Time To Re-boot

Once upon a time, I worked at a place where the computers didn’t work very well. Max, the computer network engineer, was every bit of the parody for a computer network person that you see on SNL. Every bit.

One day, my computer crashed and you would have thought it was a major catastrophe! Max came skidding into the office with this crazy cartoony mad scientist look on his face and say, “What did you do?”

I’m thinking, “What did I do? I don’t know what I did…but I know what I’m doing right now! I’m having some very un-Christian thoughts about you!”

I just looked at him and said, “I don’t know…the thing just locked up.” Max said, “Well, did you re-boot?” He said it all the time. If he said it once, I heard him say it a thousand times! It became an inside joke at the office. “Did you re-boot?”

See, Max knew computers and he that re-starting the computer from scratch to get the operating system up and running was a sure fix for most troubles.  Turn it off…let it rest…turn it back on. The re-boot resets everything, new and fresh.

I think we can do the same thing in our lives. And, this is a good time of year for it. It’s starting to cool down. School’s back. Football is back! Homecoming. Bluegrass Fest. Guthrie is rockin!

It’s a good time to renew ourselves in the Spirit.

Try, if you can, to set aside your present understanding of God. Get out of the box and look at it from a different angle. Try to imagine how vast and infinite God is. If you can picture a clear Fall night sky when you can see a billion stars…you’re starting to get the idea of how big we’re talking about here.

Now, try to see the world from the satellite view that God has. Think of our insignificance from that point of view! All of us at one time or another feel like we’re pretty important and the rest of the world just kinda revolves around us. But, not from this angle.  It boggles my mind and it re-boots my perspective.

Get a new Bible translation…see the words from a different vantage point. It will change your life to experience God’s Word as a living, breathing document. The words will jump off the page at you, especially when you hear the syllables as you read them aloud. There is even a translation out there that reads like a play. Try it out!

Next, get out into creation! Take a warm sunny afternoon walk around Highland Park or pick your favorite dusty side road. Breathe deeply! Take it all in. Get the sun in your eyes. See if you can feel God’s presence as the wind blows your hair around. Listen as hard as you can. You just might hear the voice of the Spirit.

Finally, do something for somebody other than yourself. Stop and help somebody change a tire on I-35. Help someone carry their groceries to the car. Volunteer at one of the food banks or at Lunch on Noble. You never know how just your presence may help another person re-boot.

Re-booting ourselves, our perspectives and starting fresh is a choice we make. You never know…in the midst of those little acts of meditation and kindness…you may just find yourself at the beginning of something new.

Scott Foster is pastor at First United Presbyterian Church.