taught me swearing was lazy. When someone had to resort to improper speech, and vulgarities it was because of a lack in vocabulary options. As I got older and spent time with well-educated men and women, I realized coarse speech was more than lazy – it was habitual.

Precision in speech always gets my attention. The gift of having access to exactly the right word in the right place garners admiration. One of the sadnesses of older age is the evaporation of words. I know I used to know, but now I grasp for the proper word, usually settling for the lowest common denominator.

The Bible tells us our speech has the power to heal or to hurt. In Proverbs we are told the extreme quality of “an apt word.” The picture drawn is of “apples of gold in settings of silver.” That puts encouraging words in rarified air, doesn’t it?

Words are the way we connect ideas to action. Words are the bridges from one to another. Words matter.

Straight and Crooked – Part One

Weekly Thought – December 15, 2015

Fred once commented he liked to do “crooked thinking on the straight and narrow.” He highly respected the body of Christ and refused to take pot-shots at the church, even when offered opportunities by high ranking intellectuals. Leadership Journal published an article entitled Straight Answers in a Crooked Age which gave Fred a platform to express his quest for intellectual integrity in Christian leadership. We will do a series which covers all his points in coming weeks.

Straight and Crooked – Part One

Several years ago, I was talking with a former fundamentalist who had left the ministry to enter politics. I realized how far he had strayed from fundamentalism when he said, “You know, Smith, I respect your intelligence. How in the world can you still believe in authority of Scripture?”

I knew he would argue against a rational defense, so I took a different tack. “At one time in my life, I thought about taking your position because there was so much in the Bible I found distasteful. But then I realized it was my distaste rather than my disbelief that was causing the problem. I didn’t want to believe the parts of Scripture that commanded my actions. I didn’t want to lose control of my life making obedience more important than knowledge.”

He didn’t change his mind, but I think he went away respecting the fact that intellectual integrity could make you submit to Scripture.

Since then I’ve done more thinking on the subject. If I remove the portions of Scripture I dislike, and five of my friends do likewise, the six of us could pretty well scrap the whole book through our distaste for obedience, our rebellion against authority, and our worship of knowledge.

I know myself well enough to know I’m not God-like enough to be that authoritative. Honesty compels me to accept the authority of Scripture.

Intellectual integrity, however, is not abundant in the Christian community. In fact I find more of it in business than I do in religion. There’s a simple reason: business uses the language of figures. Politics, religion, and education don’t lend themselves to bottom line evaluation.

I will throw out several areas which are troublesome and later we will cover them in depth: 1) Spiritualizing the non-spiritual; 2) Operating from spiritual platitudes; 3) Confusing creatures of God and children of God; 4) Transposing knowledge and faith; 5) Policing the church, positively and negatively; 6) Turning reality into ritual and forced disciplines; 7) Setting the bar too low; 8) Pushing theology into boxes.

Humility is still the surest way to genuine intellectual integrity.

This week think about: 1) Where are my struggles with integrity? 2) Who best knows my soft spots? 3) What am I doing to grow into a whole person?

Words of Wisdom: “Honesty compels me to accept the authority of Scripture.”

Wisdom from the Word: “The one who conducts himself in integrity will live securely, but the one who behaves perversely will be found out.” (Proverbs 10:9 NET Bible)

Fred Smith Sr. shares a lifetime of Encouragement at Centennial Celebration

Click here to enjoy Fred Smith Sr. and his lifetime of encouragement.

Sin Talk

Weekly Thought – December 8, 2015

Fred, during one of his hospital stays, called a number of friends to say goodbye. As expected these were emotional conversations. Fred ended each one with an expression of affection, adding “remember I am just a sinner, saved by grace.”

The teams are forming for the 2016 BWFLI schedule. The campus venues are coming together. And, throughout the process, we are trusting God for providential work. If you want to help us financially, we will be most grateful.

Sin Talk

We are so afraid of minimizing sin we find it difficult to accept forgiveness for fear we will begin to enjoy sinning. We set up the test of a Christian as one who sins, but does not enjoy it. “He cannot continue in sin” is how we perceive mature Christians. But for how long? Does the remorse hit immediately or is it delayed? Is the penalty of sin sudden death like lightning strikes?

We fail to see the change of attitude toward past sin and future sin. Our gratitude for grace is evidenced in our attitude toward future sin. If we adhere to the “sin that grace might increase” school of thought, we accept grace as a bromide for the morning after sickness of sin. If we accept grace as the only answer for our sin, then we realize how limited we are in our ability to truly handle sin. Only grace gives us hope for a different outcome as we mature in Christ. But it is a gift, not an achievement. If we couldn’t save ourselves initially, then we certainly can’t resave ourselves. And sin doesn’t mean loss of salvation – that is what grace is about.

