Prayer for the Educational CIO

I found myself actually saying a variation