Believe it or not - I now have an iPad. I am keeping up with the new generation and why not! I didn't ask for it, nor ask the Lord to send me one, or save my money to buy one. But when it came, I take it that the Lord wants me to have it and I need to learn one more new thing. One never stops learning. If I stop using my faculties I'll lose them.
Our grand daughter Cheryl who is now working and gainfully employed thought I should be challenged, so she engineered this and got the family to support her to get me this new gadget for my 80th birthday! She has been twice to teach me and today another grand daughter Rachel came and gave me the third lesson. Now what I need is practice, the trouble is to find time to practise. I just have to make time. If a thing is important to you, you make time for it.
When I closed the office door at International Headquarters London at the end of May 1997, I thought to myself - no more computers, no more lap tops, no more administration, no more worries just to spend the rest of my life - I gave myself five years of retirement for the Bible tells us our average life span is 'three score years and ten." I thought five years to enjoy retirement would be sufficient, then Home in Glory but the Lord thinks otherwise and so here am I fifteen years later still alive and kicking. And you have to put up with me.
When we got home to Singapore the first gift we received was a pager from our son. Never had a pager before. The pager came and went very quickly. Then I was given a second hand computer and we used it till konked out. We got another 'hand me down' one, but good enough for us to do e-mail and my wife to make and print birthday, wedding anniversary cards etc. Since then we have treated outselves to new computer more up to date one.
Major Satterleee out pastor felt I needed a lap top, so he let me have his church lap top to do my Bible lessons. I could take it to the library to prepare Bible lessons. I used it till there was a change of pastor who felt the youth needed it. I then bought my own.
Yes, we progressed from a pager to a 'handphone' thanks to our son Stephen who subscribes for us. So my wife and I have our own hand phones. We phone and use a sms quite a bit.
And now IPad. What next? We shall wait and see.
Gadgets old and new are for communication.
"You are not listening." Has anyone said that to you? Or have you said that to anyone? There are sometimes barriers to communication. We may have all the latest gadgets, but do we really communicate? The barrier may be on the part of the person listening. On the other hand it may be the speaker or writer who have not succeeded in communicating. I may mean one thing, but the listener takes it to mean something else.
Barriers can be language, attitudes, background, education, culture, values, beliefs, ad infinitum. We all tend to use our own jargon. We know it, but what about the listener. So let's be sensitive to the needs of the listener.
Gadgets are useful, but let us have the right attitude as we strive to communicate the message of God to others. "Lord speak to me that I may speak in living echoes of Thy tone."
Christ is the best communicator. All He did and said while on earth communicated God's message of love to lost mankind. And today though His Spirit, He still communicates to us who are willing to listen to Him.
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