By DAVID EPPS
Pastor

This really is an amazing time to be alive. I guess it is common to hear gripes and complaints wherever we go about the state we are in... but, recently, through everyday common experiences, I was reminded that these are great and exciting days.

Some months ago, I visited a lady who had fallen and was taken to the emergency room. As we were talking and praying together, I suddenly remembered that I had promised to give my wife a telephone call at a certain time. I excused myself, went to the parking lot, grabbed my cell phone and placed a call to my wife — in Uganda!

We talked a few moments before she had to rush off to attend a church service in a remote village in that East African nation. She promised that she would have the African congregation pray for the woman in the hospital in Fayetteville, Ga. I put the phone up, went back into the hospital, and announced to my friend that a congregation in Africa was now praying with us for her full recovery. Amazing.

A few months later, a woman in our church was to undergo surgery. I always try to visit the hospital and pray with church members prior to surgery. This time it was impossible for me to get to the north side of Atlanta, so I gave her a call and we prayed. As I hung up the phone in Nairobi, Kenya, I marveled at the ability to conduct long-distance ministry from literally any location on the planet. Simply amazing.

When I was in high school, producing a youth newsletter for the church was a real pain. One had to insert a wax master into a typewriter, being careful not to make mistakes, create artwork with a steel stylus, drawing directly on the wax master, and then the whole thing had to be fixed to a machine.

One would crank the machine by hand while the wax master allowed ink to seep out through the cuts in the wax onto the paper and produce an image. It smelled bad, ink leaks were common, and a good copy was as much a matter of luck as of skill. Producing a good quality leaflet was expensive and time consuming and a job for a professional print shop.

Now, with computers, a novice can produce materials (even in full color) that were high-dollar jobs a few years ago. And the whole thing can be done for pennies a copy.

that is far smoother and safer than riding in the car. Somewhere high over Mississippi, I ate a delicious steak with salad, veggies, bread and desert. In just over two hours, I was back in Atlanta.

A journey like that would have taken months and months just a few generations ago. Their company on the trip would have been wild beasts, the furious elements, and hostile, aggressive forces instead of the pleasant, smiling employees of Delta. I bet they never even dreamed of eating steak six miles high in the sky. Still, I find it amazing.

It wasn't all that long ago that people cooked on hot stoves for hours instead of in microwave ovens in minutes. Televisions, when you could get them, were black and white and had three stations at best. People went to movies (which had only one screen instead of 24) as much for the novelty of air conditioning as much as for the entertainment. Neither homes, nor churches (remember the hand-held fans?), nor automobiles were air conditioned, something we Southerners should never forget.

Nearly everyone ate at home since few eating establishments were available and telephone calls were never private thanks to the “party line.” No one had ever heard of soccer or gymnastics and golf and tennis were for the wealthy only. Most families had only one car, if they had one at all, and, thanks to bad roads, long trips were 10 miles or more.

Only a few years ago, black Americans had to sit in the balcony at the movies, occupy the back seat on the bus, and drink from separate water fountains. A few years ago, most cancer patients died, most premature babies did not survive, and people in general died a whole lot younger than they do now.

So, I have determined to drink it all in and quit griping so much. We are blessed to be alive during these exciting days with so much happening around us. Carly Simon once sang, “These are the good old days.” These “good old days” are getting better and better with each passing year. I find that truly amazing!

[Father David Epps is rector of Christ the King Charismatic Episcopal Church. He may be contacted at P.O. Box 2192, Peachtree City, GA 30269, or online at CTKCEC@aol.com.

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