The Marvels of Technology

In some ways I am old when it comes to technology. I am old enough to remember, though vaguely the days of floppy disks that were actually floppy, and perhaps more obviously now, I am old enough, the barely, that texting does not come naturally to me, really I am right at the cusp of generations and the technology that accompanies them. That being sad I still pride myself on my use and knowledge of technology. In spite of all of that, I found it fascinating that yesterday, while I watched the results of the Iowa caucuses on television and check on them on-line, when it came to starting to work on my sermon, the instrument I reached for was a pen and a pad of notebook paper. For some reason everything has its place in my mind. I blog on my laptop, even at times like right now when I could just as easily do it on my desktop. When it comes to writing I use pen and paper. I think what I like pen and paper is the impermanence of the ideas. If something gets recorded on the computer it seems so much neater and more official. When I brainstorm things on the computer I try to get it all right. When I am just working on the rough draft of my sermon it starts out on scraps of paper or a notepad, sometimes sermons never even make it to the big screen of the computer, but go straight from notepaper to my pulpit on Sunday morning. I guess this is just one more reminder that as great as technology is, everything has its place, and for me the as yet undeveloped thoughts and ideas for a sermon belong on paper, where I can scratch them out, jot notes along the margins and feel like they are still nothing more than ideas, swirling on the paper before me. As for this idea, I think it is finished, have a nice night.