Two days in the Wilderness

I spent the last few days in the Wilderness. No, I didn't camp out in the woods, but I was disconnected from the world... the world wide web that is.  My internet connection was broken. Here is the story of my survival:

At first, I felt lost and confused. I couldn't send out my blog, my email Bible study post, or my daily note to a dear friend. I spend the first day trying to fix the problem. But without the internet, I couldn't figure out how to fix the problem. After a while I just made peace with the fact that I'd have to wait till the weekend was over and the phone company sent someone to fix it. I had no choice but to go old-school, 1990's style.

I rediscovered paper. I wrote in a paper notebook with a mechanical pencil. I walked all the way to our study and lugged the big paper dictionary out and looked up words. I used an old paper concordance to look up Bible verses. I looked up recipes in a cook book.

When I needed an hour-by-hour weather forecast, I asked my farmer neighbor, who seems to have an internal radar. When I wanted to know the difference between plywood and particle board, I called another neighbor who is a master wood-worker.

Here is what I learned in the last few days: I have been spoiled by technology. I've become lazy, dependent and lost many skills. What was meant to connect has in some ways disconnected me from myself and others. I've allowed technology too much influence in my life.