While I have become quite discriminating about the e-mail messages I read, I frequently open forwards from my mother-in-law because she is discriminating. She acts as a good filter — far better, in fact, than the programs provided by my Web-based e-mail provider.
Her latest forward is titled, “You Know You’re Living in the Year 2002 When” and I made a copy to place in my high school computer lab because I know the lab rats who frequent my room will get a big kick out of the listing. I did.
“You know you’re living in the year 2002 when …
… you call your son’s beeper to let him know it’s time to eat and he e-mails back a question from his bedroom that reads, “What’s for dinner?”
… you hear most of your jokes via e-mail instead of in person.
… your grandmother asks you to send a JPEG file of your newborn so she can create a screensaver.
… you wake up at 2 a.m. to go to the bathroom and check your e-mail on your way back to bed.
… you chat several times a week with a stranger from South Africa but you haven’t spoken with your next door neighbor yet this year.
… you start tilting your head sideways to smile 🙂 ”
I hope you are grinning. I also hope you are filtering out my message and detecting a pattern. We live in a most amazing age. Take this week. I got up early Thursday, got on the Internet, and learned that the two men, sought in connection with the D.C.-area sniper attacks, had been picked up during the night while sleeping in their car at a rest stop in Maryland. With just a couple of clicks I felt well informed and connected with the latest in world events. A few more clicks of the mouse and I was able to quickly reach out and touch family members in an instant using e-mail.
While I graduated from college without ever touching a computer, I and millions like me have embraced the Computer Age with gusto. Yet I am increasingly philosophical about it all, for if we do not make concerted efforts to reach out and interact with people around us — getting up out of our computer chairs and making an effort to interact with family and friends — we will become isolated individuals as never before.
We can sit in our homes and let the world come to our doorsteps, never really talking with people or involving ourselves in their lives. We can pay our bills online, make donations, leave brilliant thoughts on public bulletin boards, learn how to download astonishing amounts of information and be the loneliest people in the world.
Those of us with a history of church involvement and who feel called to introduce our life experiences to those with no church experience are burdened as never before. We see fewer and fewer people viewing church experiences as central and important to their family life, but we know from personal experience how truly wonderful it can be.
Perhaps the best news is this: God is timeless and ageless and constantly on duty. He lives and breathes through His people and cares as much for modern man as He did those who lived during the most ancient of times. And while we view ourselves as thoroughly modern and insightful and sophisticated, God reminds us that the human heart is fashioned after His own. He longs for interaction with us and pre-sets our needs — for family, belonging, touch, food, caring, kindness, singing, crying, serving, spiritual longing and loving — all to insure that interaction.
These most basic of human needs are what prompt most of us to walk through the doors. And it‚s the people who administer the gift of God‚s love. It’s someone who says there is a place where you can go to sing. Borrow books. Cook meals for hungry teenagers. Study the timeless message of God. Learn what He is like and how He operates in this modern, Internet-dominated world of ours.
Ultimately the gift of the modern church is the people — there to stand beside you when life feels too tough to face, challenge you when it is time to make change, drive your kids to events, call you with encouragement, pray for you, save a chair for you when you are running late, bring you a pizza when there is no time to cook. Those of us who have been around are aware that society is changing, asking us to revamp our programs and methodologies to meet the needs of today’s families.
Stand back from the computer this weekend and go check out a neighborhood church. There are great things to experience and you will be surprised.
Joan Bay Klope’s address is
jbklope@hotmail.com
