Todd D. Still | Faculty Senate Chair

As I was growing up, I frequently heard United Way commercials. The one I best remember concluded with the following words: "Thanks to you it works for all of us... the United Way." Now that I am (more) grown up, what once represented a repetitive refrain interrupting programming, has become to me an important program.

As I was growing up, I remember hearing time and again the words of Jesus recorded in Acts 20:35: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Now that I am (more) grown up, these seemingly counterintuitive, counter-cultural words challenge my self-absorption and consumption.

As faculty of Baylor University, there are any number of demands upon our financial resources and no shortage of opportunities to give. One way that we can give back to the community in which we work and live, however, is to give to the United Way. When you contribute to the 2013 United Way Campaign, you can support a variety of needy and worthy local agencies as well as Baylor families in crisis.

The theme for this year's pledge drive is "More Than Me." One can construe this phrase variously, but at least two meanings spring to my mind immediately: 1. I need to look outside myself, consider the needs of others, and give what I can, for it truly is "more blessed to give than to receive." And, 2. I am by no means alone in doing so. "Thanks to you it works for all of us."

Todd D. Still
The William M. Hinson Chair of Christian Scriptures, Truett Seminary

Let's join the United Way in "Helping People Here."