Author, educator and commentator Dr. James Denison has been pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas since June, 1998. Prior to that, he was pastor at churches in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as Midland (at First Baptist) and Mansfield, Texas.If you're like me, you sometimes talk to your computer—usually when it chooses to restart in the middle of a task or refuses to send an email you just spent 15 minutes writing. Soon your computer will be able to talk back.
Today's New York Times tells us about Microsoft's efforts to create an interactive personal assistant for your computer. Dubbed "Laura," their test program appears as a talking head on a screen. You can ask her to book appointments for meetings or schedule a flight. She can look at you and tell you whether your clothes match. (That makes her significantly smarter than me. Janet threw out nearly all my clothes the week after we were married. I still get sent back to the closet on occasion to try again.) Laura is not yet ready to take up residence inside your computer, but her day is coming.
Microsoft is looking for ways to sell more product in a time of stagnating computer sales. Not all their futuristic ideas come to fruition, however. In 2003, they predicted that you and I would soon be wearing wristwatch computers known as Spot watches. Last year they quietly ended the project. Undeterred, they predict computing systems which are 50 to 100 times more powerful than today's systems by 2013. If Laura can help me with my stylistic shortcomings, both Janet and I will be grateful.
The good news is that we don't have to wait for such omniscience. Someone much smarter than Laura will ever be is watching me type these very words. In fact, he knows what I will write before I do: "Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord" (Psalm 139:4). I stare at the night sky in awe, but he looks at the stars "and calls them each by name" (Isaiah 40:26).
I don't understand the technology which makes this essay possible, but "his understanding has no limit" (Psalm 147:5). I cannot see anything beyond my computer and the desk on which it sits this morning, but "nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:13). In short, "he knows everything" (1 John 3:20).
To access his divine databank, you need only ask for his help: "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him" (James 1:5). Self-reliance is spiritual suicide. Every time a decision, problem, or opportunity comes to you today, give it to God. Seek and follow his leadership, and it will be yours. Why do you need his wisdom this morning?
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