Banking    

If sheep do not have the constant care of a shepherd, they will go the wrong way, unaware of the dangers at hand. They have been known to nibble themselves right off the side of a mountain. And so, because sheep are sheep, they need shepherds to care for them. The welfare of sheep depends solely upon the care they get from their shepherd. Therefore, the better the shepherd, the healthier the sheep.  Kay Arthur

My husband decided he wanted to become technologically savvy so he asked me to help him get set up with online banking so he could pay our credit card bill online.  You all know from my previous devotional what a techie I am so I proceeded to go online and try to set him up.  You notice I said “try”. 

It went kind of like this.  My husband thought he might have tried to set this up previously so I started by trying to log him in.  Of course he didn’t remember his password or login since he hadn’t logged in since 2003, so I clicked on the button that said “Forgot my login ID”.  So it then asks for an email address.  So I enter that and then it asks several questions to try to identify if we are who we say we are.  You know, your social, birthdate, how many children you have, your dog’s name, your wife’s mother’s name, the car you drive, which grocery store you shop at and do you use coupons.  I am joking but it felt like that. 

So we finally get the login ID but then we have to get the password reset.  It then gave us an error message that said they could not reset it and we would have to call them instead.  So after we went through the same questions over the phone again we finally had our password and were ready to go, or so we thought. 

We log into the account and we were actually able to see the credit card statement and it had a little button in the corner that said, “Pay Bill Online”.  Since that was our whole reason for doing this in the first place I clicked on the button.  It took me to another screen that told me all about Bill Pay and when I clicked on the button on that screen it gave me an error message that said Bill Pay is currently not available to you at this time.  We are working on it.  What does that mean?  Are we the only one's that Bill Pay is not available to? My husband, being the comedian in the family, said “by the time I get this paid it will be past due.”

We worked on this for over an hour and finally I told Jerry he would just have to call them and pay over the phone.  When he called the first thing that came up was a survey and it didn’t give him an option to skip the survey so he had to complete that first. I could hear him in the kitchen mumbling about dumb surveys and banks and stupidity.  I only caught snatches of the conversation he had with himself as he completed the survey.

Have you ever wondered what we did before technology?  I am starting to think that being a shepherd has its benefits.   I mean herding sheep is sounding better and better every day.  What better way to spend our time than with God.   If I didn’t have to spend so much time trying to remember logins and passwords and completing surveys I could spend a lot more time with our Heavenly Father.  Money under the mattress is sounding better and better every day.     

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, we spent an inordinate amount of time this weekend online and on the phone trying to pay one bill.  I would have preferred to spend it with You. Help me to remember why am here on earth and that so many of the things we do every day are manmade distractions.  Remind me of what is really important.  You.    

Scripture:  Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing.  Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.  Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.  Psalm 100:1-5