Fast, finger-tip access

Daily writing promptWrite about your first computer.View all responses

My first computer gave me a tree of fast, finger-tip access to good and evil. A mouse-click or a key flick could instantly display wisdom or wickedness.

Wickedness? Yes! Yesterday, January 31, 2024, the CEOs of 5 of the largest social media companies testified before the US Senate Judiciary Committee about online child exploitation.  The meeting was packed with family members who were lifting up photos of their children and teenagers who had killed themselves as a result of online bullying or had died from overdoses of drugs they accessed through a social media platform.

Wisdom? Yes! Using my first computer I learned to search for wisdom and avoid wickedness. I learned that it was wise to be open, honest, and accountable to someone about my online surfing. I committed to tell my wife anytime I went to a page that promoted wickedness. Being open and accountable with her gave me the strength to avoid those pages. Instead, I began to search for quotations and sites about inspirational topics. I discovered much wholesomeness and inspiration with my first computer. The web is full of wisdom if we will choose to search for it instead of for wickedness.

I also began to use my first computer to blog about hope and to post it on social media — to spread kindness and wisdom in all of my online activity. It’s not easy. Sometimes people attack and insult me for my beliefs, but I strive to respond with compassion and to bless those who curse me.

People need encouragement, not negativity. They need wisdom, not more wickedness. They need the wisdom and love of the living, healing God, not the meaninglessness of purposelessness existence.

Here is how I used my latest computer to write and post some wisdom today. (You can find much more of my wisdom search on my Facebook page.)

The proud idea of
Self-sufficiency
Blinds our eyes
So we can’t see
The victory
Of “Christ in you,
The hope of glory.”

Even when you feel like nothing
You’re never nothing,
And there’s never nothing
That God can do.

Either extreme
Is off the balance beam.
You’re neither nothing
Nor self-sufficient.
You’re made in God’s image
And you desperately need
His presence and love.

Let Jesus fill you
With His fire
Of holy desire.
Even in the
Darkest night
He can ignite
You with His
Glorious Light!

I put my hope in people who are running after Jesus. I don’t trust those who are striving to get and hold on to political power.

The church-Jesus
Is stuck in a building
But the living Jesus
Is always revealing
His love and His healing
To whoever will open
Their heart to Him.

People need to grow
In a relationship
With the risen Jesus
And not be content
With the status quo.