Do we really like solutions?
Working in I.T. my job is to find solutions to problems. Some days you feel great, solving one problem after the other, other days you feel darn near stupid for not being able to solve the simplest of issues.
When you are well matched with another I.T. employee, the days when you feel stupid you can turn to them and say "help!" and they understand and try to lend a bit of their brain to you and work out the solution together.
Often times here we're too busy to put two brains on the same problem, and some days, like today, you both have enough problems of your own and are both unable to solve them.
Those aren't the best days.
The days when you feel challenged by a problem and can't solve it, and realize no one else around you can solve it and it's up to you to solve alone... and you feel as if you can't.
Those are the frustrating days.
This morning, I walked into the door with a plan, which 2 minutes after arriving from group devotions, was shattered.
Email issues happening left and right. Radio issues. All our major forms of communication were under assault. People were getting upset at other people for not responding to emails they never got, etc.
And in the middle of it, sat two I.T. guys feeling by noon as if they had no clear path to solve the issues.
We took a break, walked home for lunch.
At lunch I calmed down and realized "solutions can only come AFTER problems."
So I decided to let the problem have it's time, because inevitably a solution would come, and I shouldn't let my attitude get defeated as well as email.
Armed with a fresh new perspective and a quick prayer for creativity, I walked in through the same door after lunch and low and behold a few minutes ago, not 1 but 3 problems were solved and things seem back on track.
At times wrestling with an email issue here can feel like going 15 rounds in a boxing ring. There is polite pressure and sometimes not always polite to restore this integral service. How did it get broken in the first place? People over your shoulders, and the realization that confusion is enhanced by panic.
So you can imagine my elation when I was finally able to resolve the issue, and I was ecstatic, and I jumped up out of my chair...
YES! IT WORKS!! FINALLY! This issue ate up some of my weekend and most all of my monday but it works now!!!
which is when my co-worker walked in from the radio site and said
"well at least one of us is fixing things."
He will solve it. I know he will. But still, one of the many wonderful differences in being a member of the Kingdom of God is that I can quietly say a pray for him to solve it.
And, one of the great things about working with other believers here is that I can pray with him, and not have to find a secluded office somewhere where people won't be offended by our prayers and write an angry email to a manager.
I'm finding there is a great many cultural differences between working in Silicon Valley and working here. Not the least of which is being able to blast praise music in an "office" without offending people.
