Blog No. 41 - Reading Time: 4:00

I won’t go into all the conspiracy theories behind my frustrations this past weekend, but I will say that they gave me a dim view of the Apple Corporation once again. I appreciated the fact that they were releasing what seems to be weekly updates to the Mac OS early enough on Saturday nights that I can go through the process of updating and patching our old 2012 Macs to prepare them for our Sunday morning service.

However, this past week the released their annual major upgrade to their OS called Sequoia (OS 15). I knew this process would take some time to evaluate and upgrade, so I spent a little time each day working through each Mac and testing it. Although it takes forever to download and install these constant upgrades, they all seemed to be working. And the great programmers at Open-Core were on top of it releasing their operating system patches alongside Apple’s upgrade.

So I went home that evening hoping for the best and feeling confident I had a stable system for displaying our worship lyrics, playing our tracks, presenting my Keynote message, and recording and uploading the video of the service.

A Disaster Waiting to Happen

Well, early in the wee hours of Sunday morning Apple released it’s first patch to their new OS 15. This new security patch, OS 15.0.1, intentionally erased all of Open-Core’s patches in our systems and made our Macs unusable when I arrived to set up the service.

I usually get to the church on Sunday morning around 6:00 AM anyway, but this day it was a fight from the get-go to get everything functioning. I was still working at it as people were arriving for the 10:30 AM service. I only had to get three of them going. I could fix the rest later.

However, that left me in no frame of mind to stand before the congregation with the added stress that everything we did that morning could come crashing down. Nothing quit on us, but in the media booth, Stephen was wrestling with multiple cursors on the screens and delays and pauses throughout the service.

My internal person was praying, “Lord, just get me through this service.” My outer person was beginning to realize that I and the church were under attack once again. I kicked into warrior mode, declaring that I was going to preach what I had been given to say, no matter what the circumstances. Of course that was the force I needed to salvage my message and cleanse my spirit of the frustration I was feeling.

Dealing With It All

After the service I got to talk with Adam and Becca Hutchison and meet their two little girls, One of which I had never seen. Their love for us and the warm fellowship we shared melted away all the frustration and anxiety I was feeling. So in spite of the mess our technology made of the service (and of me) I walked away from a few moments of fellowship with Adam and Becca having totally forgotten about the problems I had endured that morning. Even though you could see how I felt when I was ministering on the recorded video, I still uploaded it with the confidence that it was delivered in faith and power.

When we face times of frustration and anxiety like this, we must always remember that God is there to bring us peace. His peace is with us even if we don’t feel we’ve handled it well or walked away without the victory. Even if no one got anything out of what I shared, I grew a little. I also realized how much we depend on the external things to support our ministry, rather than simply relying on the internal guidance of the Holy Spirit. That’s probably why Jesus said:

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you:
 not as the world giveth, give I unto you.
 Let not your heart be troubled,
 neither let it be afraid.”

John 14:27 (KJV)

Until next Monday, may the Lord bless you! Pray for us!

Pastor Brian Jenkins

Calvary Assemblies of God

PDF Link: PDF