We try to minimize the power of sinning by creating guilt over the past so it will cloud our future. We deny that those who have sinned have accomplished any happiness following their repentance from sin. We are so afraid someone will get by with sinning we take away the full affect of repentance. There are some who foolishly feel they are denied some sins, but feel they can make up for it with other varieties. That just doesn’t sense.

I once spoke for a friend at her one year mark in Alcoholics Anonymous. I used a phrase she shared with me… “the joy of sobriety.” She said she couldn’t stay sober by trying to avoid drinking. When she came to understand the joy of sobriety, she turned a corner. Sin is like that. When we try to grit our teeth and live the Christian life, we are prone for failure. Only when we realize the joy of grace do we start understanding why sin has lost some of its magnetic pull.

When our children were little we took them to evangelistic meetings where men and women like Johnny Spence and my friend Gert Behanna shared their testimonies. Frequently I doubted the value of displaying the gory details before our young children. Too many got caught up in the “I had everything the world had to offer” talk and failed to properly demonstrate the changed life.

I thankfully acknowledge I am a sinner saved by grace. And I focus on the grace, not the sin.

This week think about: 1) How do I think about sin? 2) What does grace really mean to me? 3) Who demonstrates the quality of graciousness living?

Words of Wisdom: “Only when we realize the joy of grace do we start understanding why sin has lost some of its magnetic pull.”

Wisdom from the Word: “What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6: 1,2 NET Bible)

Soul Questions

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Brenda’s Blog – December 1, 2015

“The cross is the attraction.”

Amy Carmichael was a missionary to India in the early 1900s. Her work at Dohnavur with endangered girls and boys still impacts the world today. When people wrote asking to come join the work she asked a series of questions. Here are a few:

1) Do you truly desire to live a crucified life?

2) Does the thought of hardness draw you or repel you?

3) Apart from the Bible can you name three or four books which have been of vital help to you?

4) Have you ever had opportunity to prove our Lord’s promise to supply temporal as well as spiritual needs?

5) Can you mention any experience you have passed through in your Christ life which brought you into a new discovery of your union with the crucified, risen, and enthroned Lord?

As we start looking back over the year, perhaps we can think deeply about these questions. They challenged me to my core. What does being a follower of Jesus truly mean? How can I live this out in Texas, not India?

The Lord called Amy to a life singularly focused. Maybe our callings are not quite as lasered, but they are indeed designed for us to live in order to “glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

Mentoring Moments

Weekly Thought – December 1, 2015

Fred collected ideas the way some assemble sports memorabilia, or pictures of themselves with famous people. He thought constantly and captured these bursts on a tape recorder then transcribed by Margie Keith. This week the email features these explosions on the subject of mentoring. They are not in paragraph form, but certainly a format which leads to cohesive application.

December signals the end of the year for BWF and BWFLI. It also welcomes the beginning of our academic planning season. Thank you for your consistent support through prayer, words of encouragement, and financial giving. Please remember us in your year-end donations if led. Bless.

Mentoring Moments

1) A mentor helps a person have an accountability, a measure for accomplishment, and a clarity of purpose by having them review to you what they are trying to accomplish – not what you want for them to achieve.

2) The most difficult area to mentor is character. Yet this is where most of the failures are. I have rarely seen anyone fail for lack of training, but many times for lack of character.

3) A mentor helps another identify constructive strengths and destructive weaknesses, then focus on the strengths while bolstering the weaknesses.

4) A mentor is a counter-balance. I like to think of myself as the tail on the kite of high flyers.

5) A mentor differentiates between where the person is and where they want to go by always trying for a higher standard.

6) The mentor helps develops the reflexes by instituting habits and reviews.

7) The mentor is not a monitor. Someone can stand in the gym and look in the mirror to monitor progress. The mentor assists in the process, and doesn’t just reflect it.

8) The mentor helps in the clarification of spirit, mood, and intent.

9) It is not the mentor’s job to create desire.

10) A mentor should expose fantasy to avoid kidding oneself or rationalizing.

11) You turn to a mentor after you learn the fundamentals. He may return you to the basics, but it’s the teacher’s responsibility for the rudiments and the mentor’s to coach you to acquire the expert skill in the use of them.

12) If someone were to come to me and ask me what I could do for them, I would probably say, “Nothing” because I refuse to take the responsibility for doing for them what they can do for themselves.

This week think about: 1) Which thought applies to me right now? 2) How can I further develop this thought to be helpful? 3) Who is mentoring me and who am I mentoring?

Words of Wisdom: “A mentor is a counter-balance… a tail on the kite.”

