Are we a spoiled people?
Some people are complaining because of the digital switch for televisions that were supposed to begin in February - and now because some couldn’t get with the program with the some 5 years of warning it’s been extended to June. The jury is still out on whether or not that will be extended to infinity to accomodate those that refuse to get with the program.
And don’t get me wrong - I love my television. I love that I can find something to watch at any time of the day. When I was a kid we had 3 or 4 channels. And that’s if the weather was good. And also - I was the remote control. I mean - when my father wanted to change the channel he told one of us boys to get up and go change it. Eventually the knob broke and we had to change the channel with a pair of pliers.
It all got me to thinking about whether or not we as a nation have become a spoiled nation. I remember a pastor friend I had several years ago that was forced by her church to carry around a beeper. They wanted to keep in contact with her no matter where she was. Of course, when a beep did come in she had to stop what she was doing and go find a phone. Of course, now cell phones have all but eliminated beepers. Most families have a cell phone for every member of the family.
As late as the early 1980’s we had a rotary phone in our home. For those of you too young to know what a rotary phone is - that’s where every phone had a dial on it and you had to turn the dial around for each number. And if you started with one number and your finger slipped before you got that dial all the way around - then you had to hang up and start over. And if someone was on the phone - then that was just too bad - the only other option was a pay phone down at the 7-11. If someone was on the phone then you had to do something that most people today don’t even understand the word to anymore - you had to ………………wait!
There’s another thing that today’s generation will never understand. I have become addicted lately to Facebook. Some even call it Crackbook because it’s so addictive. I now regularly talk to or read about people that I haven’t seen in over 25 years. There are some people who I have actually had to pull out the old yearbooks to see who someone is. Then I’ll see the picture and think - “oh yeah - he/she was great.” But today’s generation really has no excuse for losing track of people for such extended times. Facebook - and other pages like it - will forever keep us linked to each other. In many ways - that’s not a horrible thing - but will generations to come really know what it means when someone says, “absence makes the heart grow fonder?”
I don’t know - I’m not saying we are spoiled - I’m just posing the question. I remember a pastor I know in Plains who was talking about “The good ole days.” He said once that he had lived in the “good ole days” and he preferred running water and indoor toilets. The world is different and in some cases it’s great - and in others - well not so much. But the question remains - how will future generations look back on us. Will they be so spoiled that they think we are humble - or will we be a people who learns to appreciate every day we have as a gift from God. Will we learn to never take things for granted? Will we learn that living is not a right - but a privilege?
