The Modern Day God
Recently something dawned on me. It was one of those moments when it feels like time has stopped and a thought out of the blue hits you like a bolt of lightning. Thankfully for me I was not struck by lightning and I still continue to have many thoughts. What was it that happened? Read on...
The other day my oldest daughter brought home a prayer box from school. The idea being that the child takes it home and sets up a praying area in a part of the home. It is to encourage, I guess, praying time for the family. Now I should say that my daughter goes to a Catholic School (hence the prayer box) but we are not Catholic.
Anyway, we opened the prayer box, took out the cross, candle and mat and set it up in a bedroom. On the day we had to take prayer box to school I inadvertently put our netbook next to it. It was then I had the thought. In this high technological age it is now the computer that is the modern day equivalent of the prayer box, or dare I say it God.
Every day we use a computer to transfer money, buy goods, communicate via social networks, read, study and interact with other people all over the world. There are also a myriad of websites and applications relating to every little thing imaginable! If we are honest we don't need to leave our houses anymore because its all there online for us. We can do anything online if we want - even change religions!
However, if we cannot access our computers or the Internet then how do we feel? We feel frustrated, annoyed and in some cases despondent. It is as if our modern day God has been taken away from us. We have that missing feeling as we enter our church (study room) and pray that our 3 year old laptop will work so we can see what John has been up to on Facebook, or to send updates to Tanja via Twitter.
Contrast this to people who lived in the western world say 150 years ago. In those days the church was number one. Everything revolved around the church and its community. You would have gone to church at least once a week and would have been an integral part of all church initiatives that arose. The church was also the only place where you could really catch up with friends who you would not have seen since the previous Sunday. For example you could catch up with John to see what he had been doing, whilst Tanja would update you on her newly born child.
So you can see, we are still doing the same thing, but it appears that nowadays computers are the Modern Day God.
The other day my oldest daughter brought home a prayer box from school. The idea being that the child takes it home and sets up a praying area in a part of the home. It is to encourage, I guess, praying time for the family. Now I should say that my daughter goes to a Catholic School (hence the prayer box) but we are not Catholic.
Anyway, we opened the prayer box, took out the cross, candle and mat and set it up in a bedroom. On the day we had to take prayer box to school I inadvertently put our netbook next to it. It was then I had the thought. In this high technological age it is now the computer that is the modern day equivalent of the prayer box, or dare I say it God.
Every day we use a computer to transfer money, buy goods, communicate via social networks, read, study and interact with other people all over the world. There are also a myriad of websites and applications relating to every little thing imaginable! If we are honest we don't need to leave our houses anymore because its all there online for us. We can do anything online if we want - even change religions!
However, if we cannot access our computers or the Internet then how do we feel? We feel frustrated, annoyed and in some cases despondent. It is as if our modern day God has been taken away from us. We have that missing feeling as we enter our church (study room) and pray that our 3 year old laptop will work so we can see what John has been up to on Facebook, or to send updates to Tanja via Twitter.
Contrast this to people who lived in the western world say 150 years ago. In those days the church was number one. Everything revolved around the church and its community. You would have gone to church at least once a week and would have been an integral part of all church initiatives that arose. The church was also the only place where you could really catch up with friends who you would not have seen since the previous Sunday. For example you could catch up with John to see what he had been doing, whilst Tanja would update you on her newly born child.
So you can see, we are still doing the same thing, but it appears that nowadays computers are the Modern Day God.
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