By DAVID EPPS
Pastor

It was only recently that I realized that I had become a virtual slave to technology.
It all started so innocently so very long ago when someone gave us a Crock Pot.

With both my wife and I working, we could put a roast or a chicken in the pot, turn it on high or low, add a few appropriate veggies, and leave the house secure in the knowledge that, when we returned hours later, dinner would be ready.

Soon we were dependent on the Crock Pot. From there, it was only a matter of time until we escalated our dependency by purchasing a microwave oven. In just a few years, our freezer would be filled with little boxes full of meals that could be prepared in six minutes or less.

Then we discovered that one could acquire a television set with a remote device that allowed the tech addict to remain in the easy chair or bed and change the more than 100 channels. No more walking across the room! Just “click” and the world was at our fingertips!

Then, the technology dependency eased its way into my work life. I was visiting a person in the hospital in Atlanta and, following the visit, returned to the office. The office manager met me at the door and informed me that another member of the congregation had been rushed to that very same hospital on the north side. She pointed out that, if I had a pager, I could have been contacted while I was still in the hospital. I rushed back to north Atlanta, 45 miles away, and, on the way home, acquired a pager.

Soon, we bought a new multi-gadget, gee-whiz, copier that could make zillions of copies, fold, staple, and make the coffee. Next, we acquired a computer for the office and everything that we did began to change. Instead of sending a rough newsletter out to be typeset and printed, we could do all of that “in house.” The financial records, the correspondence, the church records all went into the little white box with a monitor and keyboard. It was now possible to never open a real book, or even a Bible, since once could install them into the computer and read them on the glimmering screen.

Next came cell phones, a telephone answering machine, a fax machine, and Internet access. I was wired! It was now possible to be totally accessible anywhere in the United States 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

On one memorable day, a lady in our church had taken a fall and was in the emergency room. I stepped out to the parking lot, got the cell phone out of the car, dialed my wife, who was in Uganda about to attend a church service, told her the situation and asked her to have the church in Uganda pray for the woman in the hospital. Simply amazing!

And then one day, disaster stuck. It was a simple thing really, just a summer storm. But the storm knocked out the electricity for hours. Suddenly, we were cave men. We couldn’t watch TV, couldn’t cook, type, wash, dry, eat, or connect with the world beyond our dark and air-conditionless home. Having thought we were the masters, we discovered we were the slaves of technology. Technology is a hard taskmaster.

Yet, last Sunday, I discovered that there are advantages to all this high-tech environment. In children’s church, my 5-year-old granddaughter, Tori, informed a visiting child that, if he needed to know about Jesus, he could ask her. She knew everything about Jesus, she proudly informed the young lad. “How do you know so much about Jesus?” he inquired.

“Why,” said a smiling Tori, “I’ve seen the movie!”
[David Epps is the pastor at Christ the King Church in Peachtree City. He may be contacted at FatherDavidEpps@aol.com or at www.ChristTheKingCEC.com.]

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