Unshackled Moments ~ September 11, 2018 ~ God Is Greater Than Alexa

This past weekend Leah and I took a trip to visit family. Somewhat perfect timing came together so that we could see her son, help celebrate his girlfriend's birthday, see our grandson and also visit with her daughter who came into Texas for the weekend. The only downside was not being able to see her daughter's fiance, but it made us very happy to see everyone we could. It doesn't happen nearly often enough.  We spent the night with her son, and I got an object lesson from Alexa in the process.

Alexa, the Amazon wonder is not exactly new tot he world or us. One of our friends BETA tested it, and we had a few laughs asking silly questions, like "Alexa, what is the meaning of life?" We laughed as she responded, "The answer is 42." Douglass Adams fans will totally understand. Still, we had not experienced Alexa controlling things. Alexa, turn off living room light, etc. It was quite cool, potentially very helpful and perhaps a little frightening, depending on your viewpoint. Alexa, make my life more comfortable. Alexa meet my need.

Then came time to go to bed. A short while later I joked to Leah that we were now old, like the adults in the 80s who could never figure out how to program a VCR. If it weren't funny, I might have cried. We both tried multiple times over several minutes to get Alexa to turn off the bedroom light, without success. Finally, I got up and pulled the string on the ceiling fan to kill the light manually. Not long after, the television turned on without either of us doing anything. There was nothing on but static, much like the famous scene from Poltergeist.  I couldn't get Alexa to turn off the TV either, and we ended up sleeping with a blue static filled night light.

The next morning in a conversation I am sure my stepson found amusing we learned the problem was one word choice. Evidently articles mess everything up. For example, while, "Alexa turn off bedroom light," might work, telling Alexa to turn off the bedroom light will not. Saying "the" before the name of whatever it is you want to turn on or off produced failure.

It's a good thing that God is not like Alexa, but sometimes I think  that we act, feel, believe and approach Him as though He is. I am not just referring to the idea that God is only there to make our lives more convenient and to do what we want. Hey God, get me a better job. Hey God, keep me safe. Hey God, gimmie gimmie. No, I am referring to the way we sometimes enter into the act of communication with Daddy commonly called prayer. Sometimes it is hard to pray because we get it in our minds that we must somehow get in the right position, and say the right words in the right way or Daddy won't  hear us. Maybe He'll hear but not respond.

But God is not our assistant, virtual or otherwise. He is not a programmed genie or magic formula. He's our Daddy, and He hears us when we call. He's not concerned with formulas, or word choice. He's not listening and then deciding not to help us if we don't word something exactly right or if we aren't reverential enough or whatever superstitious limitation we may feel. Because of what Jesus did, we can become the adopted children of the Creator of all, and that means we can go to Him like a child can go to a loving parent. Daddy, I'm scared. Daddy, I need help. We don't have to figure out the proper way to express or quantify the issue. In fact when we don't know how to pray and can't do anything but groan in our soul, the Holy Spirit will pray with us and for us. So don't twist yourself into a spiritual pretzel trying to figure out how to talk to Daddy. Just talk to Him and know that He cares, loves and listens and isn't hindered by our inability to express ourselves.



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