WHEN TECHNOLOGY DOESN'T WORK

“And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you:  depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”  (Matthew 7:23)

That verse from Matthew’s Gospel is a “heavy” one.  It describes the plight of some who, in the afterlife, will boast before the Lord of their preaching, and prophesying and mighty spiritual works, only to be told by the Lord, “I never knew you:  depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”  They were fully convinced they belonged in Heaven, and the Lord’s verdict was VERY different.

In a tiny sense, that verse describes how I’ve felt in the past few days.  Oh, don’t get me wrong:  my relationship with God is very secure and I know I’m His child!  I have full “assurance of salvation” as we evangelicals like to say.  But I’ve been SO frustrated trying to post “stuff” to this blog, and each time I’ve tried to post, just feeling so unwanted and rejected.

Despite what you may be thinking, NO the technical problem and inability to post from my “regular” computer is still is not fixed.  I’ve logged on with my wife’s Dell laptop computer, and in THIS way, I’ve been able to post on the blog.  At least this is an option, and I appreciate very much that Mary Ann has helped me in this way.  I’ll be able to post items through her laptop, but since she’s very busy and uses her laptop primarily for work, at least for awhile there will be FEWER posts from me.
I’m NOT happy about it.

My, how we take things for granted!   It’s like our automobiles.  We just assume they’ll start and just go wherever we want them to.  Then, just let an alternator quit or a water pump stop functioning, and we’re stuck someplace and all our plans are “out the window” as I often say.  I'd been used to posting pieces three or more times a week on this blog for over a year.  As the owner/writer (or whatever I’m called), when I go on the site, there are controls for me to click to post items.  It would take way too long to explain how it ALL WORKS, but as of last Wednesday, the ability to enter new postings on the blog from my home iMac computer was, well, nonexistent.  I tried and tried.  It was just frozen.  Nothing.  I know you may be thinking, “Well, if your home computer is messed up, why don’t you use your church office computer to access your blog.”  Our church’s computer is even older than the home one.  It’s circa 1999 and uses a circa 1999 version of AOL that doesn’t even allow me to read my blog...well, it does, but it’s in such small print that I could never read it without a huge magnifying glass, AND the old computer and old AOL software at church do not allow me to add items to the blog.  (It is very likely the church will have a new, state-of-the-art computer by December 2007, but in the meantime, the church computer is only good for checking and sending e-mail.  A person pretty much cannot go on any websites nor can they do anything “cool” with it.  My home computer is circa 2001- it’s an iMac and uses an early version of MAC Operating System X.  The home computer is actually light-years ahead of the church computer... well about 2 or 3 years worth, which is LIKE light-years when it comes to computers, but even the home computer is dated. 

I had a long phone call with a tech support person from AOL who let me know what OLD hardware and software I had and made it sound like that was at least half the problem.  (I didn’t dare tell him about the older church iMac using ancient operating system 8.6 and AOL 5.0.  I would have felt like I did in the 6th grade- unloved and uncool!) My son Jon and I were pretty convinced initially that what we were really dealing with was an AOL glitch.  We still think that MIGHT be a possibility, but the best evidence at this point strongly suggests something faulty in our old iMac computer or the somewhat dated AOL software.  I did get a follow-up e-mail from AOL with some suggestions but it was all stuff that applied to a P.C. using Windows.  It was no help at all for a MAC.

I wish I could tell you I haven’t been depressed about this, but I have.  The good news is, compared to the way I could POTENTIALLY have been, and the way I WOULD have been about it 2 or 3 years ago, I’ve been great.  Well, at least OUTWARDLY, I’ve tried not to whine too much about it and to just act like I’m taking it all in stride.  INSIDE,  I’m really “bummed” because this blog has been SUCH fun for me and I feel the way I did when I was an 8-year-old and my Dad would take away a favorite toy as a punishment. 

I know the ability to add items to my blog from our home iMac computer may be (as I like to say) “kaput”.  Since I now have to depend on using my wife’s Dell laptop for posting items to the blog, at least for the foreseeable future, there will be fewer entries.  On a positive note, maybe God wants Mary Ann to be more of a part of this blog.

It IS somewhat likely that within a year, we’ll have a new state-of-the-art computer at home with all the bells and whistles, and it is VERY likely that within the next six months, we’ll have a new state-of-the-art computer at the church office with all the bells and whistles. 

In the meantime, I’m going to have to do what I’ve had to do at times over the years when I’ve owned nothing but  old, broken-down cars...  just make do with what I’ve got!!  It’s, as Al Gore would say, “An inconvenient truth”  - but considering people are starving and dying in Africa and Bangladesh and other places, I guess I really have got nothing to complain about.