What do computers and stock markets have in commmon?

I woke up this morning and went into the den to check email, play a game of Sudoku, read the news and check scores, stock market, and weather forecasts. I know, its not very exciting or spiritual - it's just my routine.

The monitor in front of me was blinking a yellow warning telling me there was no signal from the computer. I looked over at the tower and the green power light was on, the fan was running and the hard drive was spinning. So, I shut down and tried a restart. No luck. The message told me the configsys. file was missing and that I would have to reboot with the original startup CD.

Strangely, this was the second computer to go down this week. One of the church office's computers went to computer heaven as well. What is going on?
As if the continuing depressing news from Wall Street was not bad enough, the market is obviously not the only thing susceptible to crashing this week. I even went to get my car washed today and the automated brushless carwash was out of order. Is there some sort of conspiracy?

Depressing news all around it seems. Then I began thinking about friends in Africa that we met this summer. I guess when you are wondering if you will have food to eat today, computer crashes, clean cars and 401Ks are not even on the radar screen for them.

So, all this "bad luck" really isn't all that bad. That's a relative term based on the incredible amount of material stuff I have to take care of. As I write about all this, it caused me to stop and pray for the children and teachers/staff at the Balm of Gilead School. I prayed for Joy and Rachel. I also prayed for the Teicherts and Witherows in South Africa - and for Pastor Adam in Nelspruit.

I guess sometimes, it takes a "baseball bat" rather than a gentle tap to remind me of what's truly important in life.

On the bright side, our jazz group - BY COMMITTEE - has grown from a quintet to a septet. We have a guitar now and we will be rehearsing later on this morning. Then, tonight, our ministry staff and Elders are going away on a weekend retreat to pray and plan. Our main topic is "being the church without walls." We are talking about how we live out our faith and commitment to our common life in ways other than weekend worship events. I am "jazzed" about both these things. (Pardon the pun)

Hey, the sun just came out and is highlighting the golden leaves of the birch tree just outside my study window. I guess, I'll pour another cup, get ready for the retreat and enjoy what God has in store for me today.