“As
silver-haired parents, listening to me now, you remember those
long-ago trips as youngsters to the amusement park, the penny arcade,
hall of mirrors, and reading comics about Dick Tracy's futuristic
wrist radio. And then a few years later the boat trip with your
sweetheart through the tunnel of love. As the youth pastor of our
church, and not yet in my thirties, I can't consider any of these as
memories, as all of you can,” added Pastor Tim.
“But
it's crucial that I take just a few more precious minutes of your
time to tell you of another tunnel you've been going through, or at
least the parents of high school students have. Most every day I see these
parents with a strong saddening look of bewilderment supported by
their almost fearful questions of what they've done wrong, or what
had made their teens and preteens so indescribable.”
“Actually,
there is a term for their attitudes and actions and I believe we can
even draw a circle around their manner of living here this evening,
again thanks to your Quilters for Christ event today.” Tim turned
to face the marker board behind him. He wrote plainly, the two words,
'Digital Native'. He again faced his silver-haired listeners and
began with, “the term probably looks strange, and I'll begin to
explain this way. I need a show of hands. How many of you would
likely get a correct answer if you asked a teen or preteen what a
chalk and slate are used for?” Only one or two hands went up. “OK.
Now how many of you in this room know what an iPad is, and a little
how it's used?” Again, only three of the many present, raised their
hands.”
"The
reason I ask these two questions is because these two items are
largely at the entrance and exit of that tunnel I want to show that
you have come through. You've probably used a chalk and slate, along
with McGuffey Readers, listening to the wind-up pendulum clock on the
wall tic-toc through the long school day, learning your multiplication
tables. Your attention in later years was intently focused on growing
and guarding a family as you began through that tunnel of focused
attention.”
“Progressing
through that tunnel, you struggled with the expanding attitudes of
your children toward profanity, promiscuity, meeting the bills, and
supervising dating events. That tunnel of attention didn't let you
see much of the changes from the chalk and slate, to the blackboard
and colored chalk. And then the Greenboard, and of all things, the
white marker board – but it doesn't stop there. Still in that time
tunnel, God's gift of technology gave our white marker board a brain.
It's called an Interactive Marker Board. It remembers what you wrote
on it; both words and pictures. It's computerized.”
Youth Pastor Tim continued his presentation with, “Well
coming out of that tunnel vision of the challenged parent, we are
startled by all the gadgetry that sort-of snuck up on us while our
children were in class, and we were at work, in the home, or business
place. The first thing Satan does is to lie to us just as he did in
God's garden. We hear these strange words like Twitter, tweets,
iPods, and there's that iPad thing again. 'Well, what is it?' You
ask.
Very simply, an iPad is a chalk and slate that grew up while
you were in that tunnel. An iPad is about the same size as a slate,
but has batteries, lights, and a computer inside. It has the ability
to communicate somewhat like a telephone can, and even talk to other
computers. Is it more dangerous than that chalk and slate? Probably
about the same difference as your car in the driveway and your Model
T at the other end of the tunnel.”
“Now
here's 'where-the-tires-meet-the-road', so to speak. You have to
answer the following questions in your own heart, without
reservation. Number 1; is Satan more powerful now than the power God
gave him on the other end of the tunnel? I'll repeat my question. is
Satan more powerful now than the power God gave him on the other end
of the tunnel?
Number 2; Does the events of God stopping the sun in
Joshua 10 and the backing up of time in 2nd Kings 20,
prove He still has control of all that He creates? My third and last
question. Does God love your children and mine any less than He did
the little boy in a basket in the Egyptian bulrushes? Let's not limit
our thinking of what God is able to do.”
“Whether
God is using bulrushes, blackboards, batteries, or broken hearts,
let's stand ready to love and lead His living breathing gifts to us.
There's no going back to the leeks, onions, and non-electronic days
and ways. We have the unique responsibility of using our experience
and storm-tested scriptures to teach God's unfathomable love by our
love and understanding. John 3:16 on a handheld slate, still begins
on every iPad the world over, 'For God so loved the world, he
gave...' ”
