Just like that, the digital rug was pulled out from under me. Right in the middle of a Zoom meeting, my internet connection went kaput!
I immediately called my provider, trying to keep the hysteria out of my voice. Mysteriously, the technician connected me to a series of technical screens while he guided me through a complicated systems check. I discovered several interesting things, including the name of the satellite that handles my communications.
After a good forty-five minutes, he said, “I’m sorry, but we’ll have to schedule the dreaded service call.” He didn’t actually say dreaded but that’s what I heard.
I hung up in a state of despair. How could I survive without email, websites, social media? “How will I be able to check the weather?”
“Well, you can always just go outside,” my wife, Julee, suggested.
Eventually it dawned on me that the loss of the internet left me with time on my hands. A little more time to think and reflect, to pray and meditate, to read and write, to cook a meal from scratch, to watch a movie with Julee, to hike with my dog, Gracie.
So, I vowed not to stand at the window all day waiting for the tech to arrive. I accepted that the world still turns, God is in His heaven, and life goes on without the internet.
Until the tech arrives.
Lord, You’ve blessed the world with many ways to stay connected. Yet sometimes I am too connected. Help me remember that life is not a URL. But don’t forget to keep an eye on satellite EchoStar-17 orbiting somewhere up there in outer space.
—Edward Grinnan
