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| Dr. Who and his Sonic Screwdriver |
Last week my laptop crashed.
I don’t think you understand.
MY LAPTOP------ crashed!
Imagine that you came home
and a room in your house had burned down.
Not the whole house, just one room.
But that room contained all of the work you’d done for the last 6
years: your resume, your references,
transcripts, certificates, all your sermons, all your blogs, all 3 versions of
that book manuscript, chapter sketches and drafts for the other 30 incomplete manuscripts,
the poems, the curriculum outlines, church reports, agency files for two
different non-profits, the presentations, the…. AHH LAWD, MY LAPTOP DIED!
But O.K. I can handle this. I was a computer science major for two
semesters. I’ll figure it out.
I pulled out my and phone and
started following the threads on tech forums.
I watched the youtube videos. I
learned how to throw my computer into start-up mode, access the bios, and check
boot priority settings. I spent a week
studying LAN, WAN, HDD, and PXE-ROM troubleshooting.
Psshhh. That stuff didn’t work.
AHH LAWD! MY LAPTOP!
The only technique that
worked was when I texted my wife and asked her to pray for my laptop. LOL.
I’m not joking.
When Sheila prayed, my
computer loaded and worked just fine.
The only reason I’m not curled fetally in the cold corner of a mental
hospital is that I used those windows of functionality to back up my files.
So, the first thing I learned
from this ordeal is that God likes my wife more than He likes me. (1
Peter 3:7)
Ultimately I had to admit incompetence
and take my computer to Best Buy.
“David” at the Geek Squad kiosk looked intently at the repeating error
message on the DOS screen and declared, “Let’s open it up and see what we got.”
Now I expected David to scan
my hard drive, perhaps compare circuit connection to a schematic on his ipad,
perform a remote diagnostic, recite a bunch of acronyms and physics terms, and
then ship my laptop off to Seattle for Bill Gates's nephew to reprogram.
But what David said was, “Oh,
I see the problem. The screws on your
hard drive are loose.”
Silence. Eyes squint. Head cocks slightly. Lean over
the counter to look at the upturned piece of technology that’s essential to my
working life.
Yep. Those are screws. Yep.
They’re clearly loose.
20 seconds later my hard
drive is whirring and the Windows 10 icon appears out of the blackness.
A week of self-taught
computer tech training and the problem was fixed ---- with a screwdriver.
Two points:
1st Point. The problem you’ve been crying out to God for may have
a very simple solution, but you can’t find it until you confess your inability
to fix it yourself and open up to the right person.
Confess your trespasses to one another, and
pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of
a righteous man avails much. (James 5:
16)
Scripture tells us to confess our troubles to righteous
(spiritually mature and trustworthy) Christians. But not for forgiveness. Forgiveness comes
from God. You “confess your trespasses to one another”so
you can “pray for one another” and God can show you the solution (healing).
I was praying over my laptop before I called my wife,
but when the Board was meeting in a couple of hours, and the reports were behind that blank
screen; I had to admit that the preacher’s
prayers weren’t hitting hard enough. I
needed prayer support.
There’s a problem you’re facing, and your prayers aren’t
hitting hard enough. Find a righteous (spiritually
mature and trustworthy) man or woman and open up so you can pray for one
another.
Also, do you remember the
story of the first Christian evangelist to the region west of the Sea of
Galilee?
Jesus said to him, “Go home
to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and
how He has had compassion on you.” And he departed and began to proclaim in
Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled. (Mark 5: 19, 20)
Maybe you’ll remember the
story by another name. He was the man
possessed by a “Legion” of demons (Mark
5: 1-20).
Jesus hadn’t come looking for
him. He went and found Jesus. He cried out to Jesus while he was in the
midst of a thousand different kind of crazy, and Jesus healed him. Once he was in his right mind, he sat at
Jesus’ feet learning the gospel (verse 15).
And then, only then, he was in a condition to talk to the Lord about his
calling (verse 18).
Final Point. Whether
you’re a computer or a choir director, a preacher or a parent; no matter how smart,
popular, or anointed you are, your stuff’s not gonna work right if you’ve got a
few screws loose.
Get some help.
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a writer,
community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural
leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is
pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama; executive director
of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO); and director of rural leadership development
for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
#Awordtothewise
You can help support Rev.
Graves’ work by visiting his personal
blog and clicking the DONATE button
on the right-hand sidebar.
Support by check or money
order may be mailed to
Miles Chapel CME Church
P O Box 132
Fairfield, Al 35064
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