The Pastor’s Piece, Pastor Kevin Cernek, FCFI Chaplain

FCFI
July 13, 2025

When I was kid, my mom had a manual typewriter which she would use to type letters and documents for dad. I was always amazed watching that typewriter work. Mom could type without looking at the keys and the arms inside the machine would pop up and leave the letters on the paper. When the bell dinged, she would hit the return arm that was moving across the page, the carriage would return to the left margin while the paper simultaneously advanced, and she would just keep on typing without ever looking. It was fascinating. Every now and then she’d hit two keys at once and jam everything up, but it only took a couple of seconds to fix and then she was back on the page again.

I always wanted to learn to type like that, so the first chance I had in high school I took typing as an elective. That class was an education in itself. One student in particular, apparently didn’t want to be there and every day he gave the teacher a hard time. I’m pretty sure it was her first year teaching, and she did not know how to handle class discipline and order. This guy sat right next to me and was quite disruptive and made everything for everybody more difficult. One day while harassing the teacher, he called her “an old heifer.” She was standing right in front of his desk at the time and she hauled off and took a full swing and slapped him right across the face. She was left-handed and I was sitting on his right side so I saw the whole thing in full color. She then marched him out of the room and straight to the principal’s office. The next day, and every day after that, his behavior in that class was impeccable.

While taking the class, I learned to type really fast – at least fast enough to get an “A” in the course – 65 words per minute with two or fewer errors on an electric typewriter. That is one skill God knew I needed to develop because today, I tend to spend more than a little time each week typing up notes for sermons, Bible studies, newsletters, prayer requests and whatever. I can no longer type 65 words per minute, (actually, I’ve only done that once in my life, and that was on the final exam in the class), but with auto-correct I can get a lot done in a little time.

The other day as I typed away, the letter “e” quit working. I blew the keyboard off with a can of compressed air and tapped the key a few times with no success – it still didn’t work. On another device, I checked on the Internet on “what to do when the letter “e” quits working on your keyboard.” In that little search, I found out that the letter “e” is the most-often used key on the keyboard. I guess there’s a price to pay when you’re the favorite, and in this case, apparently, it was being overworked. In order to get the key working, “they” told me to reboot the machine. I did that, and it worked – for a while. However, a day or so later, it quit again. But this time with a little tapping I could get it to make contact. So I did that a few times. But when it quit again, I took a tiny screwdriver and popped the cover off to clean it out in hopes that it would make better contact. I found out, you’re not supposed to do that. Those letter-covers are not meant to come off. That might explain why it took more than a little prying to break it loose. Now I just have a stub to hit where the letter “e” used to be. Funny thing is though – at first, having to hit a stub instead of a square key totally threw me off. I had to stop typing every time and fix the word. Progress was very slow. Very, very slow. But now, after a few days, my brain has adapted to the irregularity, and having that key distorted doesn’t slow me down one bit. It’s remarkable how the brain adjusts, and over time, the body catches up. “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made,” (Psalms 139:14).

On another note not related, I have a funny VBS story, also from another era of time. One summer a few years ago, a grandmother faithfully brought a group of her grandchildren – and some neighbor kids – to our VBS every morning. The grands lived in a suburb of Chicago, and chose the week of our VBS to stay with grandma. I don’t know who she was or even if she is still alive today. She had a tough exterior and didn’t sugarcoat things with her grandkids, but they adored her anyway. One morning she pulled in the parking lot the same time I did. I parked and strolled over to say hi. After a swarm of kids tumbled out of her car, she casually opened the trunk, and sure enough, two of the grandkids climbed out like it was just another seat. She saw me and shrugged and unapologetically said: “They wanted to come and I told them I only had room in the trunk. They didn’t care. So here they are.” That kind of joy and chaos often surrounds God’s work in families and in churches. Paul said to Timothy: “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also,” (2 Timothy 1:5).

I have a few other stories too – but I’ll save them for another time …

(Kevin Cernek is Lead Pastor of Martintown Community Church in Martintown, Wisconsin).