I-YOUniverse

The early Bible study some friends and I do on Thursdays today.

1  We’re trying out Skype. We all know:

To err is human but to really f—- things up,

it takes a computer.

 My friends in Africa, my wife and her colleagues at Virginia Institute of Pastoral Care, and I are working on making reliable audio and video connections for case conference, fellowship and prayer time. This morning at 7, noon in Yaoundé, we planned to connect. IF the technician got my African friend‘s computer back to him.

My laptop sat prominently on the dining room table, ready for us to meet. Everybody oohed and aahed over our plans. I tried several times to connect, but was never successful.

Time: 7 a.m. We end at 8.

2 My wife left for work. There was a loud buzz, then a mechanical

Voice:              “Did you hit your panic button?”

Me:                  “What?”

Voice:              “This is your home security company. Somebody at your address hit the panic button on the key chain alarm. What is your emergency?”

Me:                  “There’s no emergency.”

Voice:              “What’s your all clear code?”

Me:                  “Armageddon.”

Voice:              “Thank you.”

I’ve been wanting to check the security system, anyway. I have this goofy plastic pendant that I can’t wear under my shirt because it makes me break out. “Kirk, to Enterprise.” Other than that, except for a few blinks, we’ve got nothing to show for our monthly security payment.

Time:               7:10 a.m. We end at 8.

3 The computer goes into its version of the northern lights. That’s either asleep or hibernation. I never know which.

Now I show everybody the Celtic Daily Prayer website: www.northumbriacommunity.org/.

(Clearly people I’m HTML-challenged; screw it. 30 minutes trying to master the damn link, while the message rips off like a breath in a blizzard.)

Time: 7:30 a.m. We end at 8.

4 One friend shares how much of a blessing his prayer book is. He dashes off to the car to get it. Another digs through her purse for a slip of paper to write the web address on.

 Me:        “Not to worry, I’ll email you a link.”

 Relief.

 I talk about how I’ve been doing Celtic Daily Prayer for four or five days now. (I’ve got a doctor’s appointment coming up. Of course, I’m not anxious about it.)

 Then free (old, conservative, solid) Bible software: http://www.e-sword.net/. Then how I prefer a cheap disc for the NRSV.

 By now my friend’s back from the car with the Book of Common Prayer, an older edition than the one I use (1979). Daunting if you’re not used to it. So I mention the lectionary home page.

 Bells and whistles. Bells and whistles.

 I find a prayer for children that might be helpful.

 Time: 7:50 a.m. We end at 8 a.m.

5 God ripped my heart out.

 I can’t talk about our prayer concerns. You know them way too well, anyhow. But suddenly the geek circus we were showing off tooted, tooted, blinked, blinked, forgotten.

There we were. Prostrate before the mercy seat. Waiting for the still small voice.

Elijah killed about 950 pagans for the Lord. He was a righteous man, who prayed and for awhile it didn’t rain; prayed again, and it began to rain, to pour. He fled for his life from a queen he thought was wicked, anyway.

Fled to a cave. Waited for the earthquake, storm, lightning that were his stock in trade. None of those came. Only a whisper: “What are you doing, here, Elijah?”

Me:                  “Laptop! Software! Internet!”

Whisper:          “What are you doing, John? Pay attention! To really f—- things up, it only takes…you. You needed to pray. Desperately, you needed to pray. At last, you did.”

Time:               7:57 a.m. We end at 8.

Tags: computers, prayer, religion

This entry was posted on Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 5:11 am and is filed under Spiritual life, religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.