Can you say “brown out?”
Posted on September 3, 2006
Filed Under A Geek's Guide to the Scriptures | Leave a Comment
Data Centers. The I. T. Holy of holies.
Large, full of amazing computer equipment and mind numbing amounts of data and zillions of fans (anywhere from 2 to 12 fans per computer, then there’s the room’s cooling systems) — and power. Electrical power. Lots of it. It takes a lot of power to run a data center. But how do you keep the electrical power going? Simple answer: power grids. Power grids have to be capable of handling enormous amounts of electricity. If one grid gets overloaded, other grids should be able to help bear that load.
But what if something glitches? What if there is a dip in power, or part of the system goes out (and other systems fail to take up the load)? Can you say “Brown Out?” I can guarantee you that more that a few data center owners would say something a little more colorful, if they ever experience a brown out. 
With computers, “brown out” is a bad thing. A very bad thing. All those resources, all that computing ability, all those web sites and databases — useless. Some would fail over into other systems, and probably get over burdened, some would shut down before they crash, and some–fools that they are–would try to keep running and would crash.
Well Brent, this is rather interesting, I suppose, if you’re an electrician, or a.. a.. (yaaawwwnnn….oh, excuse me!) computer geek.
Electrical brown out may not be too interesting to some, but what about spiritual brown out??
I just re-read an article about prayer. I got so moved (and convicted) by it that I just had to resend it. You see, what we know about prayer doesn’t count really, but rather DO WE PRAY? <<-- sorry to "shout" but I know that some of you are skimmers and I just wanted you to read that part ^_^
Below is the prayer article, and might I recommend that you read it slowly, and prayerfully. But first, a question: would you rather have lots of ministry resources (finances, buildings, sound systems, computers, video equipment, books, seminaries, study guides.....) or the power of prayer?
OK, here's another question: What are the symptoms of spiritual brown out? Astute reader that you are, you probably noticed that I already listed them with I marked off the results of computer brown out: crash, over burdened, unable to help others with their loads, shutting down, to name a few.
Sometimes the reason for spiritual brown out is a weak prayer life. I think that is what the article below is getting at. Here's the article: http://www.pastors.com/articles/ChoInterview.asp But just in case you can’t reach that article for some reason, I copy/pasted some paragraphs of it below.
David Yonggi Cho is pastor of the largest Protestant church in the world (Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea – 750,000 members). It is a church known for its prayer ministry and for its use of Cell Groups to embrace new members and to develop lay leaders. Cho started the church as a plant over 30 years ago. Rick Warren, pastor and author, interviewed pastor Cho:
Warren: How do you stay fresh in the ministry?
Cho: When I first started my church in 1968, I would spend five hours every day praying – a kind of a spiritual warfare! In America you don’t see much of the spiritual warfare, but in the Orient you can see the temples, and you must really fight if you want to be in a location because there will rise up opposition. So I really depended upon prayer. But now a days I usually spend three hours every day praying, and if I don’t keep praying regularly in such a way then I can’t maintain the fellowship with the Holy Spirit. I believe ministers cannot maintain their ministries without the anointing of the Holy Spirit. For me, that means three hours a day to maintain my intimacy with the Holy Spirit.
Warren: What would you like to say to American Pastors?
Cho: Well, American pastors — they have wonderful facilities and also higher education but usually American pastors can’t pray more than 15 minutes — so that is the main trouble. I have always said you have everything — finances, facilities, education — but what you’re lacking is the determination to pray (things) through. No prayer power! Many people still do not know the real importance of prayer – but as a minister, you should know that prayer is the foundation of church growth and revival. American pastors should be determined to pray. As you know, we have an early Morning Prayer meeting in Korea and many American pastors come. They asked me, “How do you motivate people to come in the early morning to pray?”, and I say, First, you should motivate yourself!
For me, that’s a lot to think about, and pray about. I think it’s time to face my own spiritual brown out and build a better “prayer grid.” For one thing, I am now in the hunt for a prayer team, a group of guys who will come together for one purpose: prayer. For one thing, we will no doubt help bear each other’s load in prayer when (not if) one of us gets overloaded.
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.