In technology we trust?

Pretty true isn’t it? We trust electrical current to be available when we flip the light switch. We trust that the water we get out of our taps won’t be carrying disease. We trust that when we get to the checkout line at the grocery, the cashier will be able to take our debit card.

Most of our trust is below our daily awareness….until we face a new technology or lose one we use every day. Last week I made a quick trip by air to another city. I had to rent a car to get to a meeting about an hour away from the airport. Since I was traveling to a new location I decided to splurge and pay a little extra to get a GPS unit. Now, I know the rest of you probably already own one of these devices but this was my first time using one. So, instead of getting out my pre-printed Google map directions and trying to memorize the turns, I turned on the unit and put my trust in it to get me to my destination.

I knew I needed to go south, but I did not know the roads I needed to use. Well, the GPS put me through my paces. “Turn left…bear right…continue on…in .9 miles.” But, when I began going east and then told to get off the highway and onto an extremely rural back road I wasn’t sure anymore. My distrust only grew when my lovely assistant told me, “re-calculating” even while I continued to follow her every direction. Maybe she wasn’t as wise as I thought she was. Or, maybe I typed in the wrong address.

It was at this moment that I wondered what it was like for Abraham as he traveled from his home in Ur to some new home in what is now Israel. Like me with my GPS screen, he could see the road in front of him without being able to see the destination. The Lord tends to open doors for us but we often have no clear picture of where we are going and what the “roads” will be like. We are required to trust that we can keep going forward and not get lost.

At a stop I took a moment to check out my unit a bit more. I found out I could change the screen and see more of my destination. To my relief I found that I was indeed moving in the right direction and had just 20 minutes left to get to where I was going.

With all our technologies, we can “see” a lot. I am personally thankful for the imaging technologies that helped us know what we were facing with my wife’s cancer. Some day we may be able to see who is really likely to have dementia and be able to alter their lives before getting sick.

But these great technologies cannot tell us how our lives will turn out, how relationships will change, or what opportunities and struggles the Lord will bring our way. For these things, we must trust God or try to go it alone.

I for one am glad that there is one technology that allows us to scan out to the end and see that no matter what troubles and trials are in our path…we know the end point…heaven.

And now back to trusting in technology as I push “publish”.