Sweetwater Presbyterian

Small in size, Large in Faith and Love

Devotion March 4, 2020

Greetings!
Computers - ya gotta love them.  Except maybe today.  Today computers are not at the top of my favorite thing list….   
Now I have to admit that computers have made my life tremendously easier.  I remember typewriters and I was not the most careful of typist which meant I spent a lot of time typing things over because I made a mistake. Those who have never had to type on typewriters don’t know the joys of typing, making a mistake, typing over, making a mistake, typing over……. 
Then came along those typewriters that had a correction ribbon that worked sort of.  The correction ribbon did alleviate some of that  typing, making a mistake, typing over, making a mistake, typing over……. 
Computers did away with all of that.  Make a mistake, just move over to the mistake, correct it and carry on.  Eureka!  It is a joy!!  The other way computers help me out is the saving and then using that document over. No retyping!  Or the saving and just changing the things that have to be changed.  When you do weekly bulletins which are pretty much the same except for Bible readings and hymns and sermon topics the computer is a magic tool.  
The other magnificent feature of computers is the option of sharing documents between computers.  I often work in my office on my office computer and then send what I’m working on to my laptop and go home and finish up there while I am watching my favorite shows such as American Idol or Masked Singer!  Can’t miss those great experiences!!!  Watch and work both!  Perfect!
So all that is great until which time your computers decide they don’t really like to work quite so efficiently any more and your life takes a turn down the tubes.  Such as it was the last couple days.
I was working really hard to get things done - those routine things such as bulletins and sermons and children’s church and inserts and all of that plus we have started Lent and programs for our Lenten dinners needed to be done and I wanted to have everything ready to go so I could go to my granddaughter’s Karate Tournament on Saturday (I have never been to a Karate tournament before so this will be a brand new experience!)
This is of course is the moment my computers decide they need to not work as they should…….
I sit down on my comfy couch to watch my program and at the same time to translate the bulletin I emailed to myself from my office computer into the Power Point we use on Sunday mornings and my computer emphatically told me it could no longer open documents from emails - insert that emoji where someone is showing the shocked face….. 
So instead of the evening I had planned I spent the time trying to get my computer to do what I wanted it to instead of what it wanted - or in this case - didn’t want to do……. There were phone calls to the sainted husband who is pretty computer savvy to no avail; there were chats with online help places to no avail.  There was great gnashing of teeth.
Only to find out the next morning when I went into my office the office computer had spent the evening talking to my other computer and they entered into a conspiracy to refuse to do any work what so ever…. Eeeeeek!  
Well this precipitated a call to the daughter who uses the same kind of computer I use and she was able to shed some light into the computer work strike….. but the healing hadn’t completely happened yet and I watched my valiant desire to complete the days work begin to seep away.  Sad face emoji.
After the daughter’s direction, I began to look for updates and see how many of those were lurking behind in those recesses of computerdom found somewhere inside this computer box…. I admit there was an additional moment of panic when the notice popped up on the screen that said “This update will take 30 hours”.  I checked it several time to make sure it really said hours instead of minutes - Oh dear………
It was then that I realized I could work on the computer while it was experiencing these 30 hours of reconstruction (which by the way only took about 45 min - confused emoji).  So some hope for the work completion returned…
After spending most of the morning with both computers updating and logging in and out and in and out and turning off and back on and they turning themselves off and on I think that maybe they may be back to 90% working which I can live with……
There is a message here for us.  We need to update and reboot as well.  God is a great supporter of rest and renewal.  God often talks about the need to renew and refresh.  Jesus often went off to spend some down time.
Don’t you sometimes feel yourself slipping away from the closeness you feel to God or the church or the people in the church?  Don’t you sometimes just feel yourself unsettled and not just functioning as you should?  
God says:  Stop!  Relax!  Rest!  Renew! Update your operating your systems!  Take a day and a devotional and sit by the river, or a lake or on your front porch.  Read, pray, just sit quietly.  
Don’t fall into that trap of thinking that if you are not busy and doing something you are failing in your mission as a productive adult…….  Just like computers, there is down time needed.  
And you know, if God says it is OK to just not do anything for a little while, who can refute that?  
You will be amazed at what you can accomplish if you are willing to take the time to just update, refresh, renew in the presence of God!