Dear Members and Friends,
It wasn’t that long ago that any kind of new technology entering our home was a major event. From a freshly unpacked electric can-opener, to the first Joe Dimaggio Mr. Coffee, I can easily recall how the gradual acquisition of each modern convenience was like the crossing of some great familial milestone. Back in the day, every new device involved a monetary, and also an intellectual investment, as we would carefully peruse the warranty and instructions with a certain pride of ownership. Only 14 years ago, the purchase of my first PC felt like a huge event and an undertaking of enormous significance. However, the recent move to a much faster, more capable machine, was almost anti-climactic.
Nowadays, how many of us come to own and discard things without nearly plumbing the depths of the device? Presently, I am on the verge of upgrading my “old” cell-phone. It’s a tiny gadget that I got for nothing, which, in 1984, would likely have cost millions. From games to various types of ring tones, calendars and diaries, this “phone” had all sorts of features I never bothered to access. Because it doesn’t fit well into the current network, I need to trade in this technological jewel without ever reading a tenth of the owner’s manual! Doubtless, my new free phone will come with an even bigger tome of directions, bundled with features I’ll get to understand just in time to move on to the next miniaturized marvel.
Somehow, it seems as though we are all on a treadmill of technological inflation that started off at a snail’s pace, and has now entirely blurred or erased what used to feel like time-tested sensibilities of thoughtful investment and long-term value. Unlike a generation ago, where a great camera might cost several weeks wages, yet hold its luster for decades, the expensive one mega-pixel miracles of only a few years ago are now little more than toys, not even worthy of the attic. In so many ways, with their rapid emergence and demise, modern items that once would have been considered priceless possessions, quickly become useless, and I daresay, pointless garbage.
Now all of this is not a hearkening back to the days gone by, just a few thoughts and observations to say that we are entering a time quite unique to those that have gone before. We are indeed in a wholly new paradigm of easy accessibility. Yet it is also one of very quick release. In many ways, this is all very exciting. Perhaps it is also little frightening.
Isn’t it funny how as technology has become dramatically and rapidly more sophisticated, it has also become increasingly less reliable as a stable source of contentment? This then sets the stage wherein personal satisfaction could be overridden by an insatiable need for unending acquisition. A process where purchase occurs for its own sake, and the joy of what we come to own, immediately fades in pursuit of what we have yet to buy.
As Christians, this new season of significant challenge affords us a real opportunity for distinction. For in the endless and frenetic pursuit of things, how wonderful and peaceful it will feel to faithfully set about following Jesus Christ. The delusion of our day is that as we stand in the midst of aggrandized convenience, we do not need Jesus Christ. Yet the day may come when the things we have relied upon to keep us secure will be the very things from which we yearn to be saved.
From Reverend William J. Keane,
Senior Minister of First Baptist Church of Branford
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