There are times I long for the good old days. Not because they were necessarily good. Nor because I was old then. Neither because they only lasted a day.
Simply because things were simpler then.
When I sent a letter it was usually hand written. Spelling mistakes were ignored by anyone who cared about me. At least my mom never complained about anything of the sort.
Now I have the option of using my phone to send a message to someone, whether I care about them or not. The “keypad” on my phone is quite a bit smaller than my fat fingers frequently.
There’s one pesky modern convenience on my phone I find extremely annoying and frequently obnoxiously incorrect.
Don’t tell me I’m the only person on the planet who battles with Spellcheck on a regular basis.
For anyone reading this who hasn’t had the privilege of meeting said obnoxious practical joker let me introduce you to it.
Whilst typing your message to be sent out three spaces appear above your keypad. As you type it offers suggestions in those three spaces that it “thinks” you may want to use as the next word in your next sentence. Occasionally this does speed the process of sending out a message.
Sometimes it seems the word I want to appear isn’t in my phone’s vocabulary, until I type the last letter of the word I want that is.
More times than not the suggestions are so off the topic of what I want to say it throws me out of my train of thought as to what I do want to say.
Let me give you a for instance so you have a clearer picture of why this upsets me so.
I had a dispatcher text me about a delivery I made the previous week. He wanted to know about one particular order that the customer insisted wasn’t unloaded at his facility, even thought he signed for it as being delivered.
I actually did recall said delivery. I knew it was all there. So I texted back that “I don’t remember any freight being left on the trailer at the end of my run.” At least that’s what I wanted to say.
Spellcheck had other nefarious options for me to transmit to my boss. As I got to the word ‘any’ it came up with an off the wall suggestion for me that made do a double take. What my phone wanted me to confess to I knew I had never even considered let alone done. Especially as a born-again Christian who does his level best to honor God by honoring my body in every conceivable manner.
I’ll tell you what my stupid phone with unknown intelligence offered me to send out.
“I don’t remember an affair”
Like I said earlier I’ve never even considered having an affair, which would be why I don’t remember ever having one to begin with.
But, I’m still depraved enough that I’m pretty sure if I did have an affair I would want to remember the best parts of it even though it’s wrong. Don’t cluck your tongue at me like that. You’ve got that much depravity in you, too. You’re just too self-righteous to confess it.
I’ll give you a tamer for instance that happened to a writer friend of mine. This one was still embarrassing to the victim.
Cindy was on a vacation and wished to keep her peeps updated with her events. She sent out that they road their bikes to a park.
One of her peeps tried to point out her mistake in a polite way. I was more blunt since I don’t appreciate practical phone jokes.
I commented on her post “Methinks you rode your bikes on the road.”
Cindy quickly corrected spellcheck’s mistake. The worst part of her embarrassment is she does a certain amount of editing for a publisher. Yikes.
Jesus’s opponents had a certain twist to their dealings with Him back in His good old day. At one of His mock trials they had so many false witnesses to what He did that they contradicted each other.
Caiaphas, the high priest, finally got fed up with how slow this was taking so he turned to Jesus and asked Him point blank, “Are you the Christ, the Son of God?”
Jesus gave a two word answer that said all He needed to say. “I am.”
Every mind in that room was immediately taken to the burning bush Moses talked to. That’s the name God told Moses to tell the people who sent him to them to deliver them.
The label of blasphemy was given quickly as reason enough to have Jesus killed. More deception was needed to convince the Romans to end His life, but God was behind it all anyway. That’s why Jesus came to earth to begin with.
When you’re telling people about Jesus don’t beat around the bush. Explain it as you would to a six year old. If you can’t do that then you don’t have a clear concept of salvation to begin with.
Society is too confused about Jesus already. Don’t offer them muddy water to drink. Give them the living water. It’s up to them what they do with it.
If they reject it they aren’t rejecting you. They’re rejecting the God who came to save them from an eternity without Him.
I hope I’m clear about this.
Keep smiling. Wade
