Wednesday, October 4, 2017

            My regular computer is sick and is in the hospital for sick computers. It blew a port for some reason which crashed the whole system.  This couldn't possibly have resulted from the fact that one of the dogs became tangled in some of the cords and toppled the tower down could it?  Now I am using my lap top which I don't like for writing. For some reason I am so much slower as I make far more spelling mistakes and accidental formatting errors.
             When the other computer went down, the error message was more than daunting. Error 1962. Operating system cannot be found; start-up sequence will repeat. I tried the Dale Soble method of computer repair - I unplugged it and then plugged back in. You might be surprised how often that actually works. But  not this time. The same error message came right back up. Then I went to plan B - I phoned Susan who has often saved me from myself when it comes to computer problem solving. But not this time.
             So off it has gone to the shop. Initial reports are  that it is not as serious as I feared. They can fix it.  I didn't lose anything. Whew! You know, one of these days I really should back everything up...
             But in this painful process I have discovered a metaphor for faith.
             Faith is our operating system. We run our life out of it. It helps us access those people, events, and texts which inform and shape our thoughts,  morals, behaviour and relationships. Faith connects us to the sacred and divine in life. Everyone has a faith of some kind, even those who say they do not believe in God but they too still have standards, values and fundamentals that guide them through their lives. But we who have  faith in Jesus Christ have an operating system which is based in him and shaped by him - by the things he said and did and who we interpret him to be as the Christ.
             We can take our faith for granted. It runs along just fine and we don't really take much notice of it until something goes wrong. We get an error message that overtakes our faith and no matter what we do we  can't get around or past the error message. It can be something big like the Las Vegas shooting that shakes our faith but more than likely it will be far more personal like losing a job, getting a cancer diagnosis or  going through a marriage breakdown or suffering the loss of a loved one. Maybe it just a series of little things that pile up and overloads the operating system of faith over time. Maybe somebody has yanked or pulled you down. Try  as we might the operating system cannot be found and hard as we try to reboot the system it won't.
             There are no instant or magical solutions to this problem.  I believe it takes some due diligence and patient intentionality to begin. It won't happen over  night. But  nothing happens until you try.
              I believe that we are to begin with prayer, not because it is a panacea, but rather it is a channel for reconnection with the sacred love of God.  "Pray without ceasing..." , (1 Thessalonians 5:17). It can't get any simpler than that.  Technique, style, fancy words don't matter. In your meditations with God or Christ at its core, you may begin to unpack what has caused the error message and be led to rethink or redo or refresh or restart or be reborn.   
              We may choose to augment our hunger for faith with scripture, fellowship with other believers, or a quiet walk along a nature trail. We will need to stop our busy-ness, our fretting, our worrying and instead allow the Grace and Love of God to fill the voids and blank screens, and restore our souls beside still waters.
              
Dale