Spiritual Gifts

Multilingual does not include computer-speak

I can remember as early as the age of six being fascinated with languages. It was about the time I moved from Dayton, Ohio to San Antonio, Texas and started watching “Villa Alegre” on the local PBS station. (This was probably a precursor to “Dora the Explorer” and “Go, Diego, Go!” In middle school, when my grandmother, who was born in Greece, would come to visit - I would ask her to teach me words in Greek. In high school I went on a church mission trip to Mexico and signed up for Spanish class as soon as I returned.

One of the passages from the Bible that I enjoy the most is Acts 2: 1-11. It’s the one where the apostles receive the Holy Spirit and then start speaking in a bunch of different languages. Everyone in the crowd, from all different nations, can hear the apostles speak in all of the different languages that the crowd speaks.

I believe a faculty with languages is a gift from God. Actually, a faculty with any specialized topic is probably a divine gift.

Last Thursday I opened my laptop that I had shut a few hours before, and was greeted with a blue screen. Thankfully it wasn’t the “blue screen of death”, but it was close. Something was seriously wrong and none of the options presented to me were working - not shut down and restart, not scan and fix, not uninstall the last update. I was out of town at the time so I just put the laptop away until I returned home the next day and could have my son look at it.

I’m pretty good with computers but I don’t speak computer. At least not as fluently as my son does. I loved watching him calmly dig in and figure out how to solve each step of the problem.

It took 36 hours and four tries just to get the files backed up. Then he “wiped and reinstalled Windows” which to me sounds as complicated as doing yoga on the moon while cooking a five-course meal. Maybe because it wasn’t his computer so he didn’t have any emotional investment in it - but he was calm, I was calm, and the teacher in me was glad that I could provide this learning experience for him.

Honestly, I amazed myself with how calm I was. Especially considering that I cannot remember the last time I backed up my files. I’ve been doing a lot of Quickbooks entries lately and I may not have backed it up since January. But, either I’d come out the other side with the files, or I wouldn’t. Nothing else could be done about it now, other than my resolving to back up my files every week from now on.

Throughout Friday night and Saturday he steadily worked on the computer. Sunday we went to church and heard the reading about the Holy Spirit and the languages. The priest talked about finding peace in any situation and that is exactly what I have felt through this computer problem. (Naturally, this is not the first time I’ve had computer problems, but I’ve never been this calm before. Usually I run to the repair shop and they tell me they can’t retrieve my files and I wind up buying a new computer and starting all over.)

The priest’s message about being calm really spoke to me. Throughout my life, I’ve often wondered if a pastor’s Sunday message is a bit like the people hearing the apostles speak in whatever language they needed to hear. Maybe I heard a message about peace today, but the person behind me heard a message about loving your neighbor, and the person in the back row heard a different message. We each hear what we need to hear thanks to the Holy Spirit.

I still haven’t got things all back to normal yet - but some of them, thanks to my son, are even better than they were before. (Shout out to Master Match in San Antonio, Texas who fixed my son’s truck even better than it was before someone crashed into it.) Perhaps this was a Pay It Forward moment. It was definitely a Holy Spirit moment.

Google AI reports that the role of the Holy Spirit is, among other things, empowering believers with God’s Guidance and to provide spiritual gifts. Further querying details that spiritual gifts enable believers to serve God and the church in various ways. Skeptics might then say fixing my personal computer is not related to God or the church.

However, in addition to languages, God has gifted me with an ability and a desire to write. Such as writing this weekly inspirational message in addition to “The Servant” novel that I have written and am seeking a publishing partner for. So, without the computer, I couldn’t do God’s work and write this week’s message. Furthermore, only God knows what my son’s future will be. Maybe one day he will use his computer repair talents at a church. One of the languages I speak is Portuguese - which was definitely not on my personal language acquisition wish list. I’m still waiting for the day I save someone’s life because I know Portuguese. And even if that never happens, a large part of the person I am today is because I spent a year living in Brazil and the relationships I formed there that only could have happened because I learned the language.

What gifts have you received from the Holy Spirit? How has the Holy Spirit led you to use your gifts?

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