computers

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Is Technology Making You Irrelevant? 

I’m a little concerned with where technology is leading us. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all “teched” up to the hilt in my world, but I don’t know how long I can keep going.

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I’m not concerned that computers stop being more and more useful; it’s that I don’t like the changes I have to keep making.

Software has to continually be kept up with or we appear to be old fashioned.

I experienced that the other day. People looked at me like I was from the dark ages because I didn’t have a certain app on my phone.

I was making arrangements to pay a guy for hockey, and he said, “Just send the money via etransfer.”

I replied that I didn’t really do that kind of thing … that’s when the looks started flashing around the room.

It seemed like I was the only one who didn’t use this form of money transfer.

My son just smiled and shook his head. He didn’t say it but I knew he was thinking, “Man, my dad is an old guy”.

He did ask, “Don’t you have the banking app?”, to which I responded, “What’s the banking app?” At that point I could tell his thoughts were, “It’s useless. He’s too old to understand this stuff.”

I know, in that moment, Mike was contemplating the next 20 years of helping me, holding my hand as the computer age passes me by.

I’ve watched that movie before! … only I was the one who had to hold my dad’s hand as he struggled to do some of the simple things on a computer.

I guess it happens to us all eventually. But I’m a computer guy and I don’t feel like I’m out of touch with what’s going on in the computer world.

I just don’t think I need to jump down every rabbit hole that technology is taking us on.

There are areas that I’m quite happy to leave alone, and leave for others to use. One of those areas has to do with my money and transactions.

There is something in me that likes to be the one who takes MY money out of MY bank account. I don’t like it when someone else – either the bank or a merchant – takes my money out of my account for me.

Now I’ll have to get used to etransfer or the computer age will pass me by.

I just don’t like where computers are leading us. I shouldn’t be considered out of touch or too old to figure it out because I don’t use a certain method of payment.

At the end of our conversation, Mike said he would do the transfer. That sounded perfect to me because the money would be coming out of his bank account!

I told him, “That works for me. I’ll just subtract that amount from the tab you’ve got going with me.”

Here’s the thing: Most of us want to remain relevant in this world. As you consider staying relevant spiritually, remember that God never changes. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. You can always reach Him in the same way; He’s always reachable by prayer.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: In what area do you fear becoming irrelevant? Leave your comment below.

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What Will Bring Satisfaction To Your Day?

At the end of a day we want to look back with a sense of satisfaction. No matter what kind of day it was – a busy day, a day of trouble, or a day of ease – we want to feel satisfied with our day.

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My Saturday could have blown up in my face … it certainly didn’t go down as one of the most memorable days of my life. But at the end of it, satisfaction is what I felt.

It started as a great day; I had nothing pressing, could do anything I decided to do. There were a couple of things that were in the back of my mind that I wanted to do, like go for a bike ride.

It was a warm, sunny fall day with the leaves turning – everything outside was inviting. Instead, I ended up sitting on my couch in the basement with my computer … all day long.

With all the free time I had on Saturday, I thought I would upgrade our website to the latest version of software. As I started the task, I knew it was not going to be easy to do. But I did have the time, so I thought I’d go for it.

… And boy, did I! Along the way, I learned lots – more than I had ever wanted to know about software and the internet. I may be scarred for life now.

There were a couple of times during the day that I crashed our website and was not sure if I could get it back. I feared I would have to rebuild the website from scratch.

I read all kinds of horror stories about upgrading websites that really should have convinced me that I should have just left it alone, but no I kept going.

It may have been my dad’s voice in my head saying, “Finish what you start”. I wanted to go for a bike ride but I had to finish the upgrade. This compulsion goes back to when I was a kid and colouring in a colouring book …

One time I started colouring a picture and then half way through got bored and turned the page to start a new one. My dad said to me “Finish the one you started.” Those words got stuck in the part of my brain that makes decisions and now I have to finish what I start.

All day I kept asking questions via google search, and I had to reframe those questions over and over to get the answers I was looking for. I had to comb through useless information to get the nuggets of helpful suggestions.

I had to take some risks, because instructions were not that clear. I failed several times before I was successful. And it was the littlest things that brought the results I wanted. After hours of frustration, I found someone who had a similar problem, and the solution was to put an “@” at the beginning of line 1411 in some file.

It worked … it was 9:30 pm.

Even though it was a gorgeous day, and I could have gone biking, could have done a million things – even cutting the grass looked more exciting that day! – still, satisfaction marked my day.

Here’s the thing: There are a lot of difficult things we would rather put off, not deal with, turn a blind eye to. But if you will keep seeking God about these difficult issues or personal growth areas, not ignoring them, but persevering by continually bringing them to God, when God brings that answer, in the end, you will have as much satisfaction as when you do something enjoyable.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you stuck with in order to see it finished?  Leave your comment below.

