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18/11/2013

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Frances Finn.

2 minutes

Last on

Mon 18 Nov 2013 05:43

Frances Finn

Good morning. You鈥檒l have heard it said many times that if you want help with technology ask a child. Their rapacious brains seem to just devour new information.听 And their ability to pick things up is unfettered by their quaint habits of the past. I do sometimes think that I鈥檓 from a different world to my daughter. I watched her pick up a toy telephone 鈥 the type I grew up with, with a swizzle-round dial 鈥 and she poked her fingers听辞苍迟辞听the numbers expecting to hear them bleep. And having mastered our tablet at the age of two, she now swipes her hand across the TV screen, expecting the channel to swish to one that鈥檚 more interesting. 听听听<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

It was fifty years ago today that the first touch tone telephones were introduced. A group of听 companies called The Bell System made them available to customers in parts of Pennsylvania. The push button keypad is so familiar to us now, it鈥檚 hard to imagine seeing it for the very first time and thinking how new and alien it looked. To begin with it was only businesses that saw its appeal. It took another twenty years for homeowners to become convinced.

I wonder whether our willingness to embrace innovation and change diminishes as we get older. I certainly can鈥檛 match my daughter鈥檚 appetite for ever more gadgets, gizmos and buttons.听 Change can sometimes feel uncomfortable 鈥撎渂etter the devil you know鈥澨齭aid my grandparents. But there can be no progress without change. We won鈥檛 find better ways of doing things unless we鈥檙e prepared to let go of the old familiar ways. And Jesus called his followers to be agents of change for the good, however uncomfortable that might feel.听

Lord, thank you for innovators, for creative minds, and for those that seek progress for good. Help me to be willing to embrace positive change in my family, at work and in worship.听 Amen.

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  • Mon 18 Nov 2013 05:43

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