Age 2 - Age and Speed of Developments ...

Wednesday, May 12, 2010. Age has some difficulties in a society which is rapidly evolving. The speed of innovation has increased strongly over the last 200 years. Today, we change our technologies every 5 years. Todays DVD's might not be accessible any more 5 years from now. Todays mobile phones are designed for 2 years, they are out of date after one.

Continuous learning

Continuous learning is a part of our society. That also means: the advantage of age is less clearly seen today. Our kids know more about modern technology than the adults. As IT-professionals we are just staying ahead, but not on every layer.

Age once seemed to be full of wisdom. Today it seems to be full of missing knowledge about what the world has become. If you were 60 when the internet started around 1993, you are now 76, and several revolutions have taken place since then. Have you kept up? You probably realize that you don't want to follow every wave today. Still: these waves are quite significant for commerce and social development. 50 years ago we talked about life-long-learning as something new. Today without this life is not feasible any more.

God's Perspective

But let us look at God's perspective on all this. We need to look into an eternal perspective. We need to realize that age is there, yes, but that God has opened a door into eternity in Christ. Death has changed its role in Jesus. And with that also age and the evolution of society has changed its role. From God's perspective, the speed of electronic development can be as distracting as helpful. There are good things in it: It is easier to stay in touch, to communicate, to download articles about faith, to share the insight into Jesus Christ.

But we can also be pulled into a life which looses the sense for God. Technology plays a similar role than all the new developments which were part of human history: roads, trains, cars, television, electricity, etc etc. It can become our new God, it can be the center of our life. But it should be just a tool which we use wisely. Let's follow the Lord, young and old. With any level of understanding of modern technology we can live in his truth, his love, his grace and mercy, we can be together with him! ... more texts