Dependency

“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.” (II Corinthians 3:5)

I am late with this week’s blog post. A couple of weeks ago, my computer at the office “caught a bug” and shut down. We got it back running, but it has thrown me behind – along with a lot of other stuff that has surfaced recently. What is it with people who have nothing better to do than sit around in their pajamas scratching themselves and writing dirty code? What possible thrill can someone get by making other people’s computers blow up? I have a solution for this problem. We find all the people doing stuff like that and give them their own planet. That way they can spend the rest of their lives diddling with each other and leave the rest of us normal humans alone. I would even be willing to contribute to the fund to provide the one way tickets.

Then last weekend, my computer at home went on the fritz. This one was not a virus. I refuse to use my home computer for anything on the internet – it is not even hooked up. It is only used for documents. My keyboard shot craps. I tried another one and it doesn’t work either, so something must be wrong with the unit itself. I haven’t had it fixed yet, so I am using Vicki’s computer right now to type this. With my luck with technology, I hope I don’t fry hers also.

If you know me, you know I am a “technophobe”. I have had the same cell phone for about 5 years. It is an actual telephone, and nothing more. It allows me to partake in audio dialogue with other humanoids – period – which is all I want. I have never sent a text message in my life. My “Power Point” for my preaching is my right index finger. Yet as much of a “dinosaur” as I am with technology, I am as tied to it as the rest of you geeks. It is absolutely amazing how rapidly our world has gotten to this point. I got my first cell phone in 1994, and when I got it, I was somebody. Less than 20 years later, everyone has one. There are more cell phones in the United States than there are people. My grandkids each have one now at ages 10 and 12. Pretty soon, they will start assigning cell numbers at birth like they do now with social security numbers.

The world has become completely dependent on technology. Despite my distaste for it, there is obviously a clear benefit to most of it. But when it shuts down, we are paralyzed. We have forgotten how to function in life without instant access to every tiny piece of mindless trivia the world can produce. It is almost scary how incapacitated a person can become without their iphone. It is as if we have made technology our God.

If only we were as dependent on Almighty God as we are our toys. Self sufficiency is the bane of Christianity. We panic when our laptop shuts down, but we can go days or weeks without spending quality time in prayer and in God’s book. The old hymn says, “I need thee every hour.” Then how is it we can let hundreds and thousands of them pass without any thought of the Saviour and his love for us? He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), so there is no chance that Jesus will get a virus and shut down. The “hard drive” of our 66 volume owner’s manual for life will never crash. “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.” (Mark 13:31) Our blessed Bible is settled in heaven forever (Psalm 119:89). May we depend upon it infinitely more than anything else in our lives.

The skeptics and agnostics make fun of our dependency on our Lord. They say that religion is a “crutch” for the mentally weak. Well, first of all, I have a relationship, not a religion. But semantics aside, if my dependency on my Lord is a crutch, give me a wheelchair. Even when everything in life fails me, my Lord sustains me. I never need to fear or panic that something will leave me floundering or hopeless. I have the God of the Universe as my Rock and my anchor.