Currently Unavailable

My journey over to the Indiana Department of Education website was rebuffed this morning. Instead of finding the usual home page visuals, all to be found was this sticky note pinned in the middle of the page. 

It's a little disappointing that I cannot access the data this weekend, but the note was a nice touch. Downtime is sort of the necessary evil of web design: how to perform needed maintenance without interrupting service? 

In this age of 24/7 connectivity, we all need some downtime - a chance to unplug and relax. But we also need to realize that others may not be available on my schedule. They need downtime too.

This past week I was largely unavailable due to family commitments but continued to monitor email and voice mail. It's interesting how often we believe our own problems are more important than other peoples', if we even consider that others may be experiencing issues or troubles we don't understand. 

The business world has developed a response to this: it's called Customer Service. But for Christians, we should not simply provide better customer service, but true compassion. I will try to respond to all the inquiries as quickly as possible. I'm sorry that I was not available at the time. But compassion is not constrained by time. Customer service finds a solution. Once resolution is achieved, the relationship ends. For us, the compassion continues just as our relationship does.