Wednesday, May 27, 2026

"So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you." (Hebrews 10:35)

      When Jesus preached not to be anxious about anything during his sermon on the mount, he never reckoned with the modern stress of dealing with technology. Nothing causes me more stress and anxiety than dealing with computer's idiosyncrasies. All is sweetness and light when the tech works properly but as soon it fails, my panic rises and my blood pressure goes haywire. I become a whining six-year old!

      I am currently in such a crisis. My main working computer experienced a major meltdown. It's in the shop for a total reboot, a cleaning, a purge, radical overhaul, a purification. Excuse me for a moment as I dry my eyes. The real pain in all this is that I am paying for my sins of the past for not backing up most of my work along with other pieces of information and many pictures. I kept meaning to back it all up; just never got around to it. Now, gone forever! Yikes! My 10 years' worth of blogs, thankfully, have been all saved  on my blog-site. But all else is kaput, out there in the nether world of cyber space.(I am writing this on my Chromebook which makes me very nervous.)

      All this angst reminds me that we should be more careful about taking care of the important things and people in our lives. It is so easy to become careless about paying attention to tje things and people that matter. We can forget to reinforce the values and principles which lead to a faithful life. We don't back-up our relationships the way we should. We fail to pay attention to the signs that there are problems which need to be addressed before it is too late. Jesus has taught us not to neglect the important things in life. (Matthew 23:33)  "Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need." (Matthew 6:33)

       It is so easy to take our lives for granted. We may think that we have all the time in the world to take care of the "business" of living. We fail to notice when there are telltale signs of things beginning to go awry, putting off corrections, repairs and remedies. In the long run, it mean that our neglect leads to health issues, broken relationships, existential crises, cloudy futures or spiritual breakdowns. We are not computers - we can't simply reboot and start all over.

       Our text reminds us, especially, not to be so careless with the critical and essential relationship which we enjoy with God through Jesus Christ. I was still using an old Windows 10 operating system which had become too obsolete to sustain my work. I needed an upgrade to Windows 11. Likewise, we need to be constantly refreshing  our faith and spirituality. Don't let your faith expire by neglecting its maintenance and improvement. Don't throw away and lose the details of what made you a believer. The Apostle Paul wrote:  "Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jess Christ is among you; if not you have failed the test of genuine faith." (2 Corinthians 13:5)

      We do not to remember what we have lost; we want to hang on to what we have and  build on it. "But then I recall all you have done, O Lord; I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago." (Psalm 77:11_

       Now, where did I put that thumb-drive?

Prayer:

Our ever-present God, sometimes in all the hustle and  bustle of our lives, we neglect the critical necessities of keeping up a faithful, relevant and lively dialogue with you. We allow things to go stale. We ignore the signs of brokenness and failure. Awaken us afresh to the uploads of your Love and Grace. New every morning is your Love. Help us to renew our lives according to that Love. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Prayer:

Our ever-present God, sometimes in  all the hustle and bustle of our lives, we neglect the critical necessities of keeping a faithful, relevant and lively dialogue with you. We allow things to go stale. We ignore the signs of brokenness and failure. Awaken us afresh to the uploads of your Love and Grace. New every morning is your Love. Help us to renew our lives according to that love. In Jesus’ name, Amen