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Topic: Search Engine (10/06/11)
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TITLE: How would Jesus use a search engine | Previous Challenge Entry
By Laura Brestovansky
10/19/11 -
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We hear that question all the time. It’s on license plates, t-shirts, and those rubber bracelets that you see everywhere. That tagline is a great reminder when it comes to make day-to-day decisions.
It can be kind of fun thin about: What would Jesus do if someone cut Him off in traffic? What would He do if He found a wallet with $100 but no identification? What would He do if…? The possibilities really are endless.
I’m a writer so I’m online all the time, searching for information. It occurred to me today to wonder: How would Jesus use the internet? Social networking? A search engine? It’s quite a conundrum.
To begin with, would Jesus even use the internet (that is, if He were here in human form as He was in the time of the Gospels)? I’m no theologian, but it seems to me He would. Back in Gospel times, He was the son of a carpenter and presumably was trained in the craft by Joseph, His earthly father. The Gospels don’t record Jesus helping Joseph out by producing wooden furniture or buildings out of thin air, (which He could have because He is God). He probably used tools available to Him. Thus, if the internet were available to people of his time and geographical region, He would have used it.
Also, the Gospels speak of Jesus “growing in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man, (Luke 2: 52 RSV).” So perhaps He would have used the computer as a child would, to do His homework as all students do today. (After all, a teacher would have required a bibliography and Jesus the school boy would have been no exception.)
But what about the other major aspect of the internet – social networking? Would He have used Facebook? Twitter? LinkedIn? Would He have used a search engine?
I wonder. On the one hand, it would have made His task of “going after the lost sheep” a lot easier (assuming everyone else had internet access too). Just type in the person’s name and Jesus would know where he or she was and what they were doing. He would have been able to “PM” people when He saw that they were not living right or cheer them on when they were. (He certainly would have had no trouble getting people to “follow” Him, in the Twitter sense, anyway.) And, He’d certainly expect us to use our connections to get introduce people to Him.
On the other hand, maybe Jesus would have left social networking alone. Facebook, Twitter and the rest can be great “time sinks”. Jesus had a world to save – a real world, not just the one on Farmville. He didn’t have time to waste on Bejeweled or other games accessed through Facebook today.
He also didn’t have time to “Google” stuff like the latest celebrity gossip (which He would have known already would have avoided as a temptation to sin) or diet tips (as God, He knew everything He had to do to keep healthy). He would already have known the weather forecast and the latest headlines. He’d know which “urban legends” were true or not – and do we really have to discuss whether He’d look at “adult” sites?
All this is purely speculation, of course. While it is fun to think about what Jesus would do with a search engine, He is God and we are not. There are some questions we just won’t know the answer to this side of Heaven.
But maybe, just maybe, He’s using his own personal search engine right now, trying to find you to invite you to a big event He’s planning.
Have you “friended” him yet? Or have you “blocked” him?
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
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You may want to double-space between paragraphs to give the reader that important white space.
I also noticed a typo here and there. Thin instead of think, a missing comma, etc. There are critique groups forming on the message boards you may want to check out to help catch those little things.
I really enjoyed your message and think it is one so many of us can relate to. This was a great read.
FYI, this is only my second submission and I apologize for the formatting -- I didn't realize about the spacing issues etc. from the copy/paste from Word.
So thanks to all who hung in there and read it and sorry for the difficult read.
God bless!
PS, to prevent the spacing issues from now on, you might want to hit “preview” and see how your work will appear before you submit it. The “preview” function is a great help to me! Blessings!