4 packets sent, 0 packets received, 100% lost

"Is your mail server down", I asked?  "Oh, no sir", said "Bob".  "It must be a problem with your computer".  Aaackk! 

I just wasted a perfectly good hour talking to "Bob" at Time Warner Technical support.  "Bob" was very helpful.  "Bob" asked me about 150 different questions that had absolutely nothing to do with the problem and simply would not admit that there was anything wrong with his server.

But it turns our that "Bob" didn't have any problem accessing webmail.roadrunner.com. Because, apparently, he's taking a different route to get there than I am.  Wow!  A whole world of exciting new information just flooded my neural receptors.  Those who know me well call me "Analog Man".  But don't let that moniker fool you.  I now know how to trace routes, because I now understand that when I type in a website address, I don't go IMMEDIATELY there!  (I realize that all you people between the ages of 12 and 28 are laughing at me because I'm such a technological caveman.  Go ahead, I can handle it).

I never knew that I had to go through (for roadrunner webmail) 40 hops to get to the server. Which means there are 40 individual opportunities for my request to fall on deaf ears.  See, "Bob" had no problem getting to the mail server, because "Bob" didn't have to travel the same route that I did.  Long story short?  "Bob" finally talked to someone in his server department.  Probably "Dave".  And "Dave" told "Bob" that indeed they had a server problem on the 7th hop.  Wow! "Bob" could have answered my question in the first minute if he had talked to "Dave" before taking me through all 150 gyrations.

Thankfully, we don't have to go through multiple channels to get to God.  Imagine if we did.  What if you were able to get to Him immediately, but something along my route was stopping me? What if God never knew I had a request, because some server along the way was down?

But we have direct access through Jesus Christ!  The Bible says that "He is at the right hand of God, making intercession for us".  For you techno-geeks: Ping him some time and see what happens; 4 packets sent, 4 packets received, 0% lost.  You with me?  For the rest of us: Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus (phil 4:6,7).

Thanks for all your help this morning...uh, "Bob".