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.
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