According to TechTarget.com, default settings in computer language.
“Is a predesigned value or setting that is used by a computer program when a value or setting is not specified by the program user. The program user can be either an interactive user of a graphical user interface or command line interface, or a programmer using an application program interface. When the program receives a request from an interactive user or another program, it looks at the information that has been passed to it. If a particular item of information is not specified in the information that is passed, the program uses the default value that was defined for that item when the program was written.
In designing a program, each default is usually pre-established as the value or setting that most users would probably choose. This keeps the interface simpler for the interface user and means that less information has to be passed and examined during each program request. To the program requestor, to default (verb) is to intentionally or accidentally allow the pre-established value or setting for an item to be used by the program.
The program is said to default when it uses a default value or setting. Default (adjective) pertains to something that is used when something else is not supplied or specified. For example, a default printer is a type of printer that is assumed to be connected to a computer unless the computer user specifies another type that is actually connected”.
In the world of technology, every finished product is made with preset-settings called Default Settings which are relatively user friendly. Whenever you purchase a new gadget, it becomes pertinent for you to customize it in order to suit and serve your new demands.
For instance, when you buy a new smartphone, you have to customize it by entering your email address and other personalized settings in order for you to use it. If you buy a second-hand phone that has been owned by another individual then it becomes necessary for you to reset and overhaul the entire system settings on the phone. All you need to do is to do what is called a Factory Reset and erase all the details and install fresh personal settings.
Default Settings in gadgets are preset settings as set by their manufacturers. And for one to use the gadget better and more effectively, they have to reset and erase all those settings. Like these machines, it also happens to human beings. We also have default settings in life. These default settings could be a mindset we have as it was manufactured, nurtured and fixed by our cultural setting.
We behave the way we behave because of our cultures. Some people do not dress the way they want but dress according to the trending fashion/culture. Some men treat women like they were nurtured from home. Some are set by default by their peers and social groups, and they do whatever they do because the whole group does so. Others operate by religious default settings, religious doctrines and philosophy is the operating system of their practicality and decision-making process.
Friends, we must understand that while our mindset is tuned and conditioned by these earthly factories like culture, religion, social groups, and academia, we were in fact created and not just made. The Bible in the book of Ruth tells a story of a woman by the names of Naomi who had two daughters in-law. Like Naomi, the daughters-in-law had lost their husbands. Naomi resolved to go back to her people and set the daughters free. This is what she said to them:
“The LORD grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, “Surely we will return with you to your people.” But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? “Turn back, my daughters, go– for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, if I should have a husband tonight and should also bear sons, “would you wait for them till they were grown? Would you restrain yourselves from having husbands? No, my daughters; for it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me!” Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, (Ruth 1:9-14)
After these words, one of Noami’s daughters-in-law packed her stuff and went back where she came from. However, the Bible continues to say:
But Ruth clung to her. And she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said: “Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried. The LORD do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me.” (Ruth 1:14-17).
The difference between Orpah and Ruth is that Orpah was not willing to do a factory reset and do away with the default settings. When things changed, she couldn’t handle but went back to her factory. On the other hand, Ruth was willing to do a factory reset, drop and erase everything she identified with and become entirely a different person. She wanted to be customized by Naomi. She said:
wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people; And your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried.
This what it means to be a Christian. Christianity is not about merging the old and the new. Following Christ means deleting and erasing all the settings that your culture set into you. It is dropping all your academic theories and scientific facts and believing the word of God. Christianity is about dropping that company of people who quench the Spirit in your life. Christianity is about erasing all the former religious philosophies and becoming a new creature.
Some time back, one of my young brothers had issues with his smart phone and he asked me to fix it. I looked at it and the only advice I gave him was to format the phone and reset it. But before we did that, we had to first save all the content that he wanted on the computer. We did this because we knew what we were about to do. We were going to reset the entire phone and that meant erasing all the content on the phone.
Just like me and my brother, some people format their lives as they join Christianity. However, they tend to perform the ritual of saving those things they don’t want to lose and after they take on Jesus, they re-install the old stuff. Jesus warned all who want to follow him in these words:
Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it-(Luke 14:25-28).
Jesus is not calling us here to hate our relatives but rather, he is calling us to erase and suspend everything and everyone contrary to Jesus’ gospel. This is what Ruth did. She left everything behind and started afresh. She could not install new settings over existing old ones. You and I need to understand that wherever there is to be a construction, we must deconstruct the existing structure. It is not construction when we build one building over the other, it is instead, renovation.
The Gospel of Jesus is evolutional in nature and does not call us to rehabilitate the old but rather to break it down. We must learn from technology, a new smartphone must be customized so as to serve the interests of the new owner. Sometimes you have to lose the inbuilt apps in order to install new ones. Ladies and gentlemen, there is a cost and that cost could be your family and friends. Faith is a very exclusive business, you cannot eat your cake and have it. It is a business of identity and there must be a paradigm shift or at least an incremental one just as that Ruth took. Orpah could not afford and she withdrew from Naomi,
Faith is a very exclusive business, you cannot eat your cake and have it. It is a business of identity and there must be a paradigm shift or at least an incremental one just as that Ruth took. Orpah could not afford and she withdrew from Naomi. However, Ruth was willing to do away with the default settings and install new Jewish settings and that is how she ended up having a book named after her.
The truth is, you will never make a difference if you are still operating on default settings. Stop being like everyone else, and quit being user-friendly and upgrade to particular high-tech systems.
Always remember you were created by God not made by any other manufacturer, break the walls, uninstall all the poor settings and have a renewed mind. Someone said:
“In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them”
Listen to me my friend; You do not have to have a MINDSET, all you need is a free-mind that is not permanently set.
God Bless you; I invoke TRUTH, REASON, and FAITH
Am Pr. I.T.WHITE
The Gospel Hawker
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24) 