ValueSpeak
A Weekly Column
By Joseph Walker
LET THE EXPERT
For my friend, Claire, computers are a wonderful
mystery.
She loves the informational possibilities of the
Internet. She loves being able to communicate with her friends all around the
world via e-mail. She loves playing Solitaire.
But she has no idea how it all works. And when it
doesn’t work . . well, that’s
even more of a mystery. Albeit not especially wonderful.
So when her hard drive crashed (rest in peace, you
defragmented hunk of . . . well, whatever you are)
she decided it was time to get a new computer. She did her research and she’s
pretty sure she got a good one. It came with all sorts of bells and whistles,
but it didn’t come with a good anti-virus program. And Claire has learned
through bitter experience that there are few things on a computer more
important than a good anti-virus program.
The frustrating thing is,
she had one on her old computer. A really good one, for which
she had paid handsomely. And since she had more than eight months left
on the contract for this wonderful anti-virus program, she wanted to know if
there was a way to get it installed on her new computer without having to
purchase new software or without having to take it in to the VooDoo Computer Shop – or the nearest teenager, whichever
came first.
She made a few phone calls. She got bounced from
service representative to technician back to service representative again.
Eventually she learned from a technician in India – hey, I TOLD you that she
got bounced around a lot – that they could download the program to her new
computer through the Internet, but she would have to allow them to take control
of her keyboard for a few minutes. She didn’t really understand how they could
do that, but she figured if it meant she could get her anti-virus program
installed it was worth a try.
A box suddenly appeared on her screen, asking her
permission for the technician to take over her computer.
“At first it was a little frightening,” Claire
said. “It was like they were inside my computer talking to me. I couldn’t help
but wonder what else they could see in there.”
Still, she went ahead and clicked the “yes” box
and allowed the woman in
“It was amazing to watch that little arrow moving
around my screen as I sat there with my hands in my lap,” Claire said. “Even
though she was thousands of miles away the technician was scanning things and
accessing whatever she needed as she moved deftly through the process. I had no
idea what she was doing, but clearly she did. So I just turned my computer over
to her and let her do what she needed to do.”
In just a few minutes the job was done, and
control of the computer was returned to Claire, good as new.
In fact, BETTER than new.
As she sat at her keyboard enjoying her new, safe
computer, Claire couldn’t help but see a profound lesson for herself in her
own, non-cybernetic life.
“There is no way I could have done all of that
myself,” she said. “Not in a million years. All that clicking, controlling all
of those menus, going places that I didn’t even know existed on my computer –
there’s no way I could have done that, not even with a book of instructions.
The best and safest thing for me to do was to back off and let an expert run
the show.
“And it seems to me that it’s the same way with
God,” she continued. “While we do a pretty good job with our lives most of the
time, there are moments when we’re in way over our heads. At such times it’s
probably a good idea to turn the controls over to Him, and then to back off and
let the Expert run the show. After all, it’s His show,
and He knows what He’s doing.”
Even though sometimes it’s all a
wonderful mystery to us.
# # #
— © Joseph Walker
For more ValueSpeak, please visit http://www.sfpnn.com/joseph_walker1.htm
E-mail Joseph at: valuespeak@msn.com
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