Jesus and the Copy Machine
This afternoon, about 4:00pm, I tweeted:
Its a good thing Twitter was down for a while today. It saved me from posting some comments that were inconsiderate and not well thought out.
That’s because I spent from 1:30-4:00 this afternoon trying to get the school’s copy machine to work…and reconnect two other teachers’ printers. It was unusually frustrating because, quite frankly, I think its dumb that people still use the copy machine as much as they do. (I teach in a school district where every teacher and every student has their own laptop, so naturally, we have no need for such primitive means of information transmission as a copy machine. Why would someone with a computer print out something on paper to give to someone who has a computer?) I was also surprised and puzzled by the large number of our teachers who came to make copies during the time I was in there working. While waiting for the copier to reboot for the billionth time, I tried to tweet just how ridiculous I thought using the copy machine was. Thankfully, I was stopped by the fact that Twitter was over capacity.
I have since developed a more thought out response.
Let me offer some background on my dilemma today. In the evenings for the last few weeks, I’ve been listening to the podcasts of Rich Atchley preaching a series called What Jesus Hates at The Hills Church. It is an outstanding message, and definately NOT what you would predict it to be, based on the title. Absolutely God-inspired teaching.
Tonight, I listened to Rick talk about Jesus loving and friending sinners. He ate with them, went to parties with them, sought them out, and made time for them. He died for them. If we are to be Christ-like, we must like who Christ liked.
For a while, I listened smugly thinking that I don’t have a problem loving sinners. At some point, however, I realized that I may not have a problem with sinners, but I had HATED on copy machine users today. In a fit of holier-than-thou self-righteousness, I considered myself better than the folks who used the copy machine.
Why do I do that?
Too many times we are ready to quickly cast judgment others. Today, I was reminded that I am in no position to look at others that way. So tomorrow, I may start hanging out in the copy room. Teachers gather there, and talk, and laugh. It a good place to be, even if there is a copy machine in the room. Here’s to community, friendship and loving the copy machine users.
