My elderly mother was on the phone. “The next time you visit, would you mind looking in the garage? Your brother is helping clean it out, and he came across some of your old things.”

What childhood leftovers could possibly remain? When I arrived, there it was: a ponderous manual office typewriter, as sturdy as ever but a little rusty from three decades of disuse. The sight brought back happy memories. My parents had bought it secondhand to reward me for passing an important exam at age 11. I taught myself to type and spent many hours during my teen years hammering out poems and stories.

Before I could reconcile with the idea that my old friend should finally be thrown away, I tried typing again. I had forgotten how much force was required to press a key on an old manual typewriter! Maybe it was the old ribbon, but I could barely see what I had typed. Oops, I made a mistake! I pushed down on the backspace key to delete the mistake, and then remembered that I was back in the day of crumbly typewriter erasers. Hammering painstakingly at the keys, I managed to type a few words. A bell sounded, signaling me to pull back the lever that advanced the paper and returned the heavy carriage to start a new line. I had expended a lot of effort and had very little to show for it.

How different it is typing on my computer! I press the power button and the computer turns on. A few feather-light keystrokes and the first words form on the screen. When I make a mistake, one press of the backspace key deletes it. When I finish, a few more keystrokes and spelling mistakes are autocorrected. One more click and I save my work. A few more clicks and I can email copies to a few friends around the world—no carbon paper, envelopes, or stamps needed—and they will get them almost instantly.

Our spiritual lives are a bit like that. God is pouring out His Spirit in abundance to those who will receive it. He is offering us “advanced spiritual technology” to use in our daily lives—enhanced prayer power, a close personal relationship with Him, and gifts of the Holy Spirit such as wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, and discernment (1 Corinthians chapter 12)—but it’s up to us what we do with it. We can choose to try to get by without God’s help or just a bare minimum of prayer when we feel we really need it, or we can avail ourselves of His full power by asking for it and learning to use it in all we do.

Me? I’ve made up my mind. I want to learn new things. I’m going to press the “power key” and make as much use of God’s spiritual technology as I can!

And the old typewriter has gone for recycling.

Abi F. May is a member of the Family International in England. 