I love how technology can be used for a blessing in our lives. Most of the time I find technology frustrating when it stops working just at the exact moment I need something finished. Ok… so I am a procrastinator. I don’t do something until it is absolutely necessary. That’s how I got through college, both undergraduate and graduate school. And what made this so bad was the pride that came out of it. I can still pull together a paper at the last minute and every time my professor s would praise me for how well I did, stating how much time I must have spent on it. They even sometimes told me how they could tell I was one of the good students who put a lot of effort into my work unlike other students in the class. Every time I heard this, my level of pride would soar. But what does this have to do with technology? Well because of my waiting until the last moment to do my work I would often run into problems with technology not working for me. Programs would freeze, computer would crash, or papers wouldn’t print. These problems would cause me to hate technology,when most likely it was God’s way of saying I shouldn’t wait until the last minute to do my work. But then I find those moments when technology can be a blessing. Podcasts in particular. I can download all of my favorite speakers,such as Dr. Kent Hovind, Joseph Prince, Chip Ingrim, Dr. Ron Walborn and even sermons from my pastor, J Spurling. I put them on my iPod and listen to them where ever I go. Recently I travelled to my college for homecoming. I love visiting my campus and seeing old friends and soaking in the atmosphere. The journey to get there however is a long one. It takes me about 4 1/2 hours each way to get there and back. To help me focus and stay awake I get out my iPod and listen to messages from great speakers. On the way home I listened to a message from my pastor J Spurling. It was one of his first sermon series he did as a pastor in our church a little over a year ago. It was called “How then shall we live?” Sure I had listened to this before, but this time I got something different out of it. It is like the Bible. Every moment you read a passage you get something different out of it. Why? Because you are in a different place experiencing different things. It speaks to you according to the needs you have at that moment. So what is different about where I am today that I wasn’t a year ago? Well first of all I wasn’t considering anything like the worldrace and I was still struggling with trusting God. I felt alone and didn’t know what my place was in the world. The message was about unity and how we should love each other even when it is hard. A year later I am finding that I am not alone and that there are overflowing amounts of people who love and care for me. I also now know that God has a plan for me and a part of that plan is the worldrace. God will provide all the money and resources I need to go to the nations to bring the good news of Jesus Christ. But listening to that sermon again reminded me of where I once was and where God has brought me. It reminded me not to become spiritually fat, but to be an encouraged to those who need it and to love those who are difficult to love. You never know if the thing you say or do will be just what a person needs to change their lives for the better. The time to start doing this is NOW. Not in July when I launch out on the worldrace. So the question then becomes ” How then shall I live?”
