I shared this testimony in our Gathering last Sunday.
By talking with other creative people, I have learned that I’m not the only one who finds the computer world maddening. Writers, movie-makers, musicians, graphic artists, and more spend hours learning to use the programs we need so we can do our creative work. But the computer engineers and software developers keep improving what they gave us earlier. Last year’s program may not work on this year’s computer, which has downloaded operating system upgrades every week or two.
By the time I was starting to get familiar with Adobe CS3, I suddenly have to learn CS5. MS Word likewise works differently than it did a few years ago. In other words, any project that used to take me fifteen minutes now takes half an hour or even an hour or two.
I’ve come up with a slogan that describes the wonderful world of computers and software:
The more they improve it, the worse it gets.
If I were the only one who feels this way, I could assume I’m just getting cranky in my old age. But a lot of creative people wish they could give more time to their work – coming up with new ideas – instead of spending so much time mastering new technology so they can continue to do what they were able to do last year.
But my Bible reading recently took me to Philippians 4, where I read, “Do all things without complaining and disputing.” The Holy Spirit convicted me that I needed to make this verse a rule of life.
It’s one thing to make a decision in the peaceful practice of reading scripture and meditating on it. It’s another thing to follow through when using the “Find And Replace” feature in Word and in InDesign, and learning that an hour’s worth of corrections have been lost because Command-S doesn’t save the files I was working on. I got madder and madder, then remembered the verse God had convicted me with.
The conviction of the Holy Spirit is the fear of the Lord, and it is the beginning of wisdom. So I decided to replace complaints with thanksgiving. I thanked God for my computer and my software, even if I couldn’t get them to work. I thanked Him that help would come, somehow. Then I went to bed and slept.
I woke up, knowing how to start making the computer save the changes I was making in a long document. I spent a few hours working on it before we had the next Gathering. By now, I knew that God had showed me how to make my programs work. The method was tedious, but it worked.
More important, I had experienced again what I shared in my 31-day devotional, “Learn To Hear From God.” If we respond to conviction when it comes, we are investing in the fear of the Lord. Often it proves to be a beginning of new wisdom. In my case, I received wisdom to solve a technical problem because I said yes to God’s conviction.
More about this at http://www.squidoo.com/learn-to-hear-from-God-day-21.
I shared the testimony on Sunday, but took the laptop to the Mac Superstore, and Gary solved the problem. He changed a couple of administrator settings, and everything has worked beautifully ever since. Command S now does what it should, and my project will now be easy to finish.
Stan Smith :: © 2011, GospelSmith :: www.GospelSmith.com
