As you may or may not know, Renée and I were just blessed with a second grandchild last month. Our little granddaughter Riley Quinn Söderberg was born March 15. She joins her big brother Nova Michael up in Orrington, Maine. I served a church in Orrington for nine years prior to moving here to Hartford in 2006. We are absolutely thrilled to have two grandchildren now, but it is a bummer to be so far away. It is a six-hour drive from Wethersfield to Orrington. It’s not something one does on a regular basis. Still, I am blessed to be able to drive there in six hours. If I had to walk it like Jesus and His disciples had to walk everywhere, it would have taken me fourteen days. That’s walking for ten hours a day. Two weeks up and two weeks back. Six hours in an air-conditioned or heated car with cruise control and Sirius XM radio is fine with me. Jesus’ ministry stretched from Tyre in Phoenicia to Jerusalem in Judea. That trek would have taken them four days.
We have come a long way. Our trip to Florida – about 1,400 miles – only took two and a half days. That would seem like space travel to the disciples. We have come a long way in many areas. Remember back when there was only black and white television? Just one in the living room that got three channels ABC, NBC, and CBS, along with a couple of UHF channels – 38 and 56. One might be able to get PBS on channel 2 as well but you did have to get up and change the channel and sometimes adjust the antenna which was covered in aluminum foil to get better reception. Remember when we only had one telephone on the wall in the kitchen? Sometimes we got a really long cord so you could sit on the cellar stairs behind a closed door and talk with your special someone. In fact, I only had to dial the last four digits of Renée’s phone number to reach her. There just weren’t that many phones, I guess. Do you remember encyclopedias? Salesman used to make a living going door to door selling Encyclopedia Britannica or World Book Encyclopedia. If you had a question, that was the only way to find the answer unless you took a drive to the library.
Today, we are so blessed to have modern technology. Forget writing letters that may take several days to arrive. We have email and texting. We carry computers in our pockets more powerful than the one that landed the lunar module Eagle on the moon. Yes, your cell phone has one million times more memory than the Apollo computer had in RAM. We have the internet, You Tube, Instagram, Facebook, X, and Snapchat. When Jesus told us to, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone” (Mark 16:15), He knew what the 21st century would be like. He’s God. Perhaps that’s why He said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father” (John 14:12). How could we do “greater works” than He? Our reach is universal. According to the Gospels, Jesus’ ministry primarily took place in the region of Galilee, located in northern Israel. This area encompasses a total of approximately 3,000 square miles, roughly the size of the state of Connecticut. We, however, can share the gospel with people all over the world. Including some dangerous and restricted places like North Korea or the Maldives where there are fewer than ten known believers in the entire country of over 500,000.
Yes, I know modern technology isn’t always a good thing. It’s a love-hate relationship. We love having hundreds of channels to choose from on television (though there seems to still be nothing worth watching). We also love being able to contact our loved ones anywhere at any time. We hate it when the internet signal goes out in our homes, or our phone battery dies. Perhaps we hate how much we have come to rely on modern technology. Have you ever turned around and gone back to your house because you forgot your phone?
There is a tendency for people to romanticize the “good old days.” I sometimes do it too. But I don’t know anyone who wants to go back to black and white television with five or six channels or having to walk everywhere. Sure, technology is not always a good thing. It is a double-edged sword. But I do appreciate being able to drive up to Maine and see my grandchildren in only six hours. I also enjoy talking with and seeing them while still in Connecticut using facetime. And I love being able to meet with all of you here on Food 4 Thought, or at 4:00 pm this afternoon for prayer, tonight at Bible Study, or for worship on Sunday.
The truth is, whether we say we like it or not, because of modern technology we have the ability to reach far more people than Jesus ever did. The question is, “Will we?” That’s up to us. Will you like, comment, or share this post? There are millions, billions, of people who have not yet heard the gospel and unbelievably they are only a click away.
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Remember you can email praise reports and prayer requests to southchurchprayer@gmail.com. I lift them up every Wednesday at 4:00 pm on Facebook Live.