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bjbjLULU We lost our Internet connection at our house recently [Panic kid] Noooooooooo.
Come to find out, our provider had a major outage that impacted a lot of customers in
the area. [phone guy] Hey you guys we need a power strip in the break room. The coffee
maker we need plugs, we re out of plugs you got a plug anybody using this thing? No? Hello?
Anyone here? I m sure this isn t important . I noticed a change in our collective behavior
as a result. It would appear that while our computers are capable of so much more than
just Internet access [me playing Pong] internet exploration is what we seem to do most. Instead,
we reverted to our phones to fulfill our Internet needs. Which, in a seemingly unrelated but
mildly connected stream of thought, I must in defense of the much and easily ridiculed
AT&T say that the connection speed at our house is substantially better through AT&T
3G than that of the speed of our landline DSL provided by Frontier communications. We
live pretty far out from the Frontier central office and we're just over a mile from the
nearest mobile tower which would indicate, to some extent, that where you live within
the perspective networks determines your connectivity and throughput. There is a point to this that
I'll get to in a moment. Now when I called Frontier to report the issue, I realized the
componential elements of the relationship with my ISP are quite simple. They provide
a phone line with the accompanying DSL. Once a month we send them money in exchange for
the said products. Outside of that, I don't really have what I would call a relationship.
It's not like I'm Facebook friends with the phone company or talk to them on the phone
on a regular basis. So when I call them, they don't automatically know who I am. When you
call someone that you know really well, they know who you are by the sound of your voice.
When my wife calls me, I know by the sound of her voice who she is because we have a
relationship we have. (that and that sneaky caller ID) When I call Frontier, their first
question is usually "what is your phone number? (which you would think would come up on THEIR
caller ID) because I don't have a relationship with them beyond our monthly exchange of services
for cash. There is also a point to be found in this that I'll get to as well. At one point
during our outage I pulled my iPhone out of my pocket, deleted the normal 4 or 5 spam
emails I get per hour - Not interested....that's a tad personal....I think my lawn s just fine
I don't want a new career....Ooooo, The search for Spock's on it's way from Netflix - and
slid the phone back in my pocket. At that moment I was made aware of some lessons to
be learned from our state of being Internet challenged. First, there is the distance thing.
The farther away from the phone company facilities you live, the more difficult it is to get
a good fast connection. Living out from town is nice but the down side is the connectivity.
The same holds true with our relationship with God. When we distance ourselves from
God, the connection suffers. Now I can hear some of you talking to your computer (OK,
just so you know, I can't really hear you because this is a recording on the Internet
and stuff but I am pre-imagining your reaction to me saying "when we distance ourselves from
God) so I can just imagine some of you saying "but God is omnipresent, how can we distance
ourselves?" Romans 12 says "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will
is - His good, pleasing and perfect will. Some have simplified this passage with the
saying "be in the world but not of it". So how do we distance ourselves from God? Since
God is not restricted by time and distance the way we are, there must be some other way
that we can place a wedge in the middle of our relationship with Him. That wedge is created
by us when we move away from God through the absence of prayer and meditation on His word.
We distance ourselves from God when we find more concern for the things of this world
than we do for the things of God. A gap of connectivity is made when we desire to live
our lives focused only on our own desires and care quite little for God's. The seconds
point is relationship. As we draw closer to God through prayer and meditation, we discover
a relationship with our creator. A relationship that guides our thoughts, desires and actions.
A relationship that continues the creation process that God set in place when we were
formed in the womb. As a result of this relationship we become the person that is less of our own
making (like that can be any good anyway) and more like the design God had in mind when
He started us along. Much like when my wife calls me on the phone, even without the caller
ID I know it's her when I hear her voice. God knows our voice, the question is do we
know His? Finally, there's the convenience of prayer. When I pulled my iPhone out of
my pocket and deleted the normal list of unwanted emails (...I'm not really interested in coupons...not
really interested in a new credit card), I realized the convenience factor and how we
apply it to prayer. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to "Rejoice always, pray continually, give
thanks in all circumstances, for this is Gods will for you in Christ Jesus". Where is the
convenience of praying continually? Like iPhone email, we can find ourselves pulling out our
prayer wish list, running down the list, (God thank you for puppies and kitties and please
bring us world peace, and please let the Reds win the world series this year....it could
happen) checking things off as we go then putting that mental list of requests away
much like putting our phone in our pocket. Do we pray our shopping lists of wants or
do we pray the things that are on our hearts. Do we stay in that state of prayer so that
not only does God hear what is really on our hearts (a Reds win would really be nice) but
we also have a greater chance of hearing what God has on his heart as well. Something to
think about, don t you think. Hey thanks for joining me. Make sure you hit the subscribe
button above or one here, here, here or here and make sure you let me know what you think
down in the comments below. No really, go down there, hot the little box where you put
the comments then type something on the keyboard then hit the send button or enter or whatever
it is. And let me know what you think. Really .really do that. Or you can watch one of these
other videos. You can hit the link to one of those and I have this awkward moment. You
know this would be a good time to go down and put some comments below .yes it would
.yes it would. And awkward moment over. Go Reds and God bless you. Hey by the way, Phone
Guy, nice costume. What Hey so like a just a hat and glasses, piece of paper on your
shirt. That s a costume? Really? s your video, you re the one makin it. Well, thanks for
going all out. That s all I m saying. Really cool. Really cool. Awesome. Your video. You
re the one who made it. I m not the one who made it. You made it. h&fR h3@u h3@u h%cQ
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