The End of an Age

The past decade or two has been called a number of different names – the information age, the digital age, the computer age – and has been a time of immense growth in computer technology and the internet, among other things. With the new technology many new opportunities, moral and ethical questions, scientific and medical possibilities, temptations, and much more have entered the everyday lives of the modern populace. Do the benefits of technology outweigh the negative influences it has exerted on culture and common life? That’s a debate that I don’t care to have. However, I am planning to do a sort of experiment on the subject.

On January 1^st of 2014 I am going to drop off the face of the earth. Not literally, of course, but in the sense of disappearing from the digital world of internet and computers. For personal, spiritual, and perhaps even scientific reasons, I am taking a sabbatical from the social media world of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. I am turning my back on my numerous email inboxes (except for my work email, for hopefully obvious reasons) and even my prestigious online blog (ha!). I am refusing to keep up-to-date on global news via online networks and websites.

To put it bluntly, I am fasting from the internet for 90 days.

The majority of the world won’t know and certainly won’t care that I am going “offline” until April 1^st (no fooling), but for the tiny minority that will care and will notice, I thought it best to offer a little advanced warning and a sort of explanation. No, I haven’t un-friended you on Facebook. No, I haven’t been eaten by an African lion. The world will go on without me. I'm pretty certain of that.

Outside of my co-workers, fellow Botswana residents, and the tourists/passengers on my flights, the only contact I plan to have with “the outside world” will be old fashioned snail mail sent to my company address in Gaborone. If you want that address, feel free to contact my family or to look it up on the World Wide Web. Plan on 2-4 weeks of transit time for any letters you may mail. The donkey carts that deliver mail over here are pretty slow. Not really, but the time it takes for me to get mail will depend on the flight schedule of our air ambulance planes, so it is unpredictable.

In case of emergency, contact my company or my family. Or you could just call 911.

Enjoy the internet for the next 90 days! It should be faster without me clogging up the bandwidth. If you would continue to pray for me during this time of internet silence, I would most definitely appreciate it. As for me, I’ll be enjoying life as it used to be with no internet to distract, to communicate, or to enlighten. I am actually hoping it will be the best of times, the age of wisdom, the epoch of belief, the season of light, and the spring of hope for me rather than the opposite. And just perhaps, during the sabbatical I will be able to say with my own personal meaning, “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I [have] than I have ever known.” Oh yes, and I do plan to read some Charles Dickens with my additional free time. It will be great. 

Family

Christmas is about Jesus Christ. Christmas is about the gift of God's Son as a savior to the world. Christmas is about remembering and celebrating the virgin birth of baby Jesus. Christmas is about family.

The birth of Jesus was so important because of who He was, and especially who His Father was. Millions of babies have been born on this earth, but none of them besides Jesus were the son of God Almighty. Jesus was important because of His family. 

As Jesus walked the earth and ministered to its inhabitants, He was building the foundation for a spiritual family. Being fully man and yet resisting every temptation to sin that you and I as humans must face, Jesus conquered sin. Dying on the cross while completely innocent, Jesus conquered sin. Rising from the grave after three days of being dead, Jesus conquered sin. He was the perfect sacrifice that has torn the curtain between humanity and God the Father to allow us all to become children of The Most High. Because of God the Father and God the Son, we can now be adopted into the family of God. 

We celebrate Christmas every year with our biological families or families by marriage or by adoption on this earth, but we also get to celebrate it with our spiritual family around the world. All of us who have been saved by the blood of Christ are brothers and sisters to one another. We are all related. In a way, it is because of the first Christmas that we are all part of the same family.

Here in Botswana, thousands of miles away from my biological family in Texas and my adopted family members in Virginia, North and South Carolina, Florida, and Puerto Rico, I am thankful that I have spiritual family members with whom I can celebrate the birth of Christ. At the same time, I will most definitely miss being with my brothers and sisters by birth, my parents, and my aunts, uncles, and cousins that I have been with for every Christmas up until now. So let me encourage those of you who have the blessing of spending this Christmas season under the same roof as your loved ones and family members to make the most of it. Remember that the presents and food and traditions are only as good as they are because of the people you are with as you enjoy them. Remember that not one of us is guaranteed another Christmas with those that we love and that each moment, each smile, each memory made is precious. Enjoy Christmas with your family! Whether you spend this holiday season with biological, adopted, or spiritual family members, remember that you and I are blessed. 

In the midst of our Christmas joys let's not forget those people who don't have a family, whether physical or spiritual, to be with on Christmas morning. The world is full of orphans, widows, and lost souls who will be sad and have an aching heart this December 25th. Perhaps besides simply counting our own blessings this Christmas, we can somehow manage to also be blessings to those who need it most. This is one of my favorite Christmas songs and says it even better than I can: http://youtu.be/XvDBGVoGKD0

Christmas is all about family! 

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"Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father..." - James 1:17

Praise Ye The Lord!

The Bible, especially Psalms, is full of commands and reminders to praise God for all of His wonderful works. Honestly, though, I forget to do that as much as I should. It certainly isn't because He hasn't blessed me or exhibited His power and greatness in and around my life every single day, because He has done that. My lack of sufficient praise unto God is due to my failure to recognize and appreciate all of His blessings in the midst of everyday life and its busy schedule. What a lame reason.

Last week was an incredible testimony to the greatness of God and yielded many more reasons to praise Him. To set the stage, let me explain how things work here in Botswana when foreign nationals initially enter the country. When citizens of another country cross the border or pass through customs at the airport they are given a stamp in their passport that basically serves as a tourist visa and allows them to stay in the country for a maximum period of 90 days. People like me who are trying to move here for a job must apply for a residence permit and a work permit through the immigration office or else they will be required to leave the country after their 90 day pass expires. The past few months have been a difficult time for international applicants to obtain approval to stay or work in the country. Some of FMS's new employees have had to leave the country and are going through an appeal process to attempt to be able to come back and work. Lots of other organizations and individuals we have talked to are having the same problems. That being said, last Friday was my final day to be able to stay in the country on my 90 day passport stamp. The clock was ticking and my days were disappearing rapidly last week when I was called into the immigration office on Wednesday. Four and a half hours of waiting in line later, an immigration officer handed me a residence permit and a work permit over the counter and I walked out of that office with a miracle in my hand. With only two days to spare, God showed Himself strong on my behalf and has allowed me to stay and to work in Botswana!

God deserves praise for more than just opening doors and providing for His children. Look around. His creation is awesome! Over the weekend I went camping at the Khama Rhino Sanctuary with some FMS friends. The pans (large, flat open areas of ground) were covered with rhino, wildebeest, kudu, ostrich, impala, springbok, zebra, giraffe, eland, warthog, gemsbok, water buck, and a variety of neat birds (watch the video from the trip here). Watching all of these animals frolicking around as the sunset lit up the Botswana sky was amazing. Not to be outdone, the night sky was filled by a crescent moon and a plethora of dazzling stars and constellations. The flickering flames of our fire, the distinct smell of African wood smoke, and the varying tastes of delicious foods were all small and often unappreciated examples of the creativity, power, and greatness of our God that we experienced that night.

I have always loved this quote from Robert Louis Stevenson: 

"The best things are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of God just before you."

Life is full of wonderful things that we should praise The Lord for every single day. He has done great things and will continue to do great things. Just praise Him!

 

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"Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!" - Psalms 150:6