Do you ever get frustrated with technology? Last week Diane and I bought new iPhones. The salespeople were very helpful but when we got home some apps wanted passwords. Finding the up-to-date passwords was frustrating, to say the least. This very morning, the FAA has grounded ALL airplane flights in the United States because of a systemwide computer issue. Perhaps fixed by the time you read this, but nonetheless frustrating for millions of people planning to fly. And what caused Southwest’s meltdown at Christmas? Management failure to update computer systems going back to the 1990s. We are at the mercy of manmade technology.
Not a new problem. Luke 13 tells that a manmade tower at Siloam collapsed, killing 13 people. The Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 turned out to be a colossal manmade failure. “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves” (Genesis 11:4). Their audacity prompted God to confound their speech and scatter them all over the earth. When tech fails and frustrates you, ask, “In what do I ultimately trust?” In an attack on idols (idols were ancient tech. Make something of stone or gold or wood and trust that it will save you) Isaiah said, “Truly you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior. All of them are put to shame and confounded; the makers of idols go in confusion together. But Israel is saved by the Lord, who created the heavens” (Isaiah 45:15-17).
Unless you become a survivalist, we must use manmade tech. When it fails, when it frustrates, think it through spiritually. Of course, it’s going to fail. Tech is from fallible humans! Paraphrasing Isaiah 43:2, “When you pass through the waters, when you pass through tech problems, I will be with you.” There is only One who says, “I will not leave you or forsake you” (Joshua 1:5; Hebrews 13:5). Only One who says, “I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49:15). Tech failures and frustrations are another reminder that “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior” (Philippians 3:20). That will prove the accepted password!