Technology is great…except when it isn’t.
I say or think this phrase whenever a download takes longer than it should or something goes wrong with a store’s “system” while I’m trying to checkout or when any other thing happens to cause a delay or disturbance when I’m trying to use any type of technology that is wasting time it was designed to save.
Which means I say or think this phrase quite often.
Without the technology we have, we couldn’t live life the way we presently do. Lives are saved and/or extended due to technological advances. Purchases can be made quickly and easily from places all over the globe. There is information being passed along at insanely fast speeds via the internet to people pretty much anywhere on the planet all of the time. The technology we have at our fingertips and use without even thinking about it is the stuff of yesterday’s science fiction.
And it really is great…until it isn’t.
We are kind of fickle about it, really. We go along enjoying all the things that we never would have even thought about just a few years ago, things we now barely remember not having. And then it doesn’t work as we believe it should and we go a little crazy.
“I hate my phone,” we say after it takes a second or two too long to give us information at our fingertips we would’ve had to drive to the library to get from dusty, old, and now-forgotten books in the not too distant past.
While this attitude toward technology isn’t the worst thing in the world since the technology itself really doesn’t have feelings and we really haven’t formed a relationship with it, I’m afraid we take this approach with a being who does have feelings and who does want a relationship with us.
God is good, we believe…until we believe He isn’t.
He provides for us, strengthens us, helps us, hears us, saves us. But then He takes too long to answer a particular prayer or answers it in a way that doesn’t satisfy us. Or He gives someone else something that we long for and we wonder why them and not us. Or He doesn’t work like a genie in a bottle or like some type of cosmic, doting grandfather and give us everything we want.
When God doesn’t do what we think God ought to do we start to question His greatness, His goodness, and maybe even His existence.
This is far more serious than being aggravated at the slowness or ineptness of technology. This is calling into question the very essence of the self-existent creator, sustainer, and supreme ruler of the universe who has been good in an unfathomable number of ways to us that we will never know or see this side of Heaven. This is dangerous ground we should be wary to tread.
If you are treading this ground now or are perilously close to doing so I encourage you to do a few things.
Stop. Breathe. Ponder. Pray. Search the Scriptures. Pray some more. Consult with someone who has gone through tremendous trials and has retained their faith. Slow down. Count your blessings. Pray some more.
Then you might just remember the truth that God is good even when it seems like He isn’t.
Because this is the truth even when people refuse to accept it.
The Seeking Pastor 