God in the Machine

[Virgil Showlion]

Of all days, today to have computer problems.

Move the mouse to come out of sleep mode. Nothing happens.

Press the power button. Lights come on. Hard drive light comes on, remains solid. Monitor light is orange, indicating no output from the video card.

OK.

Wait. Wait. Wait some more. Hard drive light is still red. Nothing is happening. Wait another three minutes just in case. Doesn't sound as though there's any hard drive activity. Still a solid red light.

Oh no. Please not a system failure. I haven't backed up in a week. (I know. My bad.)

Kill the power to the computer. Wait a good long time for the capacitors to discharge. Power on again. Solid red light. No monitor output. Hitting keys, pressing the mouse button does nothing. Unplug the peripherals. Nothing.

Not today!

Another 5 minutes have passed by this point.

Press the "reset" button rather than killing the power this time. Solid red light. No hard drive activity. No monitor output. Maybe it really is doing something and I just need to wait it out. I head to the washroom. I head downstairs, get myself a sandwich. Come back up 10 minutes later, supremely hopeful that I'll see the monitor lit up.

My heart sinks. Monitor is off. Solid red hard drive light. No hard drive activity. Absolutely no way of determining what's wrong; computer isn't outputting to the monitor. No response to keyboard or mouse input whatsoever.

Kill power to the computer again. Will try one last time before giving up. Boot up starts. Solid red light. No HD activity. No output. 60 seconds later: still dead. Another minute: still dead.

Well that's it, then, I think. I'm screwed. It could be a corrupted boot sector, a corrupted BIOS (it can happen), a hardware fault. I could try waiting another 10 minutes or 15 or 20, but this thing is not going to boot. I might have to do a hard reset and rebuild the system from scratch.

So I say a prayer: "Please Father. Help me out today. I really need it today. Please, in Your goodness and mercy, help me."

I'm literally uttering the last two words and I hear the HD chug to life. Begins to chatter as usual. Red light begins blinking. Computer boots normally. Quite literally one second after I finish the prayer, in spite of 40 minutes of failed attempts.

Virus checker is complaining: "I had problems updating."  Yeah. Because you were what almost totaled my machine according to the boot log. (Virus checkers write to the boot sector and make all kinds of changes to privileged files on a system. They are, bar none, the worst culprits for totaling computers, barring actual viruses. Many of the problems occur when they try to update themselves, for obvious reasons.)

I back up my files and say a prayer of thanks. I've dodged a bullet.

I must admit, as much trust as I do have in God to provide help, I hadn't expected Him to fix the problem so instantly or directly. But I'll surely take it.

God is great. Thanks, Father.

[weltschmerz]

OK. God fixed your computer.

[Virgil Showlion]

Absolutely.

God answers prayer all the time in my life. Sometimes in remarkable ways. I'm not ashamed to admit it.

At any rate, I'm a happy camper today.

[Artemis Windsong]

Thanks be to God in all things.

[weltschmerz]

Aug 10, 2016 13:53:05 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Absolutely.

God answers prayer all the time in my life. Sometimes in remarkable ways. I'm not ashamed to admit it.

At any rate, I'm a happy camper today.

Alrighty then! God ignores famine, torture, wars and genocide. He's busy fixing your computer.

[Virgil Showlion]

Aug 10, 2016 14:23:57 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

Aug 10, 2016 13:53:05 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Absolutely.

God answers prayer all the time in my life. Sometimes in remarkable ways. I'm not ashamed to admit it.

At any rate, I'm a happy camper today.

Alrighty then! God ignores famine, torture, wars and genocide. He's busy fixing your computer.

He permits evil, certainly. He doesn't ignore it.

He's given us His Law and His commandments. There wouldn't be any famine, torture, war, or genocide if man simply trusted and obeyed Him, but man desperately wants to do what is in his own heart, and, for the present age, God permits it. There's a greater plan being worked out.

He's a God of big things but also a God of little things, like fixing one insignificant man's broken computer. People who say He doesn't care about the little things--whether it's Him doing something for us, us doing something for somebody else, or us doing something we shouldn't--clearly hasn't read the Bible.

[Green Eyed Lady]

God "fixing" stuff is nothing new to me either, Virgil. I guess I should say I get more of showing me the way to fix stuff myself. In the case of a computer, tho, I'd be screwed!  He is great, for sure.

[mmhmm]

I'm glad the computer wasn't trashed! I sure know that frustration! I'm happy, with and for you, Virgil.

[weltschmerz]

The cursor on my laptop crapped out on me.
Someone gave me a mouse I could plug in, and now it works.
Must have been god's mighty hand at work.

[mmhmm]

weltschmerz, that's enough. There's no need to deride another's beliefs. Just be happy with your own beliefs and move on. Thanks.

mmhmm, Administrator

[Jaguar]

I'm truly happy for you Virgil Showlion, that was a gift that you received and that is good.

[ken a.k.a OMK]

My prayer would have been for God to give me the knowledge to fix the computer, but Virgil already has the knowledge, so a little help was needed. 

[moon/Laura]

Aug 10, 2016 15:19:04 GMT -5 mmhmm said:

weltschmerz, that's enough. There's no need to deride another's beliefs. Just be happy with your own beliefs and move on. Thanks.

mmhmm, Administrator

To add to what mmhmm has said:

Debating is one thing. To post solely to make fun, quite another. If you can't be civil then I will have no choice but to lock you out of this section of the forum, and I won't hesitate to make that decision.

I am not a Christian either, but I don't feel the need to put down those who are. So, either post responsibly or don't post on the religious boiard at all. Your choice.

moon/mod