Dear Friends
I came across this poem lately by Nigel Beeton-
The Computer Swallowed Grandad!
The computer swallowed Grandad!
Yes! Honestly! It’s true!
He pressed Control and Enter
And disappeared from view!
It devoured him completely;
The thought just makes me squirm!
He must have caught a virus
Or been swallowed by a worm!
I’ve searched through the recycle bin
And files of every kind;
I’ve even searched the internet
But nothing did I find.
I went to Mr Google
My searches to refine;
His reply was in the negative,
“Nothing found” was Google’s line.
So, if inside your inbox
My Grandad you should see-
Please copy, scan, and paste him
And send him back to me
In many ways, I think, it sums up our generation’s experience of the technological world in which we now live; one thing which never seems to improve as we get older is the deepening mystery of the power that computers have over us, and the utter confusion and sense of hopelessness when they do something that we don’t understand or expect!! Technology impinges into almost all aspects of our life, and many of us have had to be dragged kicking and screaming into an alien world. There has been an almost total role-reversal, where at one time our children came to us for help and advice; now it’s us having to go to them to help us navigate through the labyrinth of computing jargon, procedures, spam and scam and pfishing, often with the exasperated precursor of – “what have you done now?” or “you must has pressed some key or other- computers can’t think for themselves”, such comments making us shrink into our overwhelmed shell!!
From a very young age, children are au fait and totally at ease with gadgets- even my 12 month old granddaughter Lottie picks up the T.V. controls and points them at the television, pressing buttons, though not necessarily the correct ones, but she’s learnt that that’s what you do!! At school, Jos uses an interactive white board most days for learning, screens and T.V. for watching, and iPads for doing homework. For recreation he has a Nintendo Switch, and he knows how to set up and use every one of them- he is 5 years old!!
But what has any of this got to do with Christianity? Well, in the Bible, Romans 10, it says “How beautiful are the feet of those who carry good news”- in biblical times, good news was carried by walking from place to place, and the number of people reached was consequently very small; by contrast today, technology has opened up many communication channels, letting us reach a much bigger audience than ever before.
Luke, likewise, says “sow seeds on as much soil as possible”, not limiting the sowing to only the good soil, but on all soil surfaces. In other words, we should not be selective in who we communicate with, but use technology to spread God’s message far and wide, to all people of whatever persuasion, increasing the rate at which we spread the word. People spend an increasing amount of time on their laptops, tablets and iPhones – isn’t that how we should be reaching out to them, wherever they are?
We have had to adapt the way we worship during the pandemic and thanks to technology we have been able to keep in touch and continue our worship, whether through Zooming Sunday services, prayer meetings, committee meetings, interactive quizzes, or social afternoons. Our ministers have emailed Sunday services to those who cannot “Zoom”, and leaflets and newsletters have been shared in the same way. So even though we may rail against the ever-present intrusion into our lives of the computer, we have been able to harvest it for the common good. Without it, I wonder whether our Christian community would have been able to survive, as it is, we have unfortunately lost members of our congregation who have not resumed their attendance, and maybe had we not stayed in touch by various means of technology we would have disappeared as a fellowship.
So although we may feel that technology is taking over our lives, we must thank God for it, and give praise that it has helped us stay together throughout what have been taxing times.
Lord, your word says that there is a time and a season for everything under Heaven, and a time for change: Lord, help us to be comfortable with these changing times so that we do not to feel threatened by technology or too old to understand it all- give us confidence in the face of new things. Help us to see that technology is the servant, not the controller, of our lives.
These things we ask in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
Susan Tootell
Heckmondwike
