The world stops when the computers lock up.
That may not be entirely true, but it’s not far from wrong. Such was the case at 8 o’clock one morning when we and seven of our co-workers sat down at our desks with the blue screens in front of us. “Does your e-mail come up?” was the first question, and within a minute, seven responses echoed: “This thing’s locked up today.”
It didn’t take the in-house computer guru but a jiffy to get the things back in sync. However, in that time, we remembered what the world used to be before the space age.
Original computers we knew about were the size of a two-horse trailer, and now with one the size of a deck of cards a person can do more than possible with the most elaborate desk computer just a couple of years ago.
Dick Tracy, comic strip hero of the ’60s, used two-way wrist radios to solve crimes, and people discounted it as fairy tale. Within a few years, similar devices came into use, and pencil-eraser-size gadgets now handle all sorts of business dealings.
When facsimile machines originated, many people made fun of them and contended they were unnecessary. Shortly thereafter, most businesses regularly used a fax, which is already by some considered inefficient and outdated.
Recalling the time we heard one of the world’s richest men claim he handled all of his business by e-mail, we didn’t even know what the word meant. Now, “if it’s working,” one can punch a few keys and e-mail a message, a picture, a chart, anything, anywhere in the world. Bosses manage their employees with the flick of a finger.
Hard to believe that we even send e-mails to co-workers less than 10 feet away.
Paper, files, typewriters, even telephones have almost become a thing of the past with extensive use of computers. There are exceptions though. In a major corporation when something goes wrong at the head office, the whole network across the nation is kaput.
Grudgingly, we admit that computers go a lot quicker than the manual typewriter we learned on 45 years ago. It’s sure easier to correct one of our many errors. But there’s something about Mom hollering at the top of her lungs to “get down here and carry these groceries” that’s still the fastest method of doing business.
All modern procedures go the wayside in Romans 10:1: “Salvation is God’s business, and a most flourishing business it is. Those who refuse to deal with God on his terms have nothing to show for it.”
Many reminders are aired about the power of words, such as Deuteronomy 8:3: “Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.” The point is emphasized again in Acts 15:7: “God made the choice that one should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.”
+++ALLELUIA+++