To listen to the radio version, click here.
To search archives, click here.
Apples of Gold
Radio Script for May 29, 2009
“It Will Come to You, Layer by Layer”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
In the early days of the internet there were very few pictures. The files were just too big and took too long to download due to slow internet speeds.
So as a web site designer, if I wanted to include a picture, I chose between two ways that it would load on your screen. Either it would load up the full detail line by line, or it would load up a very faint version of the whole picture, then fill in the detail layer by layer.
Some of you remember those days. A picture would pop up on your screen. It would be full size, but you could barely make it out. Then it was like a magic wand passed over it, and it became a little clearer. Then after a few more passes you finally got the whole picture.
That’s the way my brain feels sometimes. For example, when I decided to learn the computer program called Flash. I bought it and installed it on my computer – so far, so good.
I opened it…and just stared at it. I poked a button or two, but there was nothing intuitive about it, at least not to me.
Now you might think that I had accomplished nothing so far, a complete waste of time. But that’s not true. I had simply filled in the first very faint layer of the picture.
I bought a book about Flash and just stared at it. Even with the author’s help I was very frustrated. It was just so hard to do anything.
After a while I just closed the book. My brain hurt.
Then I looked at some help files. And I took a video tutorial. And I started tinkering.
And here is what happened. Layer by layer the picture began to clear up in my brain. I went from a total fog to actually being able to create some simple Flash projects.
I remember when I had to create a new charting system for our radio station. I decided to use Microsoft Access, but knew nothing about it.
My family was going on a ski trip, and I decided to lock myself in our room at the lodge, and while everyone else was skiing I plowed into Access. Periodically I had to step away from the computer – you know, to keep from hurling it out the window.
But by the second afternoon I had it worked out. The picture in my brain went from all fuzz to fairly clear.
You see, that’s how we learn things, one layer at a time.
Isaiah 28:13 says it this way, “…precept upon precept, line upon line…”
Here’s my point. It’s helpful to know this. It keeps you from getting discouraged.
When you start anything new, the picture is messy. Sometimes you can’t even tell which end is up.
When you start a new job, you don’t even know where the bathroom is. When you get married, you have to learn to share the bathroom. When you have kids, you have to deal with them going to the bathroom in their…never mind.
But it will come to you! The fog will clear. You will learn, one layer at a time, so don’t give up!
I call it “layers of knowledge.”
It’s like the encyclopedia set we had when I was a kid. There was a section on the human body. It was printed on clear plastic sheets, and the first layer showed the skeletal system. Then you would lay the next sheet over it and it showed the circulatory system and the nervous system. As you turned the pages you added layers – the organs, the muscles, and finally the skin.
Layers of knowledge.
And that’s how we grow spiritually. Maybe this whole Christian thing is foggy to you. Maybe it’s hard to grasp.
Well don’t get discouraged! Just realize, this is how these things work.
Can you learn to be good in business? Yes! – layer by layer.
This is how everything works. You start by knowing nothing, and then you pick up one faint layer. It may not seem like much, but it’s progress.
Then you pick up another layer, and another. And soon the picture starts to fill in.
So don’t give up!
Instead, dig in. You can do this!
And it will come to you just like everything else – line upon line and precept upon precept.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
© 2009 The Arrow’s Tip
To subscribe to your own daily “Apples of Gold” e-mail, write dougapple@wave94.com.
If you want to be removed from this e-mail list, simply click reply and type UNSUBSCRIBE on the subject line.
If you want to catch “Apples of Gold” in its original audio format, go to www.wave94.com
To search through the large archive of past articles, go here: http://www.wave94.com/modules.php?name=Stories_Archive
If you have trouble reaching me at my main e-mail address, try this one: douglas_apple@msn.com
(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
-vi-
No comments:
Post a Comment