Lessons from a Laptop

Technological tyranny takes its toll on each of us. For me personally, one lesson in particular refuses to evaporate. The memory, painfully imbedded in my psyche, brings on jitters each time I recall the occasion.

(For this lesson to make sense, I ask you to try and conceptualize life without a laptop computer. Consider the pain of waiting to own the device hithertofore only viewed in advertisements. Imagine the satisfaction of finally being able to make the purchase.)

Background:

Larry returned home to The Black Forest exhausted. However, before diving into bed, he painstakingly took time to introduce our family to the newest piece of equipment he purchased during his trip to the U.S. The LAPTOP—long anticipated—held mind boggling potential for our future life and ministry. Larry was a proud man; we were a spellbound family.

The next morning marked the day of a track meet for our three student athletes; we hit the ground running (no pun intended). After a quick breakfast, our family packed snacks for the trip, and confirmed that each runner had their cleats. Before walking out the door to meet the chartered bus, Larry and I filled our travel mugs with steaming hot coffee. Then, we turned to lock the wooden door, but not before grabbing the LAPTOP.

In the chilly spring morning, our troupe joined other parents, teachers, and athletes in the school parking lot of the Black Forest Academy, where our children attended as day students. The journey held promise for a great outing and a successful sporting event. No one objected to the three-hour drive.

Soon, the bus pulled in, the doors opened, and passengers piled on. Larry—carefully holding the LAPTOP—inched down the aisle and selected seats for the two us. (Our three teenagers made their way to the back of the bus to sit with their teammates.)

Once underway, most travelers settled in for a nap. At the halfway point to our destination, the bus driver pulled into an autobahn rest stop for a break, and bodies tumbled off the bus.

Before disembarking, Larry placed the LAPTOP on his seat in the bus. Confident the newly acquired piece of technology would be safe, he inched forward to the door.

I also turned to walk off. However— before leaving—I casually placed my travel thermos of coffee on top of the LAPTOP.

Larry returned to the bus before me. Even before I reached my seat, I read the signs. The pain etched on his face and the fixed position of his jaw told me something had just gone terribly wrong. Right.

Somehow

   Someway

      Someone

            B.u.m.p.e.d the coffee thermos I inadvertently left sitting on the LAPTOP.

Bad day. Bad accident. Bad memory. Thankfully, The Holy Spirit worked supernaturally in Larry’s attitude, but his demeanor confirmed his pain. His ongoing silence revealed his suffering. Though just a material possession, the costly situation stared our missionary budget in the face throughout the track meet. All day long we experienced the shock waves of the mistake. I felt awful and ached to rewrite the script of those few moments before turning and leaving my seat on the bus.

But I could not rewrite the script, and husband and wife needed to find a way forward. What helped then still helps communication conundrums decades later:

Own the mistake. Say, "I am so sorry," and genuinely mean the words. Defensiveness does further damage. Explanations do not really explain. 

Give the matter time. Talking takes its toll, and chatter often increases tension. Be quiet and give the matter peace. Relational restoration, the desired outcome, requires the balm of time. 

Pray. Pray for yourself, pray for the person involved, and pray for a supernatural solution. God can and will make the crooked places straight. (Isaiah 42: 16d NKJV)

A Note of Follow Up:

The LAPTOP, ironically, enjoyed a good long life. Upon returning home from the track meet, Larry gently lifted the keyboard, and allowed the inside to completely dry out. Twenty-four hours later, miraculously (did I say miraculously), the blessed light blinked on once he plugged the cord into the socket. For me, I never wanted to come near the thinking machine again. 

Living with Eternal Intentionality: Recall a time when you caused damage to something of importance to someone else. What was the process of working it out?

The Moscow Circus

Mom, Dad, you won’t believe this! Listening to our daughter, we agreed; the story defied human belief.

First, we must revisit a question posed to us on numerous occasions; “Did you ever wonder if investing your lives in ministry behind The Iron Curtain was worth it?”

Worth it?! Living our lives behind The Iron Curtain constituted one of the greatest privileges a person could ever imagine. Over the years of our clandestine existence, I possessed the unimaginable opportunity to sit in the audience and watch the amazing works of God.

