I am experiencing the computer equivalent of an out-of-body experience. In front of me is Apple’s sleek new MacBook Pro laptop computer. And on the screen is a familiar sight in an unfamiliar setting: the rolling green hill and the blue sky spotted with clouds (and dotted with icons) that is the unmistakable Windows XP desktop. It’s like Pepsi in a Coke bottle, DeLay as a Democrat, Johnny Damon in a Yankee uniform (oops, forget that last one). Though it had previously been possible to run Windows on a Macintosh via pokey simulation software, this time Windows runs “native” (i.e., directly, just like with Dell and the rest) on the Intel chips that Apple has been switching to this year. Depending on how I start it up, this MacBook can retain the identity of a Mac running the Tiger OS, or become a Windows box in Mac clothing. It’s making me dizzy.
Steven Levy
The Technologist, Newsweek
Analysis:
Many know that I am a bit of a computer nut. And, I have always used computers that have Windows operating systems. (This, instead of an Apple computer). In contrast, Jeff Smith (preacher at Woodmont) has always been an “Apple man.” If you listen to computer aficionados, you will no doubt be aware of the constant bickering between Apple users, and Windows PC users. Jeff and I usually kid one another about this when we see each other.
As the article continues, we find that all is not well in the computer kingdom. It seems that Microsoft is not happy about the fact that Apple is using their software, and though Apple is happy to “steal” some users to their machnes, they warn that the Windows software is not nearly as good as their own. You might call this a “deal with the devil” type of situation.
There are a number of instances where the Bible mentions things that should not go together:
“Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh” James 3:10-12.
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” Matthew 6:22-24.
Some things just don’t go together. (For example, I doubt I will ever own an Apple computer!) May we recognize the foolishness of trying to meld good with evil, righteousness with ungodliness, valor with compromise. May we all serve God with singleness of heart!
