No Time to Waste... I mean, Wait.

I got a Blackberry this week. It pretty and burgandy and matches my laptop! 

It wasn't smooth sailing though. We went in, filled in the paperwork and they told us they were offline and I would have to wait for the next day to get the phone. I was SO disappointed and very IRRITATED. The next day I went in and they said I needed a letter from My Man to collect it since he had added it to his existing contract, and I would have to come back later with a letter. I was ACID since he had been there and arranged this the night before. I phoned him at work and asked him to email them their instructions. I can't say that I was thrilled with my attitude at having to deal with all the 'red tape'. (I did however, apologise later for being somewhat abrupt.)

Anyway - this post is not about the Raspberry but it triggered a thought.

Rewind. Some years ago I was teaching Grade 4 about email. I introduced the lesson by doing a short "one man show".

"I hunted for a piece of writing paper, and a pen, then I sat down and wrote a letter. I searched  for an envelope.  At this point I realised that I didn't remember the persons address so had to go and look it up. I wrote it on the envelope and then realised that I didn't have a stamp. So I put the envelope in my bag.... and walked around a bit. (Days pass.....) Oh look! The letter is still in my bag! I forgot to buy a stamp... let me do it now. Go to the PO buy a stamp and stick it in the postbox. Then it has to be sorted and sent this side, and sorted and delivered on the receivers side."

(You get the picture by now...don't you?)  It could take days, weeks even months to reply to a letter or send one.  Hence the name - snailmail.

After this little piece of theatre I showed them the marvels of email. I opened my email on the projected screen for them to see, added the address that was memorised, typed a mail to My Man, and pressed "Send". Within 2 or 3 minutes I had received a reply from him, and his email went via the UK before it reached him.  "Is this not fantastic?" I asked them. "Yes!" they said. It was awesome!!!

Fast Forward. Those same children that I taught are now about 17 years old and the chances are good that they all have some kind of Smart Phone and can either BBM or Whatsapp and have various Social Media accounts.

Last night I bbm'd My Girl and waited, and waited, and waited...and eventually went to bed.

The point is that going from that generation where email was considered fast - we are now in a generation where email is almost taboo. Its just too slow. We don't want to wait for a response. We want it instantly. Straight away. No waiting.

Now, I love Technology and am in the business of embracing the advances of it, but I can't help wondering if this influences our attitude or our character in some way. How do we respond to people when we are told to wait for something?

Does it affect how we "wait on God".

What do you think?