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Blessed Is the Internet (Sort Of) The Internet is an odd contrivance. It digs deep and runs shallow, all at the same time. The technology is modern but the goal is ancient: self-expression of the most diverse kind. It’s hard for me to imagine that there was a time when the word “blogger” did not exist. It seems like everyone today has an opinion about everything. Some moderns react vehemently against such morosophic bloviation, but I enjoy the Internet’s magniloquence. For what it’s worth, I think the greatest weakness of
cyberspace is also its greatest strength: its
Beware, then, the Internet and cyberspace, webmasters and blogosphers. God calls us to relationships in real time, in which we are to find our ministries. I live a fairly mundane life surrounded by different groups of people to whom I desire to minister: my family, my rural farming community, the people of Averett Baptist Church, my seminary students, the believers in Ethiopia, my doctoral candidates. The question I constantly ask myself is, What are their needs, and how can I best serve them? When I have time left over, I blog. Perhaps because I edit a website myself I am always a
little wary of what people say or write. The Bible teaches that all of us,
by nature, are basically egotistical, centered in ourselves and sinful.
This means that a disciple of the Lord Jesus must be very honest about
admitting his own inadequacy, insisting
always that Jesus increase while he decreases. True, there needs to be a
healthy
Of course, I will continue to bloviate as long as I can persuade myself that I am being useful in pointing others to Christ. But to be honest, at any given moment each of us who clicks a mouse realizes that much of what we read (and write) is idle talk. By definition the Internet is opinion. It is when it becomes an impeccable guide that our troubles begin. So, there’s a place for the Internet, for cyber-conversations, for quibbling and caviling. But in the end we must each go our own way, guided by the only True Light we have. November 29, 2007 David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. |