I have spent the better part of the afternoon working on a worship program which is installed on both my laptop and the office PC, neither of which wanted to cooperate in completing the work. It was absolutely frustrating. I felt like Charlie Brown with his kite stuck in a tree: Aaaauuuggghhhhh! One computer kept 'freezing' while in mid-program, the result of a 'codec problem', the other kept shutting down for God only knows why - and I, the technological 'keeg' (A word I invented meaning, 'The polar opposite of a 'geek'.) had no idea how to remedy the situation. So, I shut one computer down and rebooted, which I think makes me feel better more than it improves the situation, and I am waiting for professional help on the other computer from a certified 'geek'. Aaaaaaauuuuugggggghhhhh!
Yet, it has become a 'God-moment' of its own, for I now have a better understanding of the folks who come to the church in whatever place in life they are, expecting the church (like a computer) to be there, rock-solid, dependable, compassionate, caring, and loving, and always ready to equip them for the work to which they have been called . . . only to find themselves battered by 'commands' they don't understand, staring at the blue hairs of death whose pews they happened to wander into, and wondering if there is anybody 'up there' who really cares whether they live or die . . . because in the way they have been received down here nobody really gives a damn. Now, before you immediately slip a gear defending your particular faith community as being the exception to that statement, let me affirm for you: You are worshipping in the perfect faith community, filled with perfect Christians, and are on the cutting edge of becoming a perfect saint.
I am not. I am a part of the earthly community known as the Church of Jesus Christ which is as imperfect and fallible as the very body in which I reside. On a very, very regular basis we unhook our power cord from God's outlet in the Spirit, believing we can create our own charge if we just manage to build the right structure. We sacrifice God's call for smooth internal operation in Whose we are called to be by allowing a morass of viruses and competing cheap programs to occupy our time. Instead of focusing on God's Word of grace and mercy in Jesus and trusting it to be the Operating System by which our lives are shaped, we sell short our souls to cheap imitations whose unreliability crashes our lives into the rocks of our own stubborness time after time. And the rest of the world is left shaking its head, wondering all the while, "This is their God of Salvation? If this is salvation, I'll wait for the next generation of updates and save myself some heartache."
The hope of the church to which I belong is in the One by Whom we are healed and in Whom we are being perfected, Jesus our Lord: God's Geek Among Us, the Heavenly Tech Support to which we pray. It is He who knows why our lives overheat and our programming freezes up - and it is by His touch that our motherboards are healed. In His hands is our hard drive with capacity beyond our numbering and, with ever expanding capability, our RAM functions quickly and efficiently, complementing the Source from which it was birthed and to which it remains connected, one internal network forevermore. Maybe, just maybe, we will manage to reflect the Goodness of God's Technician when we continually live to fashion our lives as His, when we remember to point the cursor of our prayers towards the 'HELP' button of His gospel living and wait for His response, and when we press forward kindly, gently, warmly, tenderly, faithfully being of assistance to others as He offers assistance to all.
Maybe, in that moment, the 'Aaaaauuuuugggghhhhhh!' of the world will become 'Praise God!' upon the lips of the saved (and everyone knows that is how Jesus defeats the powers of hell: Jesus saves!) as keeg's in the faith become geeks of His faith, reflecting His glory in unending praise. Ah, maybe someday. For today, it is this keeg's silent prayer for the church as I wait for the computer to reboot again.
Your servant in Christ,
Pastor Don
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