Yesterday,
I sat in my truck in the parking lot of my dentist’s office. My appointment was still about ten minutes
away so I decided to check my email on my smartphone. As I scrolled down through
the emails, I noticed that I had received an email to fill a larger than normal
order for one of my books. These books
will be sent to all the personnel who are part of a global missionary
movement.

As I
typed out the order, I stopped to realize what I was doing. Here I was, typing
out an order for books on a handheld device that was only a fantasy a few
decades ago.  My email would be sent over
the wireless Internet to a commercial printer who would produce my order via a
computerized printing machine and then make sure it arrived on time at a
distant out-of-state destination.  The
order transaction took me a total of two minutes to complete. The printer would
have the books printed and shipped within a few short days. I was amazed at the
technology I was using so casually.

I
recall visiting the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, Germany where a copy of
Gutenberg’s Bible was displayed.  This
was the first major book printed with movable type on a printing press bearing
Gutenberg’s name. Gutenberg began working on his copy of the Bible in 1450 and
historians believe he finished the first copy in either 1454 or 1455. It took
Gutenberg almost 5 years to prepare and publish the first copy of his
Bible. 

Sitting
there in my truck with my iPhone in hand, I had one of those moments of pause. I
began to realize I was living in an amazing time in human history.  I think Gutenberg felt the same way as he
looked upon his printing machine and the first Bible he took almost five years
to complete.  In each epoch of human
history something special is present and happening for those who have the eyes
to see.

God
has placed you in an extraordinary moment in human history to live an
extraordinary life.  He has things He
wants to do in you that will amaze you when they happen. Resist the numbing
presence of the status quo and your own personal doubts because they can blind
you from seeing the unique nature of this moment in your history.  Something extraordinary and wonderful is
planned to take place in every life and in every generation. Once you realize
these extraordinary possibilities still exist, you will look at this moment in
your personal history with different eyes.