Wisdom from the Word: “And entrust what you heard me say in the presence of many others as witnesses to faithful people who will be competent to teach others as well.” (2 Timothy 2: 2 NET Bible)

Power

Weekly Thought – November 24, 2015

Fred believed gratitude was one of the most important emotions. He believed strongly in his admonition to “never lose the good of a bad experience.” To the very end of his life he expressed thanks to all, especially to his heavenly father.

We at BWF are profoundly grateful for you. May this Thanksgiving allow you a moment to stop and reflect on the blessings on our great God and Father.

Power

Any schoolboy with a B average can chant Lord Acton’s cliche: “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Power gets a bad name and a bad rap. For all its addictive effects on many, power itself is a neutral instrument. Its morals have to be measured by the use to which it is put. It simply energizes.
Power rises from the spirit of the bearer.

I’m credited with original authorship on the story of the artificial fish which is a metaphor now widely quoted among Christians. It is an expression of the power of the spirit. If you put a live fish in a pool of artificial fish, everybody notices the difference immediately. The authentic spirit of the living fish stands out in contrast to the lump of plastic which forms the others. One after another, people marvel at the movement of the living fish which is doing what it was meant to do.

There are fewer situations which demonstrate the effect of power than retirement. The measure of the executive’s motivation becomes clear. Was the power for personal acclaim and acceleration or for the benefit of the organization? The self-serving conniver has to wear title as armor and power as sidearms.

Associates never want to see this person again after the obligatory retirement party. Some of the worst are the most vulnerable to vindictiveness once disarmed by loss of title and position. Rare is the executive who lives in such a way that colleagues miss the person more than the function.

A senior executive facing retirement asked me what to expect. I quickly answered, “No one will return your phone calls.” The “yes, sir” attitude is attached to the position, not to the person. Retirement awakens the realization of power’s privileges.

But, walking away from the position also provides the opportunity to create authentic relationships. And also, to understand the true power – that of the Spirit. We also can focus on our unique gifts and nurture genuine, appropriate personal power not based on title, but on contribution.

This week think about: 1) What is my power base? 2) How can I develop my gifts beyond title or position? 3) What creates gratitude today?

Words of Wisdom: “Rare is the executive who lives in such a way that colleagues miss the person more than the function.”

Wisdom from the Word: “And he displayed great power and awesome might in view of all Israel.” (Deuteronomy 34:12 NET Bible… speaking of Moses)

Turbulent Times

Weekly Thought – November 17, 2015

Fred spoke to the San Angelo, Texas initial Prayer Breakfast in the 1990s. The local newspaper covered it and the article by Ron Durham captures his thinking so well, it is repeated as this week’s thought. Fred spoke to prayer gatherings from coast to coast, offering his distinctive style of Christian thinking from a businessman’s perspective.

Fred’s thoughts are most pertinent to today’s troubled environment.

Mark Modesti, member of the BWFLI team, as well as the BWF Project, Inc. board recently presented at the TED/UPS talks. Click here to hear his wise and challenging words on “Trouble.”

Turbulent Times

Despite indications that the nation is in the Dark Ages morally, there are enough true believers acting out their commission as “the light of the world” to prompt optimism, Dallas businessman Fred Smith told a local audience Thursday.

The remarks from Fred Smith, an author and inspirational speaker, were received enthusiastically by the approximately 600 people attending San Angelo’s version of the National Prayer Breakfast.

Prayer is “a relationship that unites us instead of a doctrine that divides us,” Smith said. At another point he noted that “moral problems spiritual solutions.”

Acknowledging that “these are turbulent times because we are between Christian and non-Christian time,” he compared the situation to a trapeze artist leaving the swing and tumbling through the air reaching for the other swing.

Citing others who agree that the nation is in moral decline, Smith referred to Russian dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s comment that “the Ten Commandments have become the Ten Suggestions.” He then observed that the culture’s materialistic bent only points to “a hole in the soul,” and that “many people have means but very little meaning.”

On the brighter side, Fred Smith cited ministries from inner city Seattle to the nation’s prison to professional sports to indicate a basis for optimism. And he told of people who have said, “I want to move my life from success to significance.”

Smith posed a blunt challenge to members of churches and synagogues to live up to the claims of their faith, noting a recent survey that indicated only 10 % of church and synagogue members show any significant difference in lifestyle.

Smith has served on more than 20 boards, including Cummings, Inc, Word, Inc, Youth for Christ International, and the Zig Ziglar Corporation. He currently serves on the Christianity Today, Inc. board. He holds two honorary doctorate of law degrees.

This week think about: 1) What is my response to our turbulent times? 2) How am I maximizing faith and minimizing fear? 3) What would be my message to a prayer breakfast?

Words of Wisdom: “Many people have means, but very little meaning.”

