Key of the Kingdom (or Keyboard of the Kingdom)

Keyed Up--or Off.    A week ago, I dropped a heavy battery on my computer and broke the three most used keys, including the "e", which I've used so much over the years that there is no longer an "e"--just a blank depression (I've worn the plastic down on half a dozen keys). 

Faith, not Sight.   Fortunately for me, typing my way through grad school for professors ($4 an hour) paid off, and I don't have to look at keys when I type (I have faith they don't move around when I'm not looking--though with today's technology, who knows?) But now the keys were broken altogether--a tough break, since I spend most of my waking hours at this old computer.

Childlike or Childish?  It was my own carelessness, but still, like a child, I fussed and fumed to the Father for letting me do something so stupid.  Of course, Jesus said you won't enter the Kingdom unless you become like a child--but I think He meant we should be childlike, not childish.  But I'm only 56; give me a few more decades.

Seeing the Light! I tried several days to fix the three broken keys. I even took apart a working key to see how it worked.  That left me with 4 broken keys.  Even with a magnifying glass, I just could not see how the tiny plastic pieces under the key fit together, and how to snap them to both computer and key. But finally, this morning, it occurred to me to pray (why, after years of prayer, and years of amazing Answers, is this still sometimes a last resort?)  And it was, quite literally, as if a Light went on in my head!

It's a Snap! I tried again, and the little plastic pieces snapped together almost effortlessly.  I then snapped them onto the keyboard, and they--and it worked perfectly!  One had a missing part, but I just took the part from a key in the N.E. corner of the keyboard (I'd never used it, and had no idea what it was for).  And now the keyboard is pretty much like new. 

Key of the Kingdom.  It was a good lesson.  I could keep complaining, and fretting, and blaming my guardian angels, my Father, and my wife and cats, for letting me do something stupid.  Or I could take the typical American approach and just buy a new computer (easy to rationalize, since this one has several things wrong with it--though I can work around them).  Or... I could ask for wisdom.  And as Solomon learned, Wisdom (not ours but His) is one of the great Keys to the Kingdom (especially when fixing a Keyboard). 

Bill in a China Closet.  We've all heard of a "bull in a China closet."  Well, sometimes I feel like "Bill in the China closet," blundering around and causing havoc.  And today, Who knows what I'll break--whether things or people, or....? So I am starting this new day by asking for wisdom to do the right things, to avoid the wrongs things--and for wisdom to fix those things that I will mess up. Because I most certainly will mess something up today.  But that's okay, because that is how we learn--and grow.

As Paul said, "Be anxious for nothing."

And as Bill says, "But Lord, this ain't nothing!"  

Blessings,

Dr. Bill



Bill Brown
Xiamen University
www.amoymagic.com