This past Monday was the first time I’ve cried over technology.
Don’t know exactly what happened, but for a short time my blog site went down, refusing to show anything but post titles. If it hadn’t been for Bluehost, it might still be down.
Nick the Bluehost tech guy and I ruled out the GoDaddy hacking debacle. We suspect it had to do with a WordPress update. But who really knows what technology is capable of these days? The more we worked on it, the worse it got.
Alas, I’m a ghost in the machine.
If you’re of a certain generation, you’ll remember The Police album Ghost in the Machine. If you’re younger, I’m sorry you missed it. Just kidding. The Police were Sting’s former band.
My new best friend Nick restored my blog from a copy saved the day before. All I lost was what I’d written Monday and, for a few tense moments, my sanity.
What does that mean, ghost in the machine?
Are we merely spirits outfitted in flesh and wandering haphazardly through the mechanics of this world? In my heart I know despite what Madonna says, the material world doesn’t matter. It’s going, going, and someday will be gone.
But I live in the here and now. I breathe the physical. As much as my soul is me, so is my body me. And so is my work, my family, my home, and country, all part of the material world I inhabit. The time and space. The machine.
When the machine’s broken, it’s desperately hard to remember the machine isn’t all there is.
What poor creatures we are, living with one foot in the decaying world of trolls, cancer, and terrorism, while the other stretches for a world yet to be made new.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 2 Corinthians 4:16-17 NIV
You knew this was coming: Spirits in the Material World by The Police.
Ever feel like a ghost in the machine?
This is an every day internal boxing match for me! My quick little prayer/mantras/self-talk bits are the only thing that keep my alignment possible. However, I do believe things like this happen for reasons above our understanding…it always makes you think a little harder, pray a little more and sometimes get out a much needed cry :) Glad you are back on track!
Thanks, Krisitn. Teaches me perseverance if nothing else :) & refocuses my perspective…
One day I will reference the box I am typing in and correctly spell. I meant “Be still(silent) and know that I am God.” I miss autocorrect:-)
We knew what you meant :)
The words above the edit box I am currently typing in read “Wonderful people comment here.” Well then, so do I.
Always a good read, but I would not, myself, reference Madonna – for both religious and logical reasons. Invoking the latter, when you have a logical expression in the form P implies Q, and P evaluates as False, then the truth value of Q is indeterminate. It could be False, and equally could be True. But the truth value of the entire statement evaluates as True.
In the words of Martin Luther, “what does this mean?”
Madonna is a lie, and as such can say any truth or any lie and the final result it True. Which renders all her exposition moot.
EOL
What? Just kidding.
Madonna represents the culture in which we live. I can think of no better song to describe the temptation to focus on the material than Material Girl. I agree much about her is a lie. Yet we (I) buy into it hook, line and sinker more than I’d like to admit. Contrast that with the eternal to (maybe) understand one reason why I comfortably use Madonna and other cultural references.
well said Aimee, we have gradually adjusted to technology as it weaves into our lives. It can overwhelm us just by its silence at times and I have learned that I do have to step away and remember that not only is God still in control but He calls us to “be silent and kow that I am God.”
Exactly. Good stuff, Tim. Thank you for the wonderful reminder.