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I Need an Electricity Plant in my Backyard

I wondered the other day if I’m getting a little too high-tech for my own good. Nothing wrong with high-tech but it requires a lot of electricity, and I’ve been noticing my dependence on it.

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Every day I have a laptop, an iPad and an iPhone with me, so you could say I’m fairly tech-oriented. All these gadgets need to be recharged, and the other day I had all three charging at the same time. If the power goes out at work, I’m good for as long as the batteries on my electronic devices hold up.

I have a system for charging that keeps my stuff working well. You can ask my kids, I have drilled it into their brains: you don’t charge your device until it is just about out of power; you don’t stop charging it until it’s fully charged; and when it’s done, you unplug.

My charging philosophy has done me well, and my daughter can attest to it. She has a 6 year old laptop and only now is the battery needing to be replaced.

If my use of high-tech tools stopped there, I would be nothing more than your average tech-savvy professional. But wait … I rely on a few more battery-powered devices to get me through my day.

I mentioned in a recent blog that I got a new weed trimmer. It’s cordless, runs on a battery, and the cool thing is I can use that battery with about 50 other products by the same company. I’m slowly working on getting them all (don’t tell Lily), but for now I have a cordless drill which can swap batteries with my whipper-snipper.

Isn’t that awesome? However, they need to be charged. They don’t run forever without being plugged in.

There’s even more. I have a cordless electric razor that needs to be reinvigorated with electricity and I have a blade razor/trimmer that requires a battery. To finish off my morning ritual of getting ready for the day, I use an electric toothbrush.

Yesterday was a big day for me tech-wise – maybe even a record. I had to charge my razor, all three of my computer devices, plus replace the battery in my pro-glide razor … and I think my toothbrush needs to be recharged.

Did you feel the power drain? Did the lights dim or flicker when you were getting ready for work? Don’t sweat it; it wasn’t a potential brown out across the eastern seaboard. It was just me plugging my high-tech stuff into an outlet.

There’s no end to my need for electricity and power. I have a bike computer that wirelessly calculates my distance, speed, and time all through the power of a little battery. And one more thing I almost forgot … There is a guy who has developed a hockey skate blade with a little heater in it that slightly warms the blade, giving you a little advantage on the ice. And ya, it needs a battery. And ya, I need a pair!

All I need now are solar panels on my roof and I’m set.

Here’s the thing: There are many things we can become dependent on, and if we lost the use of them, our life would be significantly altered. The key is to depend on something that we can’t be cut off from. How dependent are you on God?

Question: What have you become so dependent on that you couldn’t imagine doing without? Leave your comment below.

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Like a Square Peg in a Round Hole

Yesterday I helped a friend purchase an electronic tablet. I thought it would be straight forward, but part way through the process I realized I was going to be locked into the lengthy task of helping my friend learn how to use the device.

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If I helped someone in their twenties purchase a tablet, by the end of the transaction the need for my help would end. But my friend is not in his twenties and I can see that my services will be required for quite some time.

… And that gives me flashbacks to my dad with his computer! He would call me with a computer problem, hoping I would be able to solve it over the phone. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I was a pastor and not a computer geek, but I’m sure that wouldn’t have stopped him from seeking my help.

I would ask him to describe what he had on his computer screen so that I could replicate it on mine and then try to walk him through a solution. That might sound like a great plan, but most of the time, while he was supposedly following my steps, he would blurt out “It’s gone”. And then the following dialogue would ensue:

“What’s gone, Dad?”

“Oh, it’s back again!”

“What’s gone? What’s back? Dad, back away from the keyboard. Don’t touch anything!”

These calls were painful at times, trying to get a 73 year old to master new technology. It was like teaching a child which hole the round peg goes in and which hole the square one goes in. I remember how many times I had to show our kids, saying “No, see? The round one goes in here.”

They would still try to stick the square one in the round hole, but you had the hope that eventually, in time, they were going to figure it out. I remember I didn’t have that same hope with my dad.

One time when I was talking to my brother, I mentioned these computer help calls I’d been getting from Dad. As soon as I asked, “Has Dad ever called you about his computer?”, my brother’s eyes got all crazy-like and he just said, “Don’t get me started!”

It was then that I realized that my dad had a master plan for getting computer help. His plan was simple: phone one son until he was exasperated and then phone the other. My dad would go back and forth asking computer questions to whomever he thought had the most patience.

So yesterday in the store, I started to gear myself up for a barrage of calls and drop in appointments to my help desk. I guess my computer help desk is open for service again.

Here’s the thing: Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that God is like us and gets tired of our repeated requests. But God isn’t like us at all. So don’t ever stop bringing your requests and confessions to Him. He is always eager to hear from you.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: Have you ever felt like you couldn’t bother God with something again?  Leave your comment below.