TECHNOLOGY IS SUCH A MISTRESS!
I’m sitting here writing to you because Teams meeting for Patheos is experiencing technical difficulties. Of course I want to write about it. How technology has helped us and maybe even hurt us, our faith or source of information. We live with these issues every day.
Apollo was a fun time
Remember when the Apollo missions made their way to the moon? Even the Gemini missions before them? They had a video! Remember also that our phones rang at the same time Cut lines hanging on the wall in the kitchen. It was considered a portable phone because it had a twenty-five foot cord. You can walk anywhere in the kitchen with your phone, sometimes even part of the hallway. Why do you need to go outside with your phone?
Today, with the smartphones we have, the phones we carry most of the time, we can perform these missions just by loading an app. We’d probably call it the Mission to the Moon app. The computer in the phone is more powerful than the room-sized computers used in these missions. Neil Armstrong and I could have the best Face Time conversation ever.
Where have we got to
Here’s how far we’ve come.
That’s great.
Unless it becomes our incentive. If this becomes our primary method of how we live now, if the focus on the tool is more important than the message itself, we may have a problem.
I haven’t taken the Bible out of my drawer in years. My phone’s computer is bigger, faster than the book I’m holding. I can read it in NIV or Greek. And all this while sitting in the back row at church. Now I don’t even have to go to church. I can watch it, especially after COVID, I can watch it from my back porch-in my jammies-with a cup of coffee. Why should I go to church? I can get what I need right here, right?
We have to be careful
We have to be careful. I HAVE to be careful.
I can easily get distracted and “upside down” my life. Especially being a “retired widower”. We can all be alone and inside and do things, go places completely alone. The problem is that God doesn’t want me to do that. He wants me to be there and talk to people, especially at this point in my life. Obviously, at this point in my life, I have something that other people want to hear or learn from. There really is no substitute for human contact. And when you add a level of maturity to that, well, it’s something. The only thing the Evil One wants us to do is not gather together. He loves when we are alone. Easy for him to mess up. Especially if we’re not around some older guy or gal who’s been around the block a few times to give advice to this young up-and-comer. This isn’t our first rodeo, as they say.
Our society….
Our society was one in which the whole town gathered in a church, temple or synagogue. We would meet for the county fair and barn dances. Then life started to get busy and it led to today. It was slow. Evil has all the time in the world. He will wait for us until that time comes, evil can come upon us. It’s kind of like the old story of putting a frog in a pot of water and then lighting a fire under it. The frog doesn’t try to jump out until it’s too late, not realizing it’s too hot until it’s too late.
So what does this mean? What can I do? I’m sitting here typing on a computer that could control all of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions, probably at the same time. I can talk to a box and they turn on the lights, start my car. My house gets vacuumed with what looks like a frisbee.
Pray.
Just pray
Just pray.
This is how God loves us to communicate with Him. We talk to Him. That is the prayer. Suddenly we are in discussions and conversations with the God of the universe. Oh, and we are His child. Sometimes we just need to be reminded of that. We just need to be told who we really are.
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