I’ve been forced over the last few weeks, and again today, to think about those things that I see to depend on, or in other words those things that are important to me.

Many of you will know that over the summer the YFC servers failed and so a number of us have been struggling with email programs. A week ago my email program started to fail again which has stumped us all today when we tried to fix it. On Wednesday I’m at head office so I hope our IT expert will be able to sort it.

The technology problems have forced me to re-think how I work and I have had to re-learn old skills that I used before I had a computer to use for my main communication method.

The result has been more phonecalls, more face to face meetings, more time for reflection, more time to listen to others and to God, more time for people and less time for machines. It’s also true to say that I have felt less tied down to sitting in front of a screen.

I have learnt from this trip down memory lane some lessons that I had not so much forgotten, more secrets that I had started to unconsciously neglect. The experience has brought to my mind the need for real relationships and real conversations at a time when we seem increasingly bombarded by a virtual reality. Some are talking of ditching the virtual platforms, but I am going to reflect more on how, and why, I use them. An interesting point Sarah makes about Facebook,for example, is ‘I don’t get it … what’s the point!

It’s not a bad question! I couldn’t come up with a great answer … can you?