My grandfather, as I remember him, was quite handy. One thing that fascinated me as a child and stuck with me was his mail chute. My grandparents would travel in an RV and help build churches after my grandfather retired. This meant they wouldn't be home to check the mail. My grandfather's solution for this was simple. He cut a hole in the wall and built a tray to catch the mail, turning the mailbox on the wall into a chute. From the outside it still looked like a normal mailbox, but all the mail ended up in the garage instead of overflowing outside and making it obvious to a passerby they hadn't been home in a while.

Many of us, like my grandfather, shape the world around ourselves, using and shaping technology to solve problems. In my post Of Cassettes and Blue Jeans, I argued for using John Dyer's definition of technology: "the human activity of using tools to transform God's creation for practical purposes."

When Adam and Eve sinned, God cursed the ground[1], giving Adam the toil of hard work to sustain him and his family. Much of our technology stems from our attempts to transform the world practically in response to this curse. Technology is often used to escape the curse, but rarely do users acknowledge the source and purpose of the curse.

The Romans used the cross as a tool of suffering, a practical transformation of the world around them intended to dominate and inspire fear in those who might rebel against them. God transformed this tool of suffering with the ultimate sacrifice, redeeming it in a way that no one could've expected, providing the solution to bridge the gulf between man and God.

Tools like my grandfather's mailbox, the telegraph, and social media shape the world around us. Are you using technology in a redemptive way, like a mail chute so you can focus on serving, or are you just escaping the curse temporarily?

  1. Genesis 3:17↩︎