ISBC 17 - Right of Repair
ISBC 17 - Right of Repair
Chapter 17 of Hope A User's Manual
As a grateful patron of the Apple Genius Bar, I’m queasy at the thought of taking a screwdriver to my laptop. But I’m drawn to the idea of repairs being an empowering and inherent right.1
I’ve shared more than a few times that my title at the congregation I serve could be pastor / tech support. Actually in every congregation I’ve served (as well as with the larger congregational bodies), I’m often the one called upon for technical support. It is also a similar thing in my family. My wife has said that I’m her personal Genius Bar. I have always been a tinkerer and I’ve loved working with technology. I am one of those lucky people who just “gets” technology and often can just play with and tinker with it enough to figure it out.
But here’s the other side of it for me...I also love to play with the newest technologies. Sometimes that is just downloading a major iOS update the first day it is available (bugs and all) and finding all the new features and sometimes it is a lusting for the next device upgrade even though the one I have works perfectly well. There’s a reality of the infection of consumerism that I deeply struggle with to be content with what I already have and not feel the need to find some way to get the newest and shiniest.
How does this speak to hope? Well, as MaryAnn lifts up later in the chapter...
But there’s something beautiful about refusing to give up on something, whether it’s an old sweater, a relationship, or a nation.2
She also quotes Elisabeth Kubler-Ross saying,
The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.3
We don’t need the best and brightest in our technology (Ed, say this to yourself over and over as a mantra) and we also don’t need who culture says are the best and the brightest to bring hope. We just need ordinary people who are willing to put themselves out there, with the wholeness of who we are to kindle hope in ourselves and in others. I love the fact that, in the Jesus stories, we see him not calling the rich and the powerful of the day but instead those who were often overlooked, ignored, and oppressed. And somehow, some way, those women and men changed the world.
Gives me hope.
(And I am writing this just a few days after Apple announced iOS 18...looks new and shiny!)
How do you feel about putting yourself out there for hope - all of who you are? How have you seen hope kindled through you in the lives of others?
Grace, Peace, Love, and Joy,
Ed
McKibben Dana, MaryAnn. Hope: A User's Manual (p. 81). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.
McKibben Dana, MaryAnn. Hope: A User's Manual (p. 81). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.
McKibben Dana, MaryAnn. Hope: A User's Manual (p. 82). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition and Ali Corona, "Voices: 'Beautiful People Do Not Just Happen," Baptist Standard, November 7, 2018, https://www.baptiststandard.com/opinion/voices/beautiful-people-do-not-just-happen/.
Both of these quotes are so powerful. I am NOT one who is interested in the latest technology. I also have trouble letting go of things that have meaning or value —a family heirloom, a really worn-in pair of Birkenstocks, and a husband whom I loved. And beauty CAN sprout from hardship—this I know. But we must do our work, if we want to heal and grow. God DOES give Beauty For Ashes. We MUST draw from that HOPE. It sustains us!