in touch with the 'S' drive

We had problems today with our computers. Pretty much all day.

The main office computer and the lap-top which I use. The computers were working fine. In themselves. They just weren't able to access any of the documents and data which we've created or are using day by day.

These are all stored on what's called our 'S' drive.

I should explain.

Our computers have gone through something of a 'conversion experience' in the realms of the cyberspace world. Our computers have humbly acknowledged a round-the-clock dependence on an unseen, outside body. That is, we've recognised the need we have for the computers to be 'supported' by a firm of IT specialists with the wisdom and ability to help us with the problems which we face.

The relationship is embodied in the 'S' drive. That's where all the data our computers need is stored. Our computers' own fountain of truth.

And today our computers were simply unable to get through to this 'S' drive at all. It's the cyberspace equivalent for computers of our not getting through to God.

A pastoral problem we, most of us, know something about. Those times and occasions when we're struggling to get any sense at all of our getting right through to the Lord.

Sometimes the problem is overtly 'intellectual'.

Sometimes that's the reason our computers can't get through. They simply do not recognise at all the existence of the 'S' drive which is there. They recognise the printer and all sorts of other 'outside' stuff connected through a bank of USB ports. But they admit to no knowledge at all of the 'S' drive.

Even though it's sitting there, bold as brass, and clear as the day is long, before our eyes.

The parallel is obvious.

Sometimes, as I say, the problem is simply 'intellectual'. We simply do not recognise that God is there. A foolish line to take, of course, as the Scriptures are quick to point out ("the fool says in his heart, 'There is no God!'"): but a line that people still take.

Where that's the case you have to go back to square one, I suppose, and re-establish connections at a pretty basic level.

That wasn't the problem today though. The computers were not having those sorts of intellectual problems with the 'S' drive. 'Conversing' with them both it was soon pretty clear that they both were plainly recognising that the 'S' drive sure was there.

Sometimes the problem is 'moral'.

A box comes up on our computer screens from time to time which declares with a painful bluntness - Access to the 'S' drive is denied: check that you have the correct password.

Access denied to the Lord. That can certainly happen; and sometimes, yes, the problem is really the 'password' thing.

'Password' is maybe not quite the way to put it. But that's how the thing translates into the mists and electronics of the cyber world.

A penitent faith is required to get through to the Lord. And the absence of such real repentance can lead to that access to God being denied.

The Old Testament gives some pretty graphic pictures of just this.

Access denied to the 'S' drive; 'S' for sanctus, holy ground, the pure and perfect realms in which God dwells. Think of the temple, for instance, and the 'Holy of Holies', the place which visibly signified the presence of the Lord. Heavily protected by a series of 'password' curtains.

Getting access was tough!

It was that 'password' curtain which was torn in two on Jesus' death. Access is now available.

But it's access through Jesus, and that means a humble and penitent trust, acknowledging just why it was, on account of our sin, that his death in our stead was required.

It is through Jesus alone we get access to God. We come 'in Jesus' name'. But that's always more than merely a form of words we use. It has to do with our lives, and with the attitude of heart with which we come.

"A broken and contritte heart, O God, you will not despise," as the psalmist said (Ps.51.17)

But 'access' wasn't the problem today. The computers acknowledged the existence of the drive on which they depend. The password was right. The problem lay somewhere else.

And sometimes that happens with us, as well. The struggle we have at times in getting through to the Lord are neither remotely intellectual, nor entirely moral: they're essentially spiritual.

There were things going on today in our 'cyberspace' about which I remain completely ignorant. I still don't know what exactly the problem was. I simply had to thole the inconvenience and accept by faith that somewhere further down the line the thing would be resolved.

How long my computer would have to wait 'til a normal sort of service was resumed - it was impossible to say. But be patient and be positive: it would be back to normal soon.

And I guess it's sometimes like that with ourselves as well. Times when the 'heavens seem like brass', and getting through to God just doesn't seem to happen as we've known it in the past.

Why? Well, it's not always clear just why. There are things going on in the spiritual realms of which we're not aware: all sorts of spiritual battles which we'll never maybe fully understand at all, but battles which may well have some big impact on our 'getting through' to God.

There are times when we just have to trust. Times when we simply fall back on the simple conviction that the Lord will sort it out and sometime soon we will indeed be revelling in relationship with God.

The psalms are a pretty good manual on this sort of thing.

"I say to God my Rock,'Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?' ... Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?"

That's the not-getting-through-to-the-'S'-drive experience. But it's not the end of the road, and it's not the end of the story.

"Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God." (Ps.42.9-11)