Connection

This Christmas we simply bit the bullet and bought Alex an XBox 360, which connects to the internet and the TV - so at last he can play two (only... so far) computer games on our television, play against other friends remotely, and, um, have fun. Dan and I also signed up for a Tivo box, which means we can watch programmes up to a week old, and record ones we want to keep - so we feel totally up-to-the-minute, techno-savvy, and pretty darn chuffed...

To boot, we brought down from the roof where we had stored it, a massive beautiful soft blanket which our friends the Lilfords gave us when we visited them in Botswana. This blanket is so heavy, and warm, like being under a huge non-sticky marshmallow. So now it is all too tempting to spend these chilly winter evenings squeezed on the sofa, snuggled under this wonderful blanket, enjoying our new technology. One problem is, the moment I pull the softness to my chin, the warmth and weight makes me start to doze, and in minutes I am off to sleep!

Anyway, we had another problem until today. We have wifi in the house, but the strength wasn't enough for the XBox live. Alex would be in the middle of a game when it would suddenly freeze and the message "Disconnected from XBox live" would appear. He would reconnect only for it to happen again. We found out that the line between the router, in the kitchen, and the xbox in the living room, is too cluttered with various solid objects like a filing cabinet and a radiator, which make the connection too weak.

So we had to bite the next bullet and buy something called a Powerline home network adaptor - you just plug one part into a socket by the router, and the other part into a socket near the Xbox, with ethernet cables into each device, and then the connection is no longer wireless - and it no longer drops at all. We have gone up from one bar to five bars! Wonderful.

Technology keeps on giving us new parables. This today made me think of how my connection with God is sometimes so weak, like a wifi connection that gets blocked or interrupted - I might even be in the middle of a prayer or reading the Bible, and I totally drift off, or someone calls me, or I just lose the moment and decide to go back to my novel. Sometimes the connection is perfect and so strong. When I was thinking about starting the New Year, I was all excited about starting a new year in my faith. But a few days later I haven't really prayed much, and I wonder why it is so easy to let it drop.

Wouldn't it be great to have a Powerline Home Faith Network Adaptor - so that I stayed connected with God all the time. I think that would help a lot - when I was stuck in a traffic jam and so mad and arriving 45 minutes late for Abby's piano lesson, or when I was stressing about the first lecture of the course I'm teaching at Redcliffe this term, or when I was feeling so discouraged  and fed up about doing housework when the carpets look dirty again even a few hours after vacuuming... if only I had those five bars, all the gifts and blessings of being with God All The Time. I wonder if PC World can help me with this one... I wish!