The mind is an interesting thing. Like a computer, we fill it with data constantly. Also like a computer, this data originates from various sources. No, we don't have modems or CD drives or Ethernet connections in our heads - yet! - but for now we have these 5 senses that seem to do a pretty efficient job filling our minds with all sorts of information. Many science fiction stories predict the days of no keyboards, monitors, or even cell phones. They speak of "implants", a direct bridge between an "internet-on-steroids" of the future and our physical brains, attached inside our skulls. Kind of like an airplane's black box, but for people. Imagine being able to bring up data from outside our bodies by merely looking for it with a thought! However, I want to consider a short story today where technology is a bit different. Where our brains, like computers, have the ability to download information all at once and be reprogrammed.

Marty was very excited. It was career day, the day that all the 14 year old children became adults. He'd been looking forward to this day for two years, ever since his older brother John went into the career center building a 14 year old boy himself and came out a chemist, ready to join the work force and be a responsible adult with all the benefits that came along with it. Years ago it would have taken what seemed like a lifetime to a boy - 12 years of grade school followed by 4 to 8 more years of college and graduate school. What a bother! Now the information could be impressed on a mind in a single day, with perfect recall the rest of your life! You could simply choose to be whatever it was you wanted to be. Of course the information could not be erased, and there was only so much ability in anyone to recall things, so you only got one career impressed on you, but still it was a wonderful system'!

There were a few people though who were apparently too dumb to absorb the information. No one knew what happened to these "mental throwbacks", but that wasn't going to happen to Marty! He held his own in the government game groups that had been organized to keep young children out of trouble since all the schools had peen disbanded. But no more of those silly games for him! No, he had nothing to worry about, he was just like everyone else.

Marty waited in line anxiously with is friends, kidding around about who was going to be what, while he waited for his turn. Finally he was led to a small room with a chair and a screen. On the screen were choices of all the jobs you could imagine. Seeing that computer programmers were needed, and since that was what he wanted to do anyway, he pressed the box next to that. The screen cleared for a moment, then a bell chimed and the screen said the session was complete. "That's it?" thought Marty. Because nothing seemed to have happened. Well, likely it will need time to organize before it bubbles up to the surface in my head. Happily, he was led out of the room to a small cafeteria where his friends were already joshing each other about their own choices. "It's amazing'" one declared, "it's as if I had been a doctor all my life'" After hearing the rest express the same kind of excitement, Mary started to feel very frightened. Nothing had changed for him. "W'hat did you pick, Marty?" one asked, so Marty told him. "I picked programmer, too! Isn't recursion just the perfect thing for solving code-reuse problems?" When Marty was unable to answer, his friends realized HE was one of those who didn't "get it", and started shouting "Dummy! Idiot!" Quickly men in white clothes carne and took him away from his ex-friends before anyone was hurt.

If you were Marty, how would you feel? Would you give anything to be just like everyone else? We don't like to be different, do we, and those who see us as such are often quick to attack. When you try to teach someone to be a Christian, you are asking them to become like Marty! To be different than the rest of the sinful world! Consider especially how hard that is during the years when this seems to matter most, our teenage years. But how does Marty make out? Read on and decide for yourself...

Marty found himself in a room with 5 other teens. The all looked frightened. In walked a woman who smiled at them with reassurance. "Welcome to class" she said. I'm a teacher. You are here because your minds are open and curious. Your friends outside were happy being told facts which they accepted without question. Very few will ever know any more than they now know today. Your minds are different. You wonder, and seek. Here, you will learn the old way, with books. But you will be the ones who increase the learning for future generations."

Many people know about God because of what they are told. This is often the curse even of those who are raised as young children in the church. They learn facts. They can tell you God is love. But they don't seem to “click" with it. They are a lot like Marty's friends, in that they become full of facts but their minds become closed. Sometimes they fall away, becoming disinterested and disbelieving in something they never accepted from the heart. It's not a crime to feel emotional about God, and it's not irrational. Stiff, standoffish people are missing out.

Those who become Christians at a later age seem to be more excited about it. Their minds are open, they seek God, and they learn about him the old way - they study the bible. They have wonder, and awe, at the majesty and power of God, and see his amazing designs with the delight children have over new things.

Many other churches tell you to just listen to the preacher, or priest, or reverend, or whatever. Let him be your "spiritual guide" and don't confuse yourself with reading the bible. They mock you for the study you do, for trying to live life as you should. Nothing should ever change, they tell you. Burn the candles, and don't rock the boat.

No. Marty wasn't like everyone else. He was better! What about you?

Randy