Saturday I was hangin ten on my Dell when I ran across a Christian Forum. Not just any Christian forum, THE Christian Forum. How did I know? It said so: ChristianForum.com. I looked at a couple of the posts and thought it might be cool to sing a few lines of Pass It On while holding cyber-hands with my bros around the warm glow of a CRT. Just like camp. Kinda made me misty So I checked out the registration and applied. Being the self-promoter I am, I chose WhoreChurchcom as my user name. Couple of extra visitors cant hurt, huh? So I hit submit expecting to be ushered into the stained glass chat rooms of cyberdom. Drats! they have to approve me first. Just when I was ready to test my speedy typing skills. My hunger for fellowship still burning in my gut, I fire up Google and search for Christian Forums. Sure nuff, theres quite a few out there. I settled on one and clicked. With blazing T1 speed, I was propelled to the hallowed halls of CrossWalk.com. I quickly located the registration form and entered my information. With no little amount of anxiety I hit submit, hoping against all hope that no moderator had to approve my admission, denying me precious moments of blessed fellowship. Hallelujah! All I had to do was confirm my email address and I was in! A few moments and I was there: In The Cyber Cathedral with Hundreds, nay Millions of my Fellows. A topic caught my eye: Walking in Truth. I read with great anticipation my Brothers thoughtful post. Did I have a word of encouragement? Correction? Addition? My fingers, Matrix-like, became a blur over the keyboard. First one post, then two. I was in the Holy-Spirit-Helpin-Zone. Within a few moments I had helped five of my fellow pilgrims. Spent, I collapsed in my chair. Emotionally drained yet strangely fulfilled. I was a part of The Body. Needing sustenance, I used the last of my strength to stumble to the refrigerator where I passed out. I heard an angel saying, Get up, the journey is too much for you, placing a Diet Coke in my weakened hand and one of my wifes oatmeal cookies in my mouth. Strengthened by the Angel Food, I returned to my chair. Had another caring soul responded to my posts? Is there a word of encouragement for me? A Thank You from someone whom I just saved from a life of error? Access Denied. What? Certainly this is a glitch. I tried logging in againAccess Denied. Possibly this must be a Demonic Attack spawned of the Evil One. Access Denied. Fowl Spawn from Earths Bowels, I will not be defeated! You will not deny me access! I logged in again. Again the screen taunted me: Access Denied. Demon of Anti-Access I rebuke you in the Name of Jesus! Still the 17 Diagonal Imp taunted me: Access Denied! Wait! How silly of me. Certainly in my euphoric fatigue I had forgotten the password. This was no demon, it was simply my humanity. I clicked over to emailand thats when it happened. No, it cannot be. But yes, it had. Ben, Moderator of the Cross-Walk, notified me. I had violated rule 20 and been banned from the forum. Rule 20? Had I in my human weakness progressed far beyond the 10 Commandments and transgressed not rule 11 or even rule 18, but that hallowed Rule 20. Crushed I wandered into bed. Been having fun on the computer, honey? my wife inquired. Without reply I rolled over and sobbed myself to sleep. |