Cold Turkey

The unthinkable happened at work today... no internet connection!

Throughout offices up and down the building, people were running back and forth: "Can you get on? No? Me neither." No instant messaging, no RSS blog feeds, no external email and no web-surfing! It suddenly dawned on everyone, with a cold chill, that there was nothing for it.... we would all have to do some work today!! ;-)

I'm lucky enough that playing with a computer all day IS my job! It's great when you love your work, and you get payed for doing what you like doing anyway. It's called programming actually, or Software Engineering if you want to be grandiose - but essentially it's a big computer game where the goal is to get the computer to do what you want!

It's amazing how technology has moved on. Those of us with a passion for things technical are still regarded as a bit geeky, regardless of how physically fit or socially skilled we are. But I like to think that we "geeks" are just a few years ahead of our time. I remember a time when just to be "on the net" was considered the height of geekdom. Only as far back as the late '90s when I first made the suggestion that the church have a website, it was almost dismissed with the joke that the only people who would turn up would be pale spotty teenagers in Iron Maiden tee-shirts! How things have changed! Now almost everyone is on the net, has an email address, and most churches have a website.

I was reminded again today, how we have grown to depend on the 'Net over the years. For information, for communication, for recreation, for purchases or just window shopping; holidays, getting in touch with old friends, planning church and cellgroup activities.. and of course posting your thoughts in a blog. What did we do before the internet!?

I saw a documentary on "The New Al-Qaeda" recently. One expert said that there is a way that we could stop global terrorism dead in its tracks, but the cost is so high that no one would dare to even suggest it: Shut down the Internet! Some people are worried about the internet, with the danger of paedophiles in chatrooms, and the spread of pornography, and the rampant illegal copyright theft of songs and movies that happens on a huge scale.

But there are many good things on the internet too. It's a window on the world and its people. Some people see only darkness, but others see more. This is God's world, and it is full of the good things that God has created, and the people he made in his image. Sure sin has corrupted it, and there is plenty of evil about, but God is still in control, and the light always drives out the darkness. This world is destined to be filled with the glory of God... does that include the Internet? I don't know, but I'm going to do my bit anyway! It's always better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

[For more light visit Trevor Lloyd's bog - he's just recently started. He's a gifted and inspiring teacher of the word. A man with wisdom and integrity.]


For a less inspiring, but amusing concluding quote. Here's Peppa Pig -- my two-year old's favorite programme:

Mummy Pig (at the Museum): This is the Kings and Queens' room
Peppa: Where is the queen's television?
Daddy Pig: They didn't have television in those days, Peppa.
Peppa (shocked): No television!... but they did have computers.
Mummy Pig: No Peppa, they didn't have them either.
Peppa (horrified): No computers!! What did they do all day?!