Learning curve

Learning to navigate a zillion different online platforms might not be as difficult for you as it has been for me… trying to learn how to put Sunday services on Facebook; (do you know how many cables and connections and clicks it takes to get the picture from camera to live stream?); how to teach classes on Zoom; how to set up virtual meetings (yet half the team members do not even have smart phones!); how to put lectures in to PowerPoint; how to Google my way through life: Google mail, Google maps, Google forms, Google docs, Google search, Google slides and, trickiest of all, Google Classroom. Having watched more tutorials in the last four weeks than ever before in my life, I am still not getting it. Aaaaaagh!  (Side note: I also have not figured out how to get Google to wash dishes …. Any suggestions?)

Well, it is important to learn it all. To be “current,” right? But as frustrating as it might be, the curve of learning technology pales in comparison to the more significant curve that we are all facing: learning a new way of life. I suspect that all of us are climbing that curve in one way or another.

Many are suggesting that this virus will be with us for a while, or could be a seasonal occurrence. Things may not “return to normal” for a quite a long time, or maybe forever. So what does that mean, really? What do we have to learn?

As an introvert, I don’t mind the ‘staying at home’ part, but it does have implications. How do we do our shopping? Will department stores be turned into warehouses? What about colleges? Will the dorms become apartments and the classroom stay empty?

Then there is travel. For a globe-trotting family that lives in two continents, that’s a big one. I doubt if our travel will ever be as frequent (or affordable) again, at least not in the near future.

What about businesses? Each will write its own story, I suppose. Church? Weddings? Conferences? We could go on and on. . . .

In the thick of it all, I think the tutorial we really need to follow carefully is the one we will get in God’s presence. He promises, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you” (Psalm 32:8).

Instruct me, Lord! I need to learn.

~ Diane