Sometimes He involved me as a stagehand, and sometimes He wrote me into the script. Other times, I watched from backstage. Always, He was the Director, Producer, and Choreographer. We gazed speechless, and witnessed happenings that prophets of old longed to see.

One particular story from 1990 serves to answer with precise clarity the aforementioned question, “Was it worth it?” Allow me to explain.

Our little infant girl, our firstborn, who accompanied us to live in Poland in1977, grew up speaking the Polish language. Later, as a young teenager, she found herself staying at a hotel in Manila of the Philippines.  

The summer of 1990, she participated in a missions project with Student Venture, the high school ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. Near project’ s end, she and her international missions project providentially lodged in the same hotel where the famous Moscow Circus was staying.  

Keep in mind, during the Cold War, the Soviet Union denied ordinary citizens freedom to travel abroad. However, like the Olympic athletes and the Bolshoi Ballet, the members of The Circus were icons within the Soviet ideology, and were granted traveling privileges. Holding elitist status, these prestigious groups served government purposes of propaganda. The delegations traveled internationally, performed, and promoted the communist ideology, all the while under strictest surveillance.

So, how is this relevant?

Well, by the sovereign Hand of God, an adult leader of our daughter’s mission group secured an official evangelistic meeting with members of The Circus. Yet, an insurmountable obstacle threatened to derail the unprecedented opportunity; no Russian speaker (who also spoke English) could be found to translate.

When confronted with the crisis, our daughter explained, "I don’t speak Russian, but I do speak Polish.”  

Then, the discovery was made that the Moscow Circus' young tightrope walker, was fluent in Polish. Because her grandmother was Polish, she knew the Polish language.

Plans moved forward, the group convened, and the meeting occurred. There, around a hotel pool in Manilla, our American daughter, who grew up to clandestine missionaries in Poland, verbally presented the The Four Spiritual Laws in Polish. A tightrope walker representing an atheist nation (whose grandmother just so happened to be Polish), listened in Polish, and sentence by sentence, translated the message of salvation from Polish into Russian for this Russian speaking audience, the renowned Moscow Circus.

The youthful duo worked in tandem, and before closing the Gospel presentation, an opportunity was presented to allow any individual—who so desired—to quietly invite Christ into their lives. The rest of the story stands recorded in the eternal volumes of heaven. For you see, that day, around an outdoor pool in southeast Asia, several members of an elite group from an atheist nation behind the Iron Curtain, did indeed invite Christ into their lives. That day their names were written in The Lamb’s Book of Life.

And God gets all the glory (Psalm 115:1). He faithfully protected one small missionary family in communist Poland where a child learned to speak Polish in order to, one day, participate in accomplishing His greater purposes. Complicated? Not for God. He desires for all to come to a knowledge of repentance (2Pet.3:9).

Now you understand why I never hesitate to marvel and give praise to God when asked, “Did you ever wonder if investing your lives in ministry behind The Iron Curtain was worth it?”

Living with Eternal Intentionality: Where can you look back over your own life and now see the Hand of God working to orchestrate His greater purposes?

He Giveth More Grace

Her shaky voice on the other end of the line troubled me. The seriousness of her situation justified concern. Sick children and her traveling husband increased the weight of her own fragile health. Dark clouds loomed over the word tomorrow.

With her permission, I sent a copy of a poem which once lighted a dark path for me. From my own reservoir of resources I shared with my friend.

I remember the night our little one cried out with a raging fever. Bringing him into bed with us, I listened to his shallow, rattling breathing which left no mystery. This was pneumonia, and the unfamiliar culture we lived in expected us to wait until morning when the doctor opened his office.

I was scared; I was scared for the life of my child. How I longed for dawn to break forth. As I waited (and worried) I rehearsed the words of this beloved poem by Annie Flint Johnson.

Now today, decades later, perhaps the solace it once offered to me would encourage the heart and soul of my dear friend.

He Giveth More Grace

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,

He giveth more strength when the labors increase;

To added affliction He addeth His mercy;

To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance, 

When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,

When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,

Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

His love has no limit.

His grace has no measure;

His power has no boundary known unto men;

For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,

He giveth and giveth and giveth again.

Living with Eternal Intentionality: When have you seen God rally and provide His supernatural resources to cope with the circumstances you faced?

(2 Corinthians 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.)