What I'm about to admit is just a little embarrassing, in fact I feel quite silly even thinking about it. For the last ten years I've pretended that I knew how to do it, but the reality was that I didn't have a clue.

Oh, it wasn't that I hadn't ever tried to do it. There were many times that I decided to stop this nonsense and do what millions of other people do every day without a second thought. But after every attempt I remained just as puzzled and inept as I had been before.

Why didn't I ask for help? Good question, and even now I really don't know why. Maybe it was because there was no one around on those occasions when I bravely tried and failed. The same was true of those rare early morning moments when fear of the consequences of not doing it would strike out of nowhere.

The rest of the time I really never gave it a thought, so all the opportunities I may have had to ask for guidance just slipped by, never to return.

But last night, all by myself, I did it.

To be honest I don't really know how I finally managed to do it, but that doesn't matter. The fact is that after ten years of furtive and frustrating attempts, the barrier was finally breached.

Last night, for the very first time in my life, I saved a Word Document to a 3.5" diskette!

Now I know to you that may not seem like anything to get too excited about, but for me it will go down in my computer history as one of the greatest milestones to date.

I've never pretended to know a great deal about computers, but over the ten years that we've owned one, I've certainly learnt a lot. Most of what I've discovered has been by trial and error. Usually if I needed to know something I could be fairly confident that before long I'd either work it out or find it out.

But not with saving files. It was like a great mystery that was locked safely away in the Microsoft vaults and only those with the secret password could gain entrance. With my nose pressed against the windows looking in, it seemed that the entire world knew the secret, except me!

Of course all our documents were saved onto the computer and printed out, but the fear was always lurking vaguely at the back of my mind as to what would happen if "old faithful" suddenly exploded. The thought of having to re-enter everything manually after a crash was just too horrible to contemplate.

Last night was the turning point. After writing the ninth study on Ephesians I reached into the cupboard and pulled out the dusty box of diskettes. With an attitude of "nothing ventured, nothing gained", I took one of the little disks, hesitated nervously for a moment and then inserted it into the A Drive.

Instantly things began to whirr and hum. This was the point of no return and I was determined to give it my best shot.

The first attempt to save it failed, but something in the message that flashed up on the screen gave me a clue. It didn't say, "No Stupid! You've Got To Go Into the A Drive Folder Thingy". It was much more polite and confusing than that, but for some reason this time I got the message.

Reaching the A Drive, I took a deep breath and clicked "save". Up flashed another message with the advice that I couldn't save anything there because it wasn't a folder.

At last the final piece of the jigsaw fell into place. Finally the light of understanding dawned and after creating a new folder, I clicked save and voila! The 36 pages of the Breath of Fresh Air Ephesians Study were safely stored forever onto that one tiny little bit of plastic.

I was amazed. After all those years of not knowing, I'd never dreamed it could be so easy. At long last our documents were completely safe. The relief I felt was enormous and my happiness was just a few steps short of ecstatic!

Yet my delight at being able to save our insignificant documents is totally overwhelmed and relegated to nothingness when compared to the celebration that takes place in heaven every time the miracle of salvation occurs in the life of one precious soul. Jesus gave us a tiny glimpse when He said:

Every day, people all around the world save documents to some form of disk without even the vaguest sense of joy. For many it may even be a fairly humdrum thing that must be done. But when the consequences of not being able to save a document are constantly hanging over you, and time is ticking by, the moment when it's safely stored away is a cause for rejoicing.

As Christians we have one reason for remaining here on earth and that is to carry on the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ. He told us to go and make disciples of all nations, which starts right here at home. It doesn't necessarily mean preaching at people, but it does mean being able to lovingly share our faith in Christ with others. As the Apostle Peter wrote:

How do you look at evangelism? Is it something that fills you with fear and terror, or is it something that just has to be done and your passion for souls has been lost? We need to constantly keep in mind the consequences of a life unsaved and remember that time is passing quickly by.

We don't need a fancy evangelism program to show us how to share our faith. We don't need a major event to draw people to the Lord. All we need is a willingness to be the reflection of Jesus to a lost and dying world.

When we're faithful to do everything that needs to be done, we can start rejoicing in the knowledge that our Savior's the One who'll do the saving!

* * *