Excuses and Computers

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September 2, 2008 | No comments yet

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By:  Staci Stallings

I know why God made computers.  Without them, what kind of excuses could we ever come up with?  Only boring ones about having to make supper or someone just called with another awesome volunteer opportunity that we just had to say yes to.  Well, unfortunately neither of those are my excuses.  No, mine goes back to that tried and true one… my computer was completely wigging out!

You see, the only way I can connect with you is through this mass of wires and electrical currents that frankly, I don’t really understand at all.  That point was driven all the way home this past week when my old computer abruptly went on strike.  Now I had honestly known this was coming, and I believe the introduction of not one but two Internet/email crazed children over the summer probably hastened its demise.  Further on Friday of the week before, I had purchased (unbeknownst to my old computer, or so I thought) a whole new system.

Personally, I think the old computer heard about this encroachment on its territory and decided to protest–vehemently, in the way I would be most likely to notice.  First my Internet started being intermittent at best.  (That’s a fancy way of saying it didn’t work when I tried to use it.)  Then, for no reason I still know, the computer stopped talking to the printer.  This was not the printer’s fault as I could print from my laptop, but things sent from the computer down the two feet to my printer got eaten somewhere between here and there.

As lessons go, you just knew this situation was ripe for teaching me something.  And you would be right.

Normally all of this protesting and striking by my computer would be a mere annoyance.  Except last week I really needed my computer.  The things I had to get done were of vital importance to my family’s ability to eat this next year.  And suddenly the computer refused to cooperate. Lucky Ad 2-2014

In truth not much of anything else was cooperating either.  People weren’t calling me back.  I couldn’t find the files I needed, and when I found them, what I needed wasn’t in them.  I was going really, REALLY crazy and getting more and more frustrated with… my computer!  After all, it was both the cause of the distress and the thing that could get me out of the stress if it would just WORK!

Then, in a single moment of clarity, I remembered something.  The computer is not in charge.  God is.

Knowing I needed more help than my puny little prayers at the moment, I reached out to several friends of mine for prayer.  I know it sounds too good to be true, but from that moment on, everything just smoothed out.  People started calling back.  I found the right papers even if they were in the wrong files.  Even the computer came online for whole minutes at a time.

I will not lie.  I love my computer.  I love the freedom and the options it gives me.  But I do think it’s important to remember that it is a tool and not a god.  And even when the computer goes south altogether, God still has a plan if you are willing to listen to that plan and reach out to His power.  It’s something to keep in mind!

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August 21, 2008 | No comments yet

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August 14, 2008 | No comments yet

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August 11, 2008 | No comments yet

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August 7, 2008 | No comments yet

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August 4, 2008 | 1 Comment

By:  Staci Stallings Judge not, lest ye be judged. –Matthew 7:1 The call was controversial—just as all really close calls in baseball are. Full speed the runner slid home and thinking he had just scored a game-altering run, he stood up only to face the words, “You’re out!”   Now you know how…

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