Bane or Blessing?

Technology can be a wonderful thing. A couple of days ago my wife and I sat and listened on the computer to a man read some chapters in the Bible to us which we are reading as a congregation.  You can “dial up” about any chapter you want and just sit back and hear God’s Word read to you !  We can enjoy better health thanks to advances in medicine, our travel has been greatly enhanced by technology not just in the speed of getting there to our destination but even our comfort. Imagine if a person could be transported from the covered wagon days to enjoy a trip from coast to coast in a luxurious automobile with plush heated seats, movies to watch, heat and air conditioning or a plane where one can sit back and traverse thousands of miles in the sky and enjoy a meal and a nice movie !  Those pioneers would flip out !!

But as a much as technology can be a blessing it can also be a bane too !   Yesterday at church I spoke a little about this in how our PLD’s or personal listening devices where we put on headphones or the ear buds and listen to our favorite tunes and tune out the real world around us can hinder our much needed social contact for us AND those around us.  God looked around at His wonderful creation at the end of creation week and uttered it was very good with one expection,  “it is not good that man should be alone” (Gen.2:18).  We were all created in the likeness and image of God and that being the case we need the social component nurtured.  Some years back a Christian teen girl in our town was jogging with her PLD in place and while crossing an intersection was hit and killed by a car.  She never saw it coming as she was not attuned to the real world around here but immersed in her music.  Yet what tragedies await us when we retreat into a world of solitude and don’t stay in touch and in service to the real world about us?

We, as God’s children, are to be engaging those God puts in our path.  Think with me about Paul for a moment and compare to your own life’s circumstances. He was imprisoned on more than one occasion and instead of withdrawing into bitterness for adversity he didn’t deserve he chose to still reach out to his captors or anyone else to whom he could minister to !    Financial strains, medical situations, work or family trials may not be what you counted on but God has you where He wants you for a reason, remember that, and choose to be joyful, servile and content knowing that God will work all things together for good to them that love Him (Rom.8:28).  Choose to be a blessing today !!!