Who in their right mind wants to trade in their electric light bulbs for candles, oil, or kerosene lamps? Who would want to exchange their microwave oven for an open hearth? Who wants to quit using their air conditioner during the hot summer months for opened windows? Who wants to exchange their electric or natural gas heat for chopping wood? Who wants to replace digital technology for analog or MP3 for vinyl records or cell phones for telegraph, automobiles or airplanes for horses, buggies, or stagecoaches? Who wants to trade in 21st-century medical technology for the 19th century?
Have you ever asked this rhetorical question; how in the world did we ever get by without this or that? This question invariably surfaces with our smartphones in hand. In talking with a senior the other day, she said that “Growing up was difficult looking back, but she didn’t know that back then.” She said, “We just accepted things for what they were, not what they could have been.” Thank God for those dreaming outside of the box!
An elderly man sitting close to me saw me texting, and he struck up a conversation while in the waiting room to see the doctor. He had problems using a smartphone so he opted for, in his words, a “dumbed-down” phone! I said would it not be interesting if Apple went retro by designing a iTelegraph that uses telegraphese for those struggling with the smartphone in order to communicate with family and friends, “I’M HERE -(STOP)- PUT ON THE COFFEE -(STOP)- JOHN”!
Have you ever visited the Carousel of Progress hosted by General Electric in Disneyworld’s Tomorrowland? It is a theater that rotates, consisting of a series of stages depicting different periods of time chronicling the evolution of technology that was building a better way of life for an animatronic family through four generations. The optimistic theme song was “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow.”
It is not rocket science to see the difference between how the first generation of the carousel of progress family and the fourth generation lived. I would choose the last one. Now, I would be lying if I told you that I didn’t love electronic gadgets. I am not opposed to making life easier to have time to do other things. Let’s face it; technology has made time for more pursuits than spending all day securing the essentials.
Beverly tells others that I would have to be hooked up to life support if my cell phone and laptop were separated from me! She has a point. My wife has often joked to her friends that as long as Michael can be in Barnes & Noble with his laptop and latte, I can shop all day on Saturday at the Hamilton Place Mall. Oh, the politicking and sacrifices we hubbies must endure for our spouses! Often, the memory of such forfeitures fades away until the next Saturday. My soul knows right well.
But hey, there is a great big beautiful tomorrow! Remember the other theme song at the Carousel of Progress, “Now is the time. Now is the best time of your life?” The best time and the best place are in the will of God regardless of where that should take us in His will. God’s will is the safest and best place to be in the whole wide world, bar none, because eternity is in His will (cf. Eccl 3:14).
Here is what the Carousel of Progress is not telling visitors concerning their secular view of progress. Civilization may advance technologically, but the sinful nature in every man, woman, and child is still the sinful nature, and all of the new technologies making life “better,” plastic surgeries, education, and extreme makeovers of personal environments will never change the ugliness of the sin nature inside of man that is totally depraved (Jer 17:9). It cannot be domesticated or eradicated this side of eternity. Only Jesus Christ can make a significant difference in the heart of man (2 Cor 5:17). So, on and on it goes with each stage in each succeeding generation with its advanced technologies in its own pursuit of earthly wisdom that seeks to change the outward in the hope of changing the inward; whereas Christ works from within to change the outward (cf. Rom 12:2). Nature teaches us that you can clean up a pig, but afterward, it will head to the nearest mudhole.
Even after all of the dark experiences of human history to date, though we may have advanced technologically in many ways, why in the world is 21st century man still puzzled over the contemporary expressions of brutalities as witnessed in the Middle East? And the survey said, Jer 17:9! Can technology make a difference? Obviously, it cannot. Can God? And Yahweh said, Isa 1:18.
Maybe that first generation of the carousel of progress family appealed to you more! But imagine being a time traveler and being able to return to any time in history. Where would you want to go? Each generation refers to the good old days, and the generation before them refers to the good old days, and on and on it goes back to Adam. Perhaps the best “good old days” were in the Garden prior to the fall of man? How could Adam long for the good old days? He was the problem with the good old days in disobeying God and listening to his wife. He tried to pass the blame on Eve and God (Gn 3:12, “The woman whom You gave….” [emphasis mine]), but God wasn’t buying it (Gn 3:17-19)!
Adam could not keep himself in the Garden, and Garden conditions are what every son of Adam of each succeeding generation desires in any way, shape, or form. Adam traded fellowship with God and the Garden for something totally unnecessary. Eve and Adam bought into that which was not a necessity, and you know all too well how they ended up. Adam and Eve quickly learned that not all things are necessary. The serpent was able to turn the thinking of a non-necessity into a necessity!
Indeed, technology has made life easier, but we have to seriously question whether we are really building a better way of life through technology alone? As a believer, we would have to say, “No,” if it means spending a life without God or having to disobey Him. Things never bring genuine happiness for God has hardwired mankind in such a way that happiness cannot be truly realized through possessions. We learn from Scripture that genuine happiness is hardwired to holiness (cf. Psa 1:1-3). Disobeying God is being unholy. Being unholy produces unhappiness, misery! Solomon will tell you that in Ecclesiastes! Life under the sun, a life lived without God, is the vanity of vanities.
In Jesus’ teaching on greed (Lk 12:13-21), He said to “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Lk 12:15). How many have learned after it was too late that life is more important than things. We will waste away our lives in the pursuit of the unnecessary to achieve some semblance of happiness only to find emptiness.
Are you feeling a compulsion, combating an irresistible impulse, like Adam and Eve? What is it that you are willing to trade for something unnecessary? There is no unnecessary out there that will satisfy like being holy as Jesus is holy; He is the great Necessary in our lives! If you contemplating trading something of value for something totally unnecessary, be assured, if you are a believer, there is a ripple effect for every sin; what once is set in motion it may not be retrievable or stoppable even though forgiven. Adam and Eve learned that the hard way. Anytime you and I sin against God, we are trading for something totally unnecessary. <><
“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU.’” Heb 13:5
%20MG%20t-bkgrd%2060x44%20png.png){kind=small}
%20sunflower%2045x63%20png.png){kind=small}
