mi·cro·cosm
/ˈmaɪkrəˌkɒzəm/ [mahy-kruh-koz-uhm]
–noun

1. a little world; a world in miniature ( opposed to macrocosm).
2. anything that is regarded as a world in miniature.
3. human beings, humanity, society, or the like, viewed as an epitome or miniature of the world or universe.

Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/microcosm

It was AT&T who spread the ad campaign, “Your world. Delivered.”

Those three words sum up my philosophy of technology and the human condition.

Technology is simply the delivery mode; the transportation vehicle of the world at large. I see it like a microcosm; a small subset of the big world.

Got sin in your world? Technology can deliver it in vivid color behind closed doors, devouring your manhood and destroying your family.

Got love in your world? Technology can share it, splash it, magnify it, through song or prose or a love note texted to your inbox. Or a phone call to London to talk to your globe-trotting kid.

Got conflict in your world? Technology can escalate it, rake it over the coals of misunderstandings and amplified rants posted for 600 of your closest friends. Or worse, its handlers can cyber-attack an entire nation, crippling its economic and socio-political foundations.

Got greed in your world? Technology can help you steal identities and gain wealth through scams and phishing and elaborate techno-stealth.

Got prayer in your world? Technology can help you connect with the genius mind of God; the one who not only breathed life into an ever-expanding galaxy and understands the complexities of technologies not yet invented, but one who breathed life into your starving soul and knit you together in your mother’s womb.

What?

Let me explain.

I recently tested out echoprayer.com.  From its website:

Pure and simple, Echo is a tool to help you pray more diligently.

1. You create a prayer list
2. You set times throughout the week for reminders
3. Echo emails you one prayer at a time from your list

You can set reminders for specific prayers or random ones, and get them as emails, text messages or both.

I experimented with about five prayer requests/reminders, Bigger Ones, like my daughter’s wedding planning, an upcoming road trip, and my friend’s unemployment. I set up text reminders, because emails would probably annoy me and feel more like spam.  The site has a calendar, where I purposely set the reminders for random times, not in a pattern, to avoid routine.

When I started getting texts with my prayer reminders, they startled me at first, but the outcome was reminderish: I prayed as I read them. The texts often came during inopportune times; hard to pray when I was knee-deep in a conversation, for example. Regardless, about 80% of the time I did manage to send up prayer-darts for those specific needs.

After the road trip, I checked the box labeled “Mark as answered” and was pleased to read, “Your prayer was answered today!”

Thanks, God.

Thanks, Echoprayer.com.

My world, delivered.

My God, big.

As always.