Good days yet to come
My pastor said, “Change is inevitable!” I agree, but that doesn’t mean that I have to like it. While change is normally good and progressive, it also is a sign that the world is passing me by.
Consider the computer. Now, I don’t mind the convenience of having so much information at my fingertips, but have you noticed lately just how hard it is to get that information? I recently spent almost an hour trying to find the phone number of a business so I could talk with them about paying my bill. It seems the business’s contract clearly called for me to pay my bill on time, but inconveniently forgot to tell me how to do it. Instead, its website just asked me to purchase other items from the business.
My high-powered mobile phone is another case in point. Just when I think I have mastered its nuances, I make two discoveries: I haven’t even begun to figure out what it can do and it really is time to upgrade to a new phone. Consider my surprise when I discovered that I do not have to program my phone to call someone; all I have to do is tell it to call (I know. All of you high-tech guys and gals already knew that).
Consider also the continued change in music in the church. I remember when it was a real challenge for a church to have the use of a hymnal. Today, the hymnals in my church haven’t been used in so long they’re probably stuck in their holders covered with dust. Everything is up on a nice screen. The words are great (contemporary church music is usually biblical oriented), but how do I know whether I should sing in a monotone or just go up and down like the people around me who don’t know what to do either. It also used to be up to either the pastor or someone else who knew music to lead the congregation. Today, it is more common to hire a professional musician to take care of all that and to adapt the music to the pastor’s message — that is, if the pastor lets him or her know what it is about early. Most of the churches I have attended in recent years appear to have a lot of members who do not really have much to do with music; that’s left up to the music director.
Although the biblical church began as a traveling mission, several centuries later it became a building with specified members. Although that certainly has some advantages, especially if you have several hundred people in attendance, it also is fraught with a lot of problems connected with spreading the gospel. Sometimes it’s a tough job to get the gospel out of a church building.
Oh, by the way, do you remember when all of us were taught to be sure and bring our bibles to church so that we could follow along with the pastor and learn God’s message? Today, scripture is either read to us, shot up on the screen, or looked up through a phone app. Who needs an expensive Bible?
Now, I don’t want anyone to think that I am against progress (change).
My first mode of transportation was a horse, and just adding horsepower to a machine didn’t really do much better for decades. Today, I am envious of all those new vehicles and their technology.
My first butter was made while I shook up the cream in a large bottle, and I certainly
do not want to go back to that.
I also had to go out with my dad and gather wood for the fire stove as a young man, and I would never trade in my heating/air conditioner for those olden days. My grandfather only had one light bulb in his house when I went to visit, and most of the time he left it off. He didn’t want to use up too much electricity. Today, I can’t get the people around me to turn off anything in order to
conserve energy, but it sure is nice to have enough light to read by.
And, lest I forget, today it sure is handy to just push a computer button and have my articles delivered instantaneously to The Weekly Vista for publication — that is when they don’t get lost in cyberspace.
It’s good to think about the good old days, but frankly it’s even better to think about the good days yet to come.
Robert Box has been a law enforcement chaplain for 29 years. He is a master-level chaplain with the International Conference of Police Chaplains and is an endorsed chaplain with the American Baptist Churches USA. He also currently serves as a deputy sheriff chaplain for the Benton County Sheriff’s Office. Opinions expressed in the article are the opinions of the author and not the agencies he serves.