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Computer Difficulties

A computer monitor with a broken heart and the initials FTP above it.For the past few weeks I've been working on using the music site's tools and moving some huge music files up to a site where people can listen to our songs. Since I only have a dial-up modem, it can take an incredible amount of time for these files to be uploaded. I drum my fingers, scratch my nose, turn away then suddenly turn back to the monitor in hopes that a time warp will have occurred and…but I jest. Suffice it to say, it is very frustrating to wait.

Then a new wrinkle in the fabric of my file moving occurred. After trying to upload a huge file, at the very end of the process, suddenly there would be a note: "Your file failed to upload. Please try again." It can make one very upset—make one want to pray that God would lift the burden.

I discovered that there was another way to get the file over to this music site. If I were to upload my big files onto my website (by my FTP—file transfer protocol), I would then be able to quickly move them to the music site by a method they call "slurping." It just takes a few minutes because the file is moved from server to server, which makes the transfer very fast.

There was a snag, though. I sometimes had technical trouble with my FTP. It sometimes worked, but lately it would fail to get my files uploaded to my site. Now, since I was going to be uploading the big music files up to my website, I really needed my FTP to work. But, as I said, it wouldn't connect to their system. I called the people hosting my website to ask why my FTP wasn't connecting to them. I called many times, but they could find no reason why it wasn't connecting. After about the 3rd call, I finally understood why they couldn't help me. Since they could easily get onto my site, they didn't have an error that they could then fix. Since they couldn't duplicate my error, it had to be something that was happening on my computer, not their system.

I needed God to help me, here. I was in computer geek hell. My computer was saying that they were refusing to allow connection to their site, but they were saying the problem was in my computer. I pray frequently. I decided to take this problem into prayer with me and let God take the burden from me. It was too frustrating for me. I had tried downloading a couple of different FTP programs—and finally I found one that worked—for a while, then it quit on me. I kept praying, kept giving it over to the Lord. I did not want to be flung into the depths of mental anguish by this machine.

I decided to peacefully give up. It simply was not worth my time to keep trying to work on it. On Saturday morning, though, I got an idea to maybe try a service that is available on the Internet where they will fix your computer by remotely accessing it. It was $90.00 for an hour. I wondered if I should do that. I prayed, "God, I do not know what to do here. I know that your hand is on this coin flip. I will do Your will, God. Do you want me to use this service?" No, He said. Okay.

I had an errand to run in town so I hopped in my car to go do it. On the way back from this errand, the idea popped into my head to visit a small computer shop in Brandenburg. Do You want me to do that, Lord? I prayerfully flipped a coin. Yes.

I drove straight past my RV and headed into Brandenburg, parked in front and walked in. There was one other man in front of me and he motioned me to go ahead of him. Before I started, the man behind the counter said that this man who had motioned me to go ahead, was also a computer expert. I told them both my sad story.

The man behind the counter was the owner of the shop and he gave me some simple advice. He said I should run a ChkDisk program. I hadn't done that in a long time and I knew that it should probably be done. I asked him if I should run it in DOS because that was the only way I knew how to do it. He said, "No. You need to run it within the Windows program or it won't fix the problem." He then told me how to get to the right screen so that this could be done.

I went home and ran the Chkdisk program, which took about an hour. My file transfer program is working perfectly now. My anguish was given to God. My answer came from God as well. He said, through the coin toss, that I shouldn't buy that computer repair service on-line. Later, He dropped into my heart, through His Holy Spirit, that I should go visit the man in Brandenburg. I confirmed it by prayerfully tossing a coin and getting a Yes. Despite appearances that the company who hosts my website was at fault, it turned out to be my problem after all.

I had joy in my heart when the program began to work. I do not believe I was all that excited in my file transfer program's revival. I was more excited to see that my God is a loving and caring God who has all the answers I need, right now!

Nature of God: I was slowly being burdened by this computer problem. When I had first gotten into computers, many years ago, they used to bring me to the point of depression. My heart would literally sink to the floor when things went awry. Now, many years later, I didn't want that feeling of despair. I knew my God would help me and give me everything I really needed. What if I didn't really need to get those large music files up on that site? Why should I fight what God has planned? Why are my plans so important? No, I'm not going to battle God's will any longer. I want God's will, not mine. And what God wills DOES happen, so why should I worry?

God inspired me to be at peace, knowing He was in charge. Then He inspired me NOT to buy that computer service. Shortly thereafter He gave me the name of a person He wanted me to talk to. Once there, I discovered I had two people who could help me. I then received the guidance I needed to get the glitches out of my computer, for it was MY computer that had the problems, not the company that hosts my website. And these computer experts did not charge me anything for their advice.

We have an awesome, awesome God!



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