“It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth” (Lamentations 3:27)
When I was in high school, someone taught me to type. Just after college, they taught me to run the teletype and then to work a mimeograph machine. Eventually, someone installed a computer in my office. I said, “Where do you turn it on? It has no on/off switch.”
In the 1990s when teaching (occasionally) at our seminary, I entered the classroom carrying books and a Bible. Everything about the class was hand-written or typed. In recent years, everyone brought laptops into the classroom, and much of the work was paperless, posted on academic websites set up just for this purpose. I graded “papers” without leaving my desk, without taking my eyes off the computer, without lifting a pencil.
Recently, I’ve been writing a series of devotions for a quarterly magazine in our denomination. The process was anything but simple. The editor emailed me an attachment containing instructions, a contract, samples of past devotionals, and most puzzling of all, templates for the ten articles. Think of a template as a mold into which one pours his writings. A little goes here (the title and date), a little goes there (the text, and one verse in particular that is typed out), and so forth. One template for each day, making ten in all. When these are all complete, I send them in via the internet, my cover letter with ten attachments.
The thought occurred to me today….
Had I resisted learning new things along life’s way–“The typewriters are getting more and more complicated” and “Those computers are beyond me!”–I would have missed out on so much.
Anyone remember selectric typewriters? Word processors?
I’m not sure whose voice I keep hearing from all those years ago, but someone was saying, “You can do this, Joe.”
I’m so grateful.
I thank the Lord for teachers of all kinds, some of them professors and skilled instructors, but some friends and colleagues who showed me a new skill or taught me a shortcut. These days, it’s my daughter-in-law Julie as much as anyone. After my son Marty set up the Dashboard program which allows me to type these articles for my blog and post them, since he lives 750 miles away, it’s Julie who fields my questions and shows me how to do things like take the editor’s attachments and turn them into ten separate files, each with a template for that day’s devotional.
I can still hear Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s voice from the radio, maybe 15 years ago, saying how pleased she was to learn how to “cut and paste” on her computer. At the time, I didn’t have a clue. These days, I could not live without that feature.
How did we ever write anything by longhand?
I see them. Young people who are already lazy, already doing nothing, reading nothing, learning no new skills. Dropouts on life before they are fully grown. I fear for their future and anyone who dares unite their destiny with theirs. Nothing about this bodes well.
Technology is not just moving at a rapid pace today. It picks up speed as it travels, so that changes which might have taken a decade in my youth now are happening almost daily. Anyone recall the term “warp speed?”
The cell phone I bought 15 years ago would be a joke now. The one I use today will be as old-fashioned as a buggy whip in another five years.
The implications of all this for Christian ministry are enormous.
–While we adopt the new technology and bring its advantages into the Lord’s work, let us not forget that the heart of Christian ministry is friends visiting with each other, one telling another about Jesus, two people praying together, pastors visiting in the homes of newcomers, God’s people comforting the hurting.
And you can’t do that a smart phone!
–While we bring the high tech innovations into the church services, if we forget that people are there to worship (and not to be dazzled by anything!), we fail them and fail our Lord mightily.
So, turn down the volume on the electric keyboards and digital drums and encourage people to open their mouths and sing. Have a time in the service when worshipers can come to the altar and pray. Open the Word (yep, I said ‘open it’) and teach what God has said. Quit looking for shortcuts to the essentials.
–Feed the hungry. Minister to prisoners. Counsel unwed mothers. Support the pregnancy centers. Volunteer for the church nursery. Greet the strangers who enter your church and help them feel welcomed and at home.
Some things cannot ever be replaced by anything. If you doubt that, the next time you sit on the porch swing with your sweetie, imagine trying to do that virtually.
–There will never be a substitute for a human realizing his/her need for a Savior, humbling themselves in repentance, and praying to yield to Jesus Christ.
And no substitute for kneeling on the living room carpet to pray with them.
Be with us, Father. Help us not be too impressed with the ever-evolving IT revolution, but to stay focused on the eternals.