The 21st Century!

"Father, in case you didn't hear, we're in the 21st century, not the 12th." This comment, made somewhat tongue in cheek, was said after someone saw my "non-smart" phone. I did not take any offense at it (I am glad she could joke with me). In this day and age where we are surrounded constantly with technology, it is important for us to take measures to ensure that we are not blinded by the machines that we create. So, I do not own a "smart" phone, and I have chosen not to learn how they work either (aside from the fact that touch screens drive me crazy!).

Now, let me qualify a bit. I am not a tech savvy computer nerd, but I will admit I do not use Windows or Mac; I have Linux on my computer. For those of you who do not know, that means that I am not using the standard corporate controlled computer technology, but rather an operating system that requires that I spend more time getting to know how it works in order to keep it operating properly (most people would say Linux is for computer nerds--fine).

Yet, both my choice of "Amish phone" (as one parishioner put it) and a Linux system, is because I am working to keep myself from technological dependency. When we let tech do too many things for us, we become dependent on it. There is a promise that the Church will endure until the Second Coming, but there is no promise that technology will. There is nothing to say that we will not experience a catastrophe that eliminates everything that we have become so enamored with. A good fictional book (based in fact) in this regard is "One Second After".

You do not need to choose the same methods that I do. Some do some farming. Some will choose drive a care without a computer chip (so it will survive an EMP). There are many ways, but we all must remember that Jesus told us not to be attached to things in this world (anything in this world!) and not to let them control us. What can you do, right now, to seek to break those attachments? The things of this world are fading, and will not last forever; be ready, right now, to let them go.