Not Just About Windows 7 but...

Just because I have to vent for a moment...

Windows 7 may be "all that" (at least compared to Vista) but I can't find the freaking files I need using the Widows 7 search. It's the first real feature about 7 that I've hated (well, they dumbed down MovieMaker, too, but there's a workaround for that) - but it's a deal breaker for me. The problem is I have about 400 gigs of files on an external hard drive - and it's not indexed by Windows 7 so it won't search it. At all. I can type in the name of a file that I can clearly see on the screen on the external drive and the search returns "no files found." Really? But i can see it...urk... So I wasted half an hour looking for a file that I know is on the external hard drive - give up, decided to spend another 15 minutes or whatever copying 34 gigs of files (one of which I was sure was the file I wanted) to the "Bill Beatty" folder on the desktop. Searched and, what do you know, there's the file -you see it wasn't called what I thought it was, so I needed to search in the contents - and it took like 3 seconds. But why won't it search the external hard drive for even the exact file name?

Here's what I've been able to discover. Microsoft wanted to make searching easier (somehow people found searching in XP an Vista difficult? Really?) so they decide which places on your computer you should store your files, and Windows 7 will search there. I tried all the "indexing options" suggestions, thank you, none of them worked. Because Microsoft knows what I want and need better than I do.

Except when they don't.

So - thank you for listening, that's off my chest.

Here's what I thought about, though - and it's tied in with the message I'll preach this Sunday. We're talking about evangelism this month. The history of the church is full of "Microsoft style" evangelism. What I mean is that missionaries would go into countries and bring the saving message of Christ (a good thing) but demand that the only way to really be saved was to take on European (and later American) culture (a bad thing). Yeah, we know what's best for you - and what is best for you is being like us...

I may use this Sunday (don't know yet, but if you're coming you'll get a free preview). I HATE squash. Yuk. And, yes, I've tried it more than once. You have no idea (unless you are one of these people) how many times I've said that (or about liver, or saurkraut, or whatever food I don't like) and had someone say to me, "Well, you just haven't had it cooked right. If you had it cooked by so and so or in such and such a way, well, you'd LOVE squash."

No, I won't.

You see, it's the human condition (or at least this human's condition) to resist being told "what to like" or "what to prefer" or whatever. We make our own choices, dangit. But here's why I have tried squash on several occasions. Someone will talk about how good the squash was here or there - how much they look forward to getting it whenever they eat at that restaurant, or we'll be at a potluck dinner and someone will comment about how good it is - they've never had better - or whatever. I mean, you get it right? Tell me your experience of the thing and I'm WAY more likely to join in.

And believe it or not, accept it or not, hate it or not, people will transfer that "preference" mentality to faith. We live in a consumer culture. You can't bully people into believing, you really can't argue people into believing anymore, so what's left? How about loving people into believing? How about living so sold out to Christ that people want to know what's going on in your life?

And there's the parallel with faith, I think. I don't need to tell you how desperate your life is without Jesus, you may already know that - and if you don't think it IS, then I've already lost you, haven't I? - but if I tell you what a difference Jesus has made in MY life, well, that's a whole different thing, isn't it?