A Scare to Trust

Sometimes things happen, and they just straight up take you by complete and utter surprise. I feel like there have been a few things that have happened like that in the last couple of weeks; however, the one yesterday made me flip out the most.

I was on Facebook getting ready to tackle a few ongoing Words with Friends matches, when suddenly my screen went dark. Nothing else happened with the modem or anything; no weird sounds were heard. I could still see the faintest outline of the puzzle board, but not enough to actually do anything. I tried to brighten my screen via the keyboard controls, but that didn't work either. Then I did a force shutdown, waited a few minutes, and then started it back up again. The screen never came on, but I could tell it was booting up correctly: I heard all the right sounds, even my Skype signing in. Ugh!!!! So I tried it again. This time when it started up, the screen came on, but barely even got anywhere before it started flickering and then went out. And by this time I'm like flipping out, internally of course. I need this computer. It's the way I communicate with nearly everybody, not to mention a significant source of entertainment and music. Ahhhh!!!!
I sort of wanted to cry, but I thought that might be silly, so I held it in.

A couple hours later, Kristina and I went to the one computer repair store in Hollabrunn. I walked in, and said, "Ich habe eine Frage, do you speak English?"
He did, so my first worry was assuaged.
He started my computer, and of course everything was working fine. Of course.
Then he looked at a couple other things, both of which he said were totally fine. Of course.
Then he shut it down; that all went fine. He turned it over, looked at the backside, and said, "I'm going to clean this," at which point I thought, great, here's where he'll make his money. When he came back out, he handed it to me and said that it was really dusty and to try not to let it get too hot. I said okay and thanked him, and then he told me to have a nice day and didn't charge me for anything!! Yehoooo!!

And that's the end. I was thinking though, it's in these small but seemingly huge everyday occurrences that God asks us to trust in Him. As I was walking to and from the store, I just kept thinking, okay, God, what am I supposed to learn from this? Why would you scare me like this!?!. Just clue me in, please! When I got home, I was highly relieved of course, but still somewhat unsettled. I just set me laptop back on my desk and plugged it in. I left her (my laptop is affectionately called Lacy-Anne Toms and is a girl) sleeping and waited until after supper to start her up to see if she was just playing a trick at the store. I was praying the whole time that everything would be normal. And it was.

I'll take the risk of sounding completely melodramatic here, but it really felt like my whole life had been snatched from me. It was dangling by a thread; the assurance of it being given back to me was nonexistent. And it's at those times that you realize what you cling to, what you really trust in this life. Do I cling to my computer and all the it offers me, or do I cling to Christ? Well, maybe that's what this was all about...

Laptops and humans alike need some routine maintenance and dusting off in order to work to their potential.

~Sarah