The language I speak. . .

November 12 at home, November 13 in South Korea.

We are in Seoul. The hotel computer keyboard is in Korean. I don’t know how to switch it to English because the help features and all the buttons are also in Korean, and because I’ve never had to do this before.

Some of what I can find is in English. Our granddaughter, who lives here, showed me how she does it on her computer. All this is just enough to convince me that I could use the word processor, get on the Internet, and post to my blog. But if I type in www, I get three characters that look like a three-legged stool. Aghhh!

God is timely with every daily devotional reading. Today He sends me to Romans 8 where I read that the “sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed” in me (verse 18). That is, no matter what I struggle with, God has something better planned for my future.

Verses 28-29, my all-time favorite verses, reveal that God uses whatever happens in my life as part of the process of transforming me into the image of His Son. He uses even suffering, large or small, to bring out Jesus in me. That is His “better plan” and worthy of my attention. He does not want me to obsess over a computer that will not perform the way I want it to work.

So how does Jesus respond to computer problems? I’ve had them before and became totally frustrated, not resting until they were fixed. That is not a “what would Jesus do” response.

I know that is true because this is not how He responds to me when I don’t function the way that He wants me to function. For one thing, He is patient and gently shows me where I’ve made errors and how I need to correct them. Besides that, He sometimes puts up with my foolishness for years before He even says anything. Then, unless I willfully disobey the clear correction He gives, He never throws me against the wall – as I sometimes want to do with my computer. He understands and knows the best way to think and work, and He knows what buttons to push to get me back on track.

As I consider this, my agitation eases over not being able to type my thoughts. While my handwriting is poor and I may not be able to read my notes later, for Jesus, this is not the issue. He wants my attitude to be like His.

I’m dismayed that the confusing combination of English and Korean on the monitor must be similar to the combination Jesus sees in me of flesh and Spirit. He knows and can read “Spirit” for that is the language of how He lives, but what does sinful flesh look like to His holy eye?
Jesus never sinned and never followed fleshy temptation, but even though “flesh” is not in His experience, He still understands my temptations and knows my weaknesses. He also knows how to switch me from that “mode” back to the other.

I might resist and fight Him, but I know this is silly. For one thing, God knows better than I concerning what is best for me. He knows what language I need to speak to fit into His will and has a far better plan than I could ever dream up for myself.

Romans 8:31-32 says, “What then shall we say to those things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

All that God wants for me is available to me. Right now, He wants me to rest in Him and trust Him, not get in a flap because this hotel room computer will not speak my language, nor can I understand it.

Perhaps there is a way, but my practical application for right now is responding to this contrary machine like Jesus responds to me when I am contrary – with great patience and a calm attitude. He knows shat is best, and I can trust Him to use all things, even this, to help me accept the fact that I cannot always control what happens to my computer.

Much later. After a calm day of touring the neighborhood, I came back to the PC, went online to a Microsoft help site that was mostly in English, and found out how to install a US keyboard driver. Then I pushed a special button on the keyboard, and am amazed that what I type in MSWord is now in English instead of characters I cannot understand. I still cannot read the menu, but at least I can read my own writing! I wonder how many tests I’ll need to realize that God can even use the puzzle of computers to correct my attitudes and behavior?