Tim Boyd's Blog

Last week my recently retired dad called me and asked me what I was doing.  I told him I was at the office working.  He said, “so you must not have had the winning ticket then.”  I replied, “no, I guess it’s impossible to win if you don’t even buy a ticket.”  We were both kidding because neither of us buy lottery tickets.  I will admit that I watched the video of one of the winner’s of the huge jackpot dancing at the gas station when he found out he had won those hundreds of millions of dollars.  I think it would be nice to get a whole bunch of money like that.  And that begins the quick journey of finding myself unhappy and dissatisfied with the gift of a wonderful life that God has given me. In the world that we live in for some reason, it has become completely normal for us to equate having wealth with happiness.  It’s not so much that we all desire to have a bunch of money, but we all do want some more happiness, and we have been trained to believe that wealth brings happines

One of the most storied franchises in all of the NBA is the Boston Celtics.  In the early to mid 2000’s they were a terrible team filled with inconsistency.  They had a couple of good players and in one year they made the play-offs with only two really exceptional players and a bunch of scrubs.  In the summer of 2007 they added two players.  The first was Ray Allen who is the all-time leader in 3 point field goals.  They also added, my favorite athlete at that time, Kevin Garnett.  They were nicknamed the big three, which was the first time that it had happened.  It’s common now for NBA teams to try and have 3 exceptional players.  The 2007-2008 Boston Celtics were the first to try it. After the trades were made the sports media went crazy.  It was all they could talk about.  How great will this team be?  Will these three all-stars be able to play together?  Will they end up crumbling over there egos? When the team first got together, their coach, Doc Rivers gave these men

"Frequently those who are designed for great and eminent services are left to themselves before their conversion, to fall into great wickedness, that the mercy of God may be the more glorified in their remission, and the grace of God in their regeneration."  -Matthew Henry (Commentary on 1 Timothy)  He is writing about the Apostle Paul.  Although I see it in Job.  I see it in Peter.  I see this played out in David.  I see it in Moses.  I can keep going.... I see it in me.  I think this is one of those principles of the Christian faith that you come to realize as you mature. You must suffer in order to understand Christian service.  You'd be sadistic if you tried to work it into a lesson or a leadership style.  In order to be a good Christian servant, you have to suffer.  So many of us seem to suffer as a result of own hands or words.  But it is not lost time or pain if you learn from it and let God use it to glorify His power and love though out the rest of

How do you know that have really forgiven someone?  This is a tough concept for me.  Have I forgiven someone if I still can't stand to look at them?  Have I forgiven someone if I have just completely stopped thinking about them?   I recently ran across a great insight.  I haven’t seen someone define forgiveness in this way before.  If you want to forgive someone you need to have these 4 promises in place.  These are 4 promises that you need to make to the person you are forgiving.  (It’s not that you have to tell them this, but you need to keep these in your own mind.) 1. I will not think about this incident. You must train your mind to stop dwelling on the incident or offense; think about something else, pray, remember a blessing, dwell on God. 2. I will not bring this incident up and use it against you. Generally, this one is prefaced with, “Well, I didn’t want to have to bring this up...” 3. I will not talk to others about this incident. Gossip is the

In this election season it’s good for us to take a good hard look at what we believe is right and what we believe is wrong.  We may not be ready to vote unless we have clearly unconvered what we value ourselves.  For the Christian, we need to undertstand the difference between right and wrong from Jesus.  Jesus’ values need to replace the values that we have in our hearts. Just what are the ethics of Jesus?  What values were close to his heart?  In order to know his heart we need to understand his ethics.  Here are three easy to remember rules and questions that we can use in order to carry out the values and ethics of Jesus. Rule 1: Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, mind, and strength. (Matt 22:37) Love is a commitment based on a covenant relationship.  It means that His desires are more important than yours.  It means giving Him your adoration, worship, and life.  The question to ask ourselves when making decisions is this: Will this honor God? Rule 2: Love y

Again, I'm researching, reading, listening, and praying for my sermon and I came across something super interesting. John Wesley came up with an idea of building good ethical thought in Christians (or anyone really).  Here is the graphic that represents it well. The idea is to build from the bottom up like you would build a house.  For a person to find out what's right and wrong you should learn first from scripture.  Read your Bible and look for teachings, lessons, principals, virtues, etc and then use them when you are thinking about what you consider right or wrong.  Use it in your decisions.  That's step one. Step up two is then you look at what the church teaches.  (Notice it's Bible first and then church).  That's not just the local church but what writers and theologians think about a subject. From there you look at your life experience to determine what is right and wrong. Finally, you use your reason to determine what's right and wrong. H