Wisdom from the Word: “God is our strong refuge; he is truly our helper in times of trouble.” (Psalm 46:1 NET Bible)

A Lonely Space

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Brenda’s Blog – November 17, 2015

“Do you ever get lonely?”

My sweet daughter-in-law’s question was lovingly and tentatively asked. She didn’t want to intrude, but she wanted to check on me.
“Of course, I do.”

How would you answer that question? Probably in the affirmative, for loneliness is part of the human condition. The real question is: “What do you do when you get lonely?” or “When do you feel loneliest?”

A sociological study titled “The Lonely Crowd” spoke to us of human disconnection. I spent two days this week on a college campus celebrating the opening of the Bob Briner School of Business. The speakers excellently and pointedly addressed the students on leadership, character, and even job seeking skills. No matter what the topic, each one addressed the issue of virtual friendships and the need for true human interaction.

We can’t be fully human if the majority of our relationships begin and end on an electronic device. Eye contact becomes “I” contact. Warm greetings and handshakes are traded for emoticons and abbreviations.

USA Today featured an article on prisoners who are held in solitary confinement and the outcome of their lives after release. Of nine studied, all nine returned to prison. Extended solitary existence doesn’t mesh well with communal communication.

But we can be in a shoulder-to-shoulder room, flanked by laughing people and broad smiles, yet still be lonely. We need connection to quell those pockets of longing. How do we do that?

When you are in a strange environment, do you think about your own comfort, or seek to alleviate the anxiety of someone else you notice? What words do you prepare to initiate conversations? What heart and mind sets are established before you enter into these situations?

Yes, precious daughter-in-law I get lonely… I get scared… I get eager to run away, but when I accept my role as a transmitter of God’s grace to others, it gets easier. When I “turn my eyes on Jesus,” the pangs subside… some. There will always be times when the desire to feel fully accepted, included, and integrated will rise up. But when I think of those who need a word of encouragement, a hug, or just a smile, I understand how my loneliness can be converted into loveliness.

Notes on Aging – Part Two

Weekly Thought – November 10, 2015

Fred’s desire to finish well caused him to think about the process. He refused to cruise into his senior years without serious thinking. His thoughts help all of us prepare for the later years. His wife, Mary Alice, maintained a youthful outlook. In her late 80s she finally allowed others to consider her elderly.

Visits to Asbury University, Lindsey Wilson College, Alice Lloyd College, and Greenville College signal the beginning of the activities for 2016 and 2017. Thank you for praying as work is underway.

Notes on Aging – Part Two

The psychologist Erik Eriksen wrote of moving deterioration to the periphery. This has been extremely helpful for me. It keeps me from bemoaning what I used to be able to do and focus on what is left. The core of my being is founded on the indestructible so that never changes. Things like physical disabilities, lack of mobility, and restricted social engagements all get pushed out to the sides. My gifts, my focus on the significant, the strengthening of relations – all these remain alive and well. My uniquenesses never change – just the way I operate does.

In aging I have found several activities I would recommend:

1) Express love. My Mother taught me the importance of touch in older age. Other friends showed me how critical it is to stay in touch. I always tell those who call, “Keep me in the loop.” One aspect of love you wouldn’t ordinarily expect is the freedom to express fear. Love is an outward motion, desiring the best for the other person.

2) Establish disciplines – It is easy to slide into schedules with no routine. I find it key to stay in regular contact with friends; to get dressed every day; to do all I can to maintain my health; and to keep my mind active through reading, thinking, and conversations.

3) Clarify the reputation – “Finishing Well” has always been a high priority. I want my last days to be ones of contribution and productivity. I don’t want to be a selfish old man.

4) Develop new interests – One of the areas I have appreciated in my older age is intercessory prayer. More and more people ask me to pray for them. I guess they think I am getting closer and closer to heaven so I must have more clout. But I find my physical immobility allows me spiritual mobility.

5) Maintain family traditions – As one who is challenged by holiday traditions I still see the value of bringing the family together and observing activities which become “Smith stories.” Mary Alice shared recipes with the women in the family and in doing so passed down her legacy.

6) Be realistic in regard to self – Older age is no time to try to run the sprint you missed in the mid-forties. Focus on the strengths and do not spend time trying to turn weaknesses into strengths. Understand limits without regret. See the value of each season.

7) Discuss final plans with counselors and especially with family – Let your family members know what your wishes are. Do good planning to avoid hardships and hard feelings.

This week think about: 1) Which of the seven particularly jumps out at me? 2) How can I plan to finish well? 3) What wisdom should I be passing on right now?

Words of Wisdom: “Put the deterioration to the periphery.”

Wisdom from the Word: “Even when you are old, I will take care of you, even when you have gray hair, I will carry you. I made you and I will support you; I will carry you and rescue you.” (Isaiah 46:4 NET Bible)

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