I was heading to my truck, parked on the 6th floor of a parking ramp when I saw a man wandering through the ramp with his armed raised. He was looking from side to side and pressing a button on his key chain that would set off an alarm or horn on his vehicle. He had clearly forgotten where he parked and was using his alarm to find his car. As I drove out of the ramp I saw him on a different floor still searching with his arm upraised and thumb pressing the button repeatedly.
I used to be good at remembering phone numbers. I could still rattle off the phone number of my home in Indiana from 40 years ago and other than my college dorm room number I can give you every one up until now. I know my in-law's number, a few brothers and sisters and even a grandparent's number. But something has happened recently. I was asked the number for my wife's cell phone and I was stuck ... I said, "Umm ... all I know is that it is number one on my speed dial."
That man in the parking ramp and I are victims of "Use-it-or-lose-it" syndrome. Modern technology has caused us to use totally different parts of our brains and even different parts of our body. I bet we have teenagers with the most versatile thumbs in history because they grew up using them on computer games, TV remotes, and arcade games. We have adults that have learned to dial phones, drive, and chew gum at the same time. This amazes me but what have we lost with all these advances.
It used to be on the farm that all the neighbors HAD to get together at harvest time because one farmer could not bring in the crops on time by himself. Modern technology allows more self-reliance but a loss of neighbors as friends. I have my cell phone with me at most times and I have lost meals without interruptions. I can make my car's horn honk from a distance but don't remember where I parked it. I can call my wife but I cannot tell others how to call her. We've gained but what have we traded?
Your faith is like that. Faith is like a muscle that you exercise or your lose it. Faith can be forgotten in the midst of gadgets and flare just like your memory. There is no shortcut gadget that will substitute for your faith and your belief. Even though it would be cool to have a little button on our key chain that if we press it - suddenly we are recharged in our faith and that mountain can now be moved. But it doesn't work that way.