I'm working on my sermon and I came across this phrase that I have ready many times and completely skipped in order to get to the "good stuff." Luke 6:17, "He went down with them and stood on a level place." I have been told that God has not listed any stupid details in the Bible.  That means that everything, including direction, weather, titles, etc, is pertinent to the story. Jesus went down with them and stood on a level place. Jesus went down... Where was he?  He was down.  He was not up.  He was not looking down.  He was not above.  He had to descend.  He had to go from up there to down here. Jesus went down...with... He did not just go down there.  He went down "with."  He went down there to be with.  It was not just Jesus looking down on the people.  No he left up to go down with. Jesus went down...with...them... Jesus went down with them.  He did not just go down.  He didn't just descend.  He descended to be with them. I

I was reading this morning and came across these sentences... "Give painters a room full of canvasses and they will paint.  Why?  Because they are painters." That's one of those ideas that could be seen as totally stupid or super deep.  I like to see it as both. It's stupid.  Painters paint.  That's why they are called painters.  OR Painters paint because they have to paint and ,therefore, they are called painters because of a calling or desire they have. It's deep.  What would I do in a room full of canvasses?  I wouldn't paint.  I'm bad at it and I don't like to paint.  So, what's my canvass?  How would this phrase play itself out better for me?  That led me to this thought. If you suddenly found yourself in a room full of other people that you didn't know.... ...what role would you take? ...what would you want them to see you as? ...what would you tell other people about yourself? ...what would your goal be in that situati

Things have been happening so fast that it's been hard to keep everything updated.  Silas was officially adopted this past Wednesday! We went to Charleston and took the kid's with us.  They did very well in court.  We met our lawyer and then met the person representing Silas.  She kept pronouncing Uganda incorrectly, but I didn't want  to correct her!  They were both wonderful with the kids and very easy to work with.  When we went into the courtroom to see the judge I felt like I was in Law and Order.  The judge came in and we all stood up.  Then the lawyers started talking really fast.  Next thing we know they called Mindy up to the witness stand!  She was a little nervous but did well.  Then I had to take the stand.  Then...it was over!  They declared Silas a Boyd and an American! That was an amazing moment.  The lawyer asked Mindy if she knew that adoption was forever and that we could never take him back.  She smiled and said, "Yes."  I think I laughed ou

We took Silas to Children's Hospital in St. Louis yesterday (8/31).  The doctor came in and said, "Oh wait, let me go see if the pediactric neurosurgeon is available for this meeting."  So we obviously assumed that Silas' head was not purely a cosmetic issue but would need surgery.  When the doctor came in again he confirmed it. Silas will need surgery and it is a major surgery.  He has Craniosynostosis which is found in about 1 in 3,000 births.  (Take that "doctor" from Uganda who told us to lay him on his other side when he sleeps!)  Silas' case is even more rare as it only occurs in 2.5% of the 1 in 3,000 births. I'm going to do my best to anticipate your questions. What is wrong with his head? Silas is missing one of his "growth fractures."  You know how they put the cracks in the sidewalks on purpose so that they concrete can expand and contrast?  Silas is missing one of those.  As the brain grows it pushes the skull out to make

I haven't been blogging for quite a while.  I guess it's because I was mostly writing about the adoption.  The other things I wrote about seemed to be not as read, so I quit writing.  From time to time I have ideas for a blog but it's not that interesting to me.  I have focused more of my creative juices on my sermons the past few months.  Also, we are busier. Silas is fitting in as if he has always been a member of our family.  He has made life much fuller for his new brother and sisters as well as our community.  Of course Mindy's and my life has changed once again.  We have not had any major issues in terms of our family dynamics.  Eden went through a short adjustment period as she was no longer the "baby" of the family.  (Kind of boring huh?) Silas has a funny personality.  Lately he says "bye" very loudly to everyone that he sees...repeatedly.  I have left from the house many times with him still smiling and shouting bye at me.  It was hard

Once upon a time there lived a lion and a bear.  The lion and the bear did not know eachother, well, they didn’t at first.  The lion and the bear happened upon eachother for the first time at a little pond in the middle of a new forest.  The lion and the bear instantly became friends as they would happen upon eachother each week at the same pond when they became thirsty.  After their weekly run-in’s the lion would go back to his home and the bear to his home. The lion was a having a hard time at his home.  The other lions were giving him fits.  They were arguing with eachother and even plotting against the lion.  The lion sensed this was going on but decided there wasn’t much he could do about it.  Every week he would get away to the little pond to drink and be refreshed.  Then he would head back home with his head held high.  The lion never fought against the other lions.  No, he decided that it would best just to continue doing the lion things that he was doing.  The lion didn’

Do you have any idea what causes me the most stress? Here are your options: 1) I'm the only Pastor on staff in a church of about 160 people. 2) I am in graduate school and I have 3 books to read and a sermon to write for class in 2 weeks. 3) I have a newly adopted son - 1 month yesterday. 4) I have four children under the age of 10. Of course it's none of those things.  What causes me the most stress?  Wondering if I am living as well as a person in my similar situation 400 years ago. Seriously. Ever since the birth of my first child I have had a reoccurring thought.  I would be sitting at work thinking that I should be with my child and caring for her and training her.  When I was at home I would think that I need to be at work taking care of all those responsibilities.  This is about the time that I started wondering if I had what it took to live 400 years ago, when life was family and work all mixed up together (by the way, that's a really faulty

This is a guest post from my wife: Our journey is almost done after 2 1/2 years. Our final step will be to adopt Silas here in America. A few more dollars and a little more time. Some of you have followed from the beginning, some part way, and some towards the end. We wanted to take the time to say thank you for your committment to staying update on our adoption and for praying for us. Honestly, I don’t know how we would have gotten through it without you. Not only have we gained a son, but many friendships along the way. Thank you to those who reached out to encourage us through notes, a phone call and those who gave finanically. You are apart of Silas’s story now. I’m looking forward to sharing all you have done on his behalf. He will surely know he is loved.  While I have your attention one more time I wanted to tell you again that without God this would not have been possible. We give Him all honor and glory for this story. Looking back over our journey I am amazed at

I can't remember the exact year but it was either when I was in high school or just out of high school.  I was sitting around with a couple of friends and one of them said, "You know when I see people I see them as animals."  I asked her what she meant by that.  She explained that she saw people and then based on some quality that they had (might be looks, personality, etc) her mind immediately assigned that person a representative from the animal kingdom. Awesome! So I asked her about some friends, teachers, and other people.  She had an animal for all of them and it fit them very well.  (I wonder if that was her spiritual gift, just kidding.) Finally, I got around to asking her what I really wanted to know.  What animal do you see when you see me?  I had no idea what animal I wanted to be.  I wanted to be something cool, but there are a lot of cool animals.  Maybe she would see me as a Tiger, or a Bear, or a shark or something.  Honestly I was not ready to h

Well we are home!  Our trip went incredibly smooth.  Silas has now spent two nights in the crib and is getting used to American cuisine (Reese's Puffs!) We went in Thursday to the US Embassy in Kampala to pick up Silas' visa.  We were nervous.  Mindy was nervous because how poorly things have gone there in the past.  I was nervous because I knew that even though they told us to come "pick up the visa" that that was no guarantee.  We waited just a bit and were called into the little room that looked like a teller's office.  She handed us all of the paperwork and we couldn't believe our eyes.  There it all was.  We grabbed it and she told us we could go.  Mindy asked about payment.  Apparently they had forgotten to charge us, so it was free! Just kidding.  We had to come back, again, on Friday to pay for it.  So we did. Our last night in Kampala with the Thomas' was on a Thursday night.  We didn't need to pack because our flight was leaving at 11:3

First off, I am worried about preaching on Sunday morning because we are getting back really late on Saturday night.  Then I am worried because I am driving the church van to camp that afternoon!  Those are some great things to be worried about.  Do you know why? Because I'm not worried about Silas' adoption anymore!  I am not worried about the visa!  I am not worried about coming home without Mindy!  All three of us are going to go on the grueling 24 hour trip home together! Entebbe, Uganda - Amsterdam - Detriot - Chicago Wow.  That's going to be crazy. Silas Anyways, the days have all been running together.  Silas is doing pretty well with us.  He is going to sleep without fussing, which is unexpected and amazing.  When "momma" leaves he gets very upset.  This afternoon she left and he screamed for about 10 minutes.  Then after he calmed down he sat on my lap for about 30 minutes.  Then we got down and I played with toys while he stared at me for the n

These pictures are from the babies home and children's home.  The soccer balls and bible are from my nephew Colin.  He wanted to see some pictures of the kids.  Needless to day, they were very happy to receive these presents!