Spellcheck

Proverbs 15:22 ESV

Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.

“You make yourself look incompetent and my company.” I was once again in my employer’s office. This time he was suggesting I take a class to improve my spelling. He was correct that my spelling was, and is, atrocious and the instant messenger program he wanted to use did not have spellcheck leaving quick notes back and forth open to full critique. Such are the advantages of spellcheck and autocorrect, laziness. As I type a fun little red line appears under my words and I know to investigate it. If something is wrong on a quick message, I can simply blame autocorrect and keep going. That is why I think Spellcheck is destroying society.

Seeing the little blue line reveal itself under one of my many poorly worded sentences kept me wondering. As Devin was having to write a rough draft of his letter for English, the curriculum informed him he would have to get it proof read and then rewrite it. That way going in he knew he would be required to write it again. A long, long time ago, people would ask their neighbor to do the tedious task of reading and checking something for them. The spelling, grammar, and ideas would all be evaluated before it would go public by another person. Openness, familiarity, and trust would be built as men and women would depend on one another to help them look less incompetent. Today because we are too busy and unwilling to show our incompetence, robots accomplish this task for us.

Training ourselves away from the skill of recognizing when we need help, and getting that help. It was not long after Barnabas started working with the church in Antioch that he showed his quality. The task was beyond him and he knew it. So, he went and recruited Saul/Paul to help with the growing church. A millennium and a half later William Farel would convince the council in Geneva to depart from the Pope and embrace Protestantism. Even as Farel had done so much already, he knew that he was not the man for continuing the work so he recruited John Calvin, TWICE. Once, at the beginning, then again after the council ran Calvin out of town.

Our society has problems. It has many problems, many small problems, many large problems. The plane is going down. The masks have dropped from the ceiling. If the church is to be of any help, we have to take care of our mask first. I am not concerned with spell check overtly but implicitly, even as I will scroll up and do what I can with the red and blue lines above when I am done. The bible tells us what will happen when we stop asking for help. More than that it tells us what we are when we stop asking for help. The word it uses is fool.

If we want to accomplish anything for the Lord of lasting significance it must be done in community, with those immortal beings he has placed on earth with us. Yep, you might be too busy to get counsel (i.e., help) there is a word for that, fool (Proverbs 12:15). Our churches have a dearth of those willing to give counsel and not be hurt when it is not taken. When a king, by wisdom, gets many counselors, some are going to disagree with each other. If they all pull an Ahithophel (2 Samuel 17:23) it won’t take long before we are left bereft of all help. Do not be afraid to ask for counsel. Do not be afraid to give it. Do not hurt when it is not taken.

Coram Deo