I’m not a complete ignoramus when it comes to technology, but when our oldest son built and installed a new computer for us last week I watched me watching him trying to patiently explain some of the most basic concepts to dad. Ah, when did the roles reverse? The only thing I really learned was that the best thing I could do was to back out of the room rather than ask more stupid questions.

I can still figure these things out but they take a lot longer now, and there never seems to be enough time. One of these days we’ll have a laptop around the house, but I’ve got to study the issue a little harder. And now, with the introduction of the iPad, I am wondering whether I should purchase it instead. (If you have advice, keep it simple.)

This lengthy introduction was prompted by an article in The Wall Street Journal (April 5, 2010) about Apple’s iPad debut last weekend. What caught my eye was in the 19^th and final paragraph of the article. I quote:

“Shannon Evans drove for 30 minutes from Clarkston, Michigan, with her husband and 3 children to pick up two reserved iPads – a  32-gigabyte model for her and a 64-gigabyte version for her husband. Mrs. Evans’s first download was the Bible. ‘One of my main reasons for buying an iPad is to be able to bring it to church,’ Mrs. Evans said.”

I salute Mrs. Evans and hope that she will be able to resist the temptation to use her iPad for more entertaining purposes during the inevitable boring parts of the sermon. And I speculate, “Will Wesley Monumental ever replace the pulpit Bible with a pulpit iPad or will we soon replace our pew Bibles with pew iPads?” Probably not. In fact, I hope not.

But if you want to bring your Bible to church, either the old-fashioned paper one or an electronic phone or iPad Bible, they are all welcome. If necessary, I can even help you find the book of Habakkuk, but the task will be made quicker if you hand me an old fashioned paper Bible.