CloudHQ Saves, Just Ask DeskJockey123@email.com

The other day I was desperately trying to get Microsoft Word on my iPad.  It should have worked and I guess it did work, but the problem was that it couldn't open any of my documents on Drop Box.  (These are all computer programs and Apps).  Donna and I were sitting in my office in front of my computer until finally a simple prayer escaped from my lips that spoke of complete surrender, "Lord help me," I said, shaking my head.  We couldn't get it to read what I needed it to read and if it couldn't do that then it was as good as worthless.


Just before I closed it up and turned off the computer, I saw a note that someone had posted on the Microsoft Help page.  It wasn't from someone who worked at Microsoft.  It was from a fellow 'digital struggler' who had run into pretty much the same problem I had.  He suggested that I look up a "Cloud Sharing" program called, Cloud HQ (http:://cloudHQ.net).  He claimed that all you had to do was click here and click there and create an account and then you could easily synchronize from the one to the other.  I was skeptical, of course, but I was also desperate.  I read his instructions one more time and then clicked over to cloudhq.net and low behold it was just as easy as he'd promised.  In a matter of minutes I could have Drop Box sharing my files with Sky Cloud Pro in such a way that I could actually open and use them!


I was ready to give up.  I was frustrated and nothing I got from either software company was leading me in the direction I needed to go.  And then a person--an individual whom I didn't know from Adam--offered a friendly word of advice and voila! I discovered that there was a way out of my dilemma.  And it is a way I would never have found if not for the word of somebody who had been there before.  Kudos, of course, to cloudhq.net and the service they offer--but there is a deeper point for those of us who follow Jesus Christ.

We Christians get all uptight and nervous when someone uses the 'E' word.  Evangelism always seems so risky, so fraught with embarrassment and the potential for offense that we stay away from it in droves.  But isn't evangelism simply doing what User DeskJockey123@email.com did for me?  Isn't it just a matter of saying to someone who is stuck, hurting, frustrated or in pain--"Hey, I've been somewhere very similar to where you are and this is how God lead me out of it."  Obviously I can't speak for you and where you are, but this is where I was and this is how my faith, my church, my prayers, my God made all the difference.

D.T. Niles summed it up nicely many years ago when he said, "Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread."  In the end, I truly believe it is as simple as that.

The Last Chichester Blog Post

         Just a final wrap up for our Chichester Chronicles.  It was really an experiment to run through Easter.  The premise was to begin each day by praying that God would intercede in our daily lives so that we might see Him more clearly, love Him more fully, and follow Jesus more closely. 

It was a great learning experience for me.  It reminded me how much discipline it takes to do anything every single day—something new that is.  It probably took most of my childhood to get me to brush my teeth every evening.  Then it took a big chunk of my adulthood to floss every day.  And I’m not still at the brush after every meal standard my parents and dentist held out to me when I got my permanent teeth way back when.  Beginning the day with St. Richard’s Prayer (with some real thought and feeling behind it) wasn’t as obvious or easy as I thought.  Taking a few minutes every evening to debrief and/or journal how that prayer was fulfilled in my life was nearly impossible.

It was helpful to learn that each of the three aspects of that simple prayer build on each other.  I had to be looking for God in order to see God’s hand in my day.  And it was only when I was better able to see God’s hand that I was able to appreciate and love him more fully.  And it is my love for God that allowed me to follow His Son more closely.  The more I saw the Spirit moving in my life, the more appreciative I was of God’s presence.  The more appreciative I was of God’s presence, the more I found myself celebrating and loving that presence.  The more I celebrated and the more I loved God, the easier it was for me to make the decisions to do God’s will and pursue God’s purposes--and stick to them from moment to moment.

I learned one more thing and this was probably the most sobering insight of all.  Wanting to be “All In” for God, having a genuine desire to intentionally grow in our faith is easy to declare and affirm in Sunday morning during worship, but it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans if it doesn’t translate into what we do and who we are Monday through Friday.  Sustaining a growing relationship with Jesus is just as difficult for some as starting an exercise program after years of inactivity; it is just a challenging as radically changing our eating patterns in order to take better care of our health; it takes as much planning and discipline as cutting back on our daily expenses and small extravagances in order to put money aside for a family vacation, college expenses, new car that we couldn’t otherwise afford. 

        Almost everybody I talk to in our congregation puts a priority on their relationship with God.  If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be here.  But just watching the folks who were moved to agree to pray this daily prayer during an altar call in worship vs. the folks who came out to the first group gathering of those who were committed to pursuing this goal vs. the very few who were still at it and still making it a priority enough to meet together at the end—as I said—was sobering.  I have been around long enough to know that coming to a meeting and fulfilling the prayer experiment are two separate things.  I am sure that there were any number of folks who have kept up this discipline and are being blessed by it even now.  At the same time, I am convinced that most of us contemporary Christians have no idea what is required to grow in spiritual wisdom, maturity, and into the example of Christ.

That being said, I hope that those of you who’ve been following along with this blog and who have made use of this terrific prayer tool have found strength and renewal in your daily walk with Jesus.  It’s time for me to go back to my old blog, or in this case, launch a new blog.  In the next few weeks I’m going to reflect on the wide variety of spirituality that is exploding on the Internet and in our culture.  What all that has to do with humble followers of Jesus like us?  That is exactly what I hope to find out.

         Blessings and Peace,

         Tim