A Digital World

Joe Walsh of James Gang fame (before he was with The Eagles) recorded a song (after he was with The Eagles) about being “an analog guy in a digital world”.

Is the world digital or is it analog?

There is much in this world that is analog. Colors, as they change along a spectrum of pea green to forest green, have an analog character. When should we call a hill a mountain? How do we determine the exact time that “pond” is a better descriptor than “lake”? What it the dividing line between beautiful and ugly? Analog.

Analog empowers the senses. What if every hill was exactly so and every mountain the same as every other mountain? Hill here. Mountain there. What if fifty percent of people were beautiful and fifty percent ugly? What if there was no sweet and sour? All wine the same. All beer the same. Life would be monotonous. You could say that the magic of life is its analog character.

There is an aspect of the world, however, that is digital. I was reminded of that this week.

There was a worship service that celebrated church workers who had died. The preacher referenced a note a pastor had left behind for instructions on his burial. The note read (something like), “Please don’t bury me in a clerical collar or in a robe. I want to appear before my Lord simply as a baptized child of God.”

Digital.

I am a baptized child of God or I am not. I am either safe in Jesus or I am not. I am a believer or an unbeliever. In Christ. Not in Christ.

That’s what matters. For eternity.

Digital.

We can extract two things from this clarity.

First, all of the analog parts of the world are nice but not ultimate. Some are richer; some are poorer. Some are more successful; some are less successful. Some are happier; some are sadder. Some are more educated; some are less educated. Some are more religious; some are less religious. Some are more this; some are more that. Much of life is analog, and that makes life interesting.

We should keep that in mind as we do the “analogical” things we do. We should enjoy them. We should share them. We should give thanks for them. But we should not treasure them. We should not sit in judgment of them. We should not boast about them. All analogical life is temporary. The real treasure is in the digital: life forever with God through Jesus.

Second, this digital reality of life in the world also becomes motivational for the Church. It motivates us to reach others, regardless their analogical standing in the world, who do not know the One who is the one way. There is only the One, but that One is for everyone. It also motivates us to treat as brothers and sisters those who like us have been saved by grace, those who are by faith connected to the one Name. While we have varying “analogical callings”, what matters is our digital relationship with Jesus. That digital relationship with Jesus should motivate us to treat others as they are, brothers and sisters.

Beauty indeed is found in the analogical character of the world. Ultimate treasure and meaning are found in the digital: Jesus.

That seems significant this week.