The other day I had to use old tech to get my new tech to do what I wanted it to do.

… After writing that sentence I realize it sounds a little hypnotizing. You might be wondering what exactly I mean.

I have a relatively new laptop that is 6 or 7 years newer than my previous one. So my new laptop has technology built into it that was not around when my old laptop was made. 

Tech changes so quickly – like with cell phones. They come out with new ones every year that have great new features. When your two-year contract is up, you are dying to get a new phone because it’s so advanced.

My new laptop has all new input ports so I needed a conversion cord to connect my old devices like external hard drives, external monitors, and even thumb drives.

It was a big jump. 

But there were some changes that, in my opinion, were a step back in time.

And one of those areas I discovered recently.  

Sometimes I have to record a sermon from cassette tape to my computer. This happens when something goes wrong with our normal recording from our sound board at church. 

For years I just put the cassette in a tape player, plugged the cord into the tape player and plugged the other end into the microphone port of my laptop.

My new laptop doesn’t have a microphone port. 

That was surprising … and very disappointing to say the least!

For some reason, the manufacturer decided that we don’t need to record sound that way any more … much like the way Apple decided that we don’t need to plug headphones into our phones any more; we just go wireless.

I guess we are just supposed to throw out all of our wired headphones. 

But before you do that, it might not be a bad idea to tuck them away for later. They just might come in handy.

With my new laptop, I found a way to get sound into it.  But I had to use old tech to do it. 

I scrounged around in a draw and found a headset device that I used years ago – I’m thinking close to 10 years. I used it for a dictation program I had with my computer. I stopped using it because they came up with a wireless headset.

I disconnected the headset part and MacGyver’d it together between my tape deck and computer.

Oh, but before I did that I had to get out my USB dongle to even be able to plug it into my computer.  

It worked. 

I used ten year old technology to get my new computer to do something that was standard a few years ago. 

The moral of the story is save our landfill sites. Don’t throw out your old, obsolete technology; it just might become like new technology all over again.

Here’s the thing: In life we learn and become proficient at things we once needed help with. There may be things in your life that you used to seek God’s help for but now seem to be easy for you to handle so that you don’t feel you need His help with them any more. You may find you depend more on yourself than God now that you’ve progressed in your faith – almost like God has become a little obsolete in that area. Don’t be fooled into thinking you don’t need Him as much. A growing faith will never make your daily need to seek God obsolete or outdated.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you stopped seeking God for? Leave your comments below.