Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)
After serving me well for over a decade, my home PC decided in September that the time had come to finally pack it in. I tried everything in my human power to get it back in business. I did one disk check after another - just when it looked like it would work its way successfully to completion (after an inordinate amount of time), the process would die and start over again at 0%.
To make matters worse, the normally diligent one hadn’t done a backup in over two years, so the pressure was really on. Countless Google searches got me down the path of building a boot disk. However, just when it looked like a boot disk had put me on a path to restoration – whatever task I was doing would fail as well. After reaching a point of acceptance that I was never going to fix the PC, I finally figured out a backdoor method to manually copy all of my files to an external device. The process was torture - I had to copy each directory one at a time, and in some cases even a file at a time (if the larger copy for whatever reason failed).
With my files once again on solid ground, in the days that followed I started researching the purchase of a new computer. I first thought about getting a new desktop, but the price for the model I thought I needed was outrageous. I quickly tossed that idea aside and started looking at buying a laptop. After a bunch of research, I had my mind made up that a laptop was exactly what I was going to get. I even put together a spreadsheet that listed all the accessories I would need with it – a wireless keyboard and mouse, adapter, and monitor.
So last weekend, I went to the store with spreadsheet in hand all set to buy the laptop and the accessories. I got connected with an employee at the store, and after about 20 minutes of discussion I was all set to buy the laptop. But just as I was about to pull out my credit card, he pointed in the direction of the desktops at the end of the store and recommended a model that would more than meet my needs. He mentioned that with the desktop, I could get a system that provided the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and adapter all in one (with more storage than the laptop, and at a much lower price to boot). I did everything I could to keep from laughing and couldn’t buy the desktop and flee the store fast enough.
I didn’t make the connection at the time, but the parallels to my Christian walk became quickly apparent. For a long time, I was caught in an endless loop trying to rely on my own strength to escape the hole I was in; whenever I thought I was out of it, I’d get kicked down even deeper than where I was before. But just when it seemed the hole was one that I would never be able to climb out from, a light began to shine in the darkness. Not only was I able to recover all that I had lost but I wound up in a much better place than I ever dreamed of. And even better yet, I now get to eternally bask in the knowledge that Jesus contains all that I ever will need in one.