Headquarters of the Spirituality While Alive Taskforce (SWAT)
From The Book of Uncommon Prayer
1.6.1
Dear One In Charge,
Bless me as I return to
work. Enlighten my mind and revive my spirit that I
might bring this work to completion.
Renew my strength and grant me stamina, with or without
increased caffeine intake, so that I may accomplish this task.
Amen.
#Fail.
Of course, we’re all overjoyed here that the Saints won. According to Sarah, over in The Promises Department, it was never in doubt. That’s not what the #Fail is for.
There’s been some flurry of ruffled feathers. Seems that as the camera was on Mr. Brees as he was holding his son, a television announcer opined that winning the Super Bowl was the most precious moment a father could share with his son. There hasn’t been An Official Response yet from The One In Charge. I’d hate to be on the other end of that phone call.
Sistertech can think of many, many precious moments fathers share with their…children: sons and daughters. And on the Colts side, there is the very important job of showing others how to be gracious in losing. The most American sports moment to share? Sure. An Olympic medal, on the international side of things. Yes. That would be precious.
But overall? Too bad the game happened on a Sunday. I’d love to see an exercise given to all the dads in church. Imagine anything possible. Now list the most precious moment you could share with your child.
Sistertech would like to remind everyone that while there are time vampires out there, there is no cause for alarm or dismay. The time vampires don’t have a chance.
Romans 8:38-39
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Sistertech had a client a few days ago who was having trouble with her wireless keyboard and mouse. It was a Logitech Cordless Desktop LX 710 Laser
There’s a lot we can learn from the blues. “You Gotta Move” is a perfect example:
You got to move, you got to move,
you got to move child, you got to move
But when the Lord gets ready, you got to move
You may be high, you may be low
You may be rich, child, you may be poor
But when the Lord gets ready, you got to move
Continue reading “When the Lord gets ready”
We were discussing how busy people seem to be and how nice it would be for them to receive brief portions of The Document, especially from the Psalms, sprinkled through the day. Besides saying the Offices, the odd hymn verse or psalm verse seems to rise up in Sistertech’s heart whenever she needs it most. I count this as a great blessing and comfort. Dealing with people when their computers have crashed or their wireless connections seem irreparably torn asunder is rarely a pleasant affair. In the tech support industry let’s face it: one mostly is dealing with people at their worst, if for no other reason than because they are at their wits end.
Anyway, we thought of a catchy name: PsalmBytes. Get it: small portions of the Psalms delivered electronically. “Bytes” seemed quite appropriate. These will be sent out from another Department down the hall. I’ll still be doing the Psalm of the Day and will experiment with various formats. Feel free to comment here or email me directly at tech AT sistertech DOT com. (There. I hope that keeps the spambots at bay!)
Yours faithfully,
Sistertech
Sistertech doesn’t usually think of herself as a “big tease”. So excuse the teaser title of this post. However, it is a topic that occupies a lot of Sistertech’s time. In our line of ministry, we often observe the way humans separate the “holy” from the “every day”, the “sacred” from the “daily, yucky, normal” what have you. This is a false dichotomy, of course. Still, it is one most of us fall prey to at various times either throughout our lives or at least a moments throughout the day.
Sorting through these kinds of theological knots is above Sistertech’s pay grade. But for the sake of the Internet bonding we have begun, allow me to share an entry from my personal diary. (You won’t go blabbing it. I think we’ve established that amount of trust, yes?)
I got out of a long shower tonight and thought about
all the prayers that need to be said for all the
suffering people all over the world. I thought,
“If I just didn’t have all the other stuff to do,
I could finish the task of praying day and night.”
Sistertech laughed out loud at herself. Of course, she knows better than to separate one’s prayer life from any other particular activity. As all of you in the tech world know, we’re praying constantly! How could software programs possibly come to market without prayer!
But seriously, it’s just a sign of the burdens upon Sistertech’s heart that for a moment she forgot that the “sacred” doesn’t happen only in a special place, at a special time, by a special person, saying special words, or singing special songs. We pray every moment we attend to our intentions and when our intentions are directed to what we’re attending to. And I certainly do mean that to sound as circular as it did for that’s the whole point, isn’t it?
By “intention” I mean just that: the focusing of an angel’s soul on that which should be its sole focus: giving praise and glory to The One In Charge. That said, I do appreciate the fact that it is harder for some of you to be so single-minded.
Bottom line: whether one is installing some more RAM, dumping a clogged up cache, updating one’s Twitter page, or making a cup of coffee (which is what I’ll need to be doing if I don’t hurry up and fold my wings for the night!), I urge you to stay focused on that which we should be attending to at all times: breathing. Yes, breathing. It’s a marvelous form of prayer.
Oh dear. It’s almost Sunday in Australia!
Those three words. “Do one thing”. Productivity blogs and hacks are ubiquitous on the Internet. And for a good reason: people need them! I can just imagine the myriad of ways the post could continue, “Do one thing and do it now!” or “Do one thing that can be done in 2 minutes”, and so forth.
But Sistertech cautions her clients that there is more to life than productivity. One of the senior Technicians just relayed to me something that she had been told by an Early Adopter, as we like to call them. This Technician was an early follower of The One In Charge. What she said was: “Do one thing for somebody else every day”. Without their having asked you to do it, without the fear of penalty or reward, without hoping that the same act shall be done unto you.
“Do one thing for somebody else every day.”
Now Sistertech, and the rest of the known cosmos, has been aware that we should “practice random acts of kindness”. But that saying, while, um, kindly, always seemed a bit too saccharine for spurring people to action in the difficult days in which we live and move and breathe.
No. We need something more direct. Something more firm. Something, well, more muscular and not so wimpy sounding. “Do one thing for somebody else every day.” It has a nice ring, doesn’t it? Easy to remember, too.
Have you thought yet of your “one thing”?