GOD AND TECHNOLOGY

I am sitting in Caribou Coffee this morning enjoying a cup of Joe and taking in the storm clouds that are hovering over the Twin Cities. As I write on my laptop I am simultaneously syncing my tablet because I just upgraded Patty's Spotify to Premium so that she may have her music as she is away to Maine at Bible Camp. To my right is my cell phone, charging for the day ahead.

At a table in front of me is another gentleman who is working on his laptop while he listens to music from his tablet. Ear buds in place, he has created a virtual cubicle to do his work. Just a few moments ago a young man worked his way just behind me in order to plug in his laptop and is now studiously surveying whatever he has pulled across his screen.

Technology. Gotta love it!

Some, though, do not. Some think technology is evil. Some think technology deepens and hastens depravity of mankind. It may...

All I know is that on my cell phone this morning was a message from one of my parishioners praising God that her tests came back in the most positive of ways.  I proceeded to jump on Facebook and message my church group so they could celebrate with her and be affirmed that God is answering prayer.

This morning I will have read some blog posts from some pastor friends of mine, inspiring me with the wisdom God has brought to them. That wisdom is now shared with me and hundreds, (thousands?) of others through the wonder of technology.

While preparing my sermon I can google and biblos my way to illustrations and translations that make the message God has placed on my heart for His people more relevant, more understandable and easier to apply to their hungry hearts.

As I write this, Missionaries all over the world are using cutting edge technology to reach the people God has placed on their heart. Technology allows me to support them financially and to encourage them prayerfully in the most immediate way possible.

I can only surmise that when Christ said we would go to the ends of the earth, modern-day technology must play a part.

For every positive I can give you for the use of technology, many can come up with a counterpoint of negative use of technology. Pornography is more easily accessible. Marriages are broken as lost loves are found and present loves are abandoned for the thrill of re-capturing the affections of our youth. Financial schemes and scams find their way past the most severe level of protection. Hateful, hurtful words and bullying hide behind the safety of the WEB.

Like most things it is not the things we use, it is how we use them. The tried and true principles of the Bible carry over to technology as well. The Golden Rule is just as Golden be it face-to-face or on Facebook. The love and honor I show my wife should be just as consistent on the WEB as it is as I walk with her hand in hand.

Ultimately, God will never rely on technology to reach our world for Christ. Modern-day technology is just a tool, as earth-shaking for our day as the Guttenberg Press was in its day.
It is never the tool but the heart of the one using the tool that determines the good and evil purpose of anything.

Used for the purposes of God, technology has shaped and will shape our generation, until Christ returns. If I may paraphrase Matthew 12:34 "Out of the overflow of the heart the [technology] speaks." Keep our hearts pure before God, keep our motives pure before God and today's technology remains a tool used by God to reach the hearts of the lost.

BLOCK

     I detest, I despise, I am frustrated with writer's block. I can always tell I have hit the very bottom of the barrel during writer's block when I begin to write about the BLOCK.
     I am not all that sure why I get frustrated with the BLOCK. I don't make my living with my pen, so I will eat tomorrow. I have no deadlines to meet, so I will sleep well tonight. There aren't any people whose lives will be changed by the few words I would possibly write, so my conscience is clear. Yet I am in the midst of the longest BLOCK I have ever been in and what comes to mind is: "Will I ever be able to string a sentence together ever again? A sentence that does not pertain to the BLOCK?"
     The most frustrating thing about this BLOCK is that a tremendous inspiration explodes in my brain but by the time I write the first word of whatever that inspiration it explodes again. This time like a pen that has gone through the dryer in my pocket. A mess, in other words.
     I have done all the tricks. Free associated on paper. Read a bunch of my previous writing. (Don't do this during a BLOCK because then even the old stuff looks really bad!) I have gone off to a quiet place. Sat in a familiar place. Kept a notebook at hand to write anything that may be the seed of something worth expanding on paper. Blocked. BLOCKED. BLOCKED!
     The interesting thing is that I do make my living with words. Every Sunday I have the privilege to stand in front of a great bunch of people and preach out of God's Word. No BLOCK, but then, again, I have some help of the spiritual sort.
     I am thankful for this, then: God is never BLOCKED. "I will never leave you nor forsake you." "Draw near to me and I will draw near to you." "If you seek me you shall find me." "Lo, I am with you always. Even unto the end of the age." And even unto the end of the BLOCK.