Turning Fifty

(While I'm on the subject of letters and birthdays, here is another letter written to my older brother, Buddy Timmons, of Dagsboro, Delaware, on the event of his 50th birthday.  He is now 56.)

Brent & Bud, March '07

From an early age, it was apparent that you were different from me.  You had a gift that I didn’t.  It wasn’t that I was resentful of your gift.  It was more that you had something that I aspired to grow into, knowing that it didn’t come “naturally” to me as it did to you.  I have never “grown into” it to this day.

That gift was a combination of being completely at ease around people and making them at ease around you.  I recognized it in you at an early age.  You always had a large group of friends.  When you were named “most friendly” in high school, it was just more evidence of your gift.

We spent many days on the beach fishing.  We traveled down to Buxton, and in no time at all you would find someone on the beach to talk to about fishing.  Mike McComrick and I used to joke about how you could find a friend wherever you went.  We even thought of a second career for you in Buxton.  You could have opened a restaurant with a car wash attached (a facility we all thought was lacking in Buxton).  The name we chose was “Bud’s Scrub and Grub”. 

The Robinson Speed Shop Kart

An Older 2 cycle  Kart

Then there were the cart racing years.  I don’t know what you enjoyed more, the racing or the time talking with your friends.  I regret that I wasn’t settled down enough to join you in racing my own cart.  But it would have been a stretch to be the best crew chief ever and a top notch driver.  I should have gone with you that Christmas you raced in Daytona . You may have actually won.

Bud on his Custom.

Your involvement with the  Christian Motorcyclists Association is just a more developed form of what you have been doing your whole life.  You love to interact with people, and you love your hobbies.  And CMA provides the perfect opportunity to do both and to exercise that gift that God has been developing in you your whole life.  You get the best of all worlds there.  You get to play and have fun, you get to socialize, and you get to walk in something you were clearly called to do.  You are walking out your life with Him in the presence of people who He loves.  You live as He intends all of us to live… doing what you love, and doing what He loves.  There is no difference between the two in your life.  You have become one with Him, and the fruit of that is what we all see you doing. 

Keep on Truckin'

It is rare to see a person walking in faith who has become so at ease with living as his God wants, yet at the same time living as he wants.  There is no problem, because the two are one and the same.  It is a place many aspire to, yet never reach.  So keep on truckin', and your life will no doubt encourage the rest of us to follow in your steps.

You are my beloved brother in the flesh and as a fellow believer, and I look forward the second half of our lives together.