relying

The following two news stories come from Reuters:

"A Ukraine businessman who bought a pager for each member of his staff as a New Year gift was so alarmed when all 50 of them went off at the same time that he drove his car into a lamp post. The unnamed businessman was returning from the pager shop when the accident happened," the Fakty daily newspaper reported. "With no more than 100 metres to go to the office, the 50 pagers on the back seat suddenly burst out screeching. The businessman's fright was such that he simply let go of the steering wheel and the car ploughed into a lamp post. After he had assessed the damage to the car, the businessman turned his attention to the message on the 50 pagers. It read: 'Congratulations on a successful purchase!' "

"Normally accidents like this shouldn't happen," reasoned a Caputh, Germany, police spokesman. "A motorist following driving instructions on the satellite navigation computer in his BMW drove down a ferry ramp into the Havel River without realizing the only way he could cross the river was to wait for the ferry. The 57-year-old driver was not injured. This sort of thing can happen when people rely too much on technology."

We do rely a lot on technology, don't we? From pagers and satellite navigation systems to cell phones and fax machines, we have become more and more dependent upon our world of technology. It is important, though, that we step back every now and then and remind ourselves, "We can survive without all these gadgets, but we cannot survive without God."

In Psalm 20, David expressed it this way:

"Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the LORD our God." (Psalm 20:7)

Chariots and horses were certainly not wrong; no more so than modern gadgets. But it was necessary to reinforce the truth that our faith in not in such things, but in God Almighty.