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Good morning.

The appeal of a Shropshire GP on The World At One yesterday was heartfelt. Whether you’re at a surgery, airport or supermarket, she said, ‘please be kind to whoever is trying to deal with this, because we don’t want it and are really as frustrated as you are. Just try to be patient and kind, because we’re all having a bad day.’

Crashing IT systems and how to handle them might be mysteries to most of us, but we all know what it’s like to have a really bad day when it’s not our fault at all. With flights cancelled around the world, rail schedules disrupted, screens playing up in offices, surgeries, pharmacies, schools, shops, a surge of kindness and patience could work wonders.

At very least, it might help us ponder how much tougher it is in the dystopian chaos of a war zone where internet failure cuts you off from your children, advice on where to get food, replenish medicines, avoid bombs.

It might also set us thinking about something we can tend to take for granted – what it means to live in such an interconnected world with everyday technology which would have left our grandparents gasping in astonishment. Through a screen in our living room or carried in our pocket, we can study, monitor our health, speak to family and friends in any continent – and watch their responses. We can keep up with the news, take part in campaigns, cheer our team, watch the latest films.

For Christians, the imagination which produces all this expresses a gift of the creator. It’s one aspect of our understanding of God as Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit - whose intention from the very beginning has been that human beings should live in relationship with one another, and with the God who’s given them life and sustains that life.

As with everything else which helps to form us, choices we make with our technology can help to shape who we become. They can release creative imagination and enable us to focus on the needs of others rather than our own, reflecting the teaching and example of Jesus. Or they can distort our understanding of the world, feed our prejudices, depress us profoundly with feelings of helplessness – not least on a day like yesterday with its technical traumas. They can isolate us from healthy contact with other people, drive us in on ourselves. That's never what we’re meant for.

The GP coping with complaints from people unhappy with the computer failure had it right, I think: ‘Just try to be patient and kind, because we’re all having a bad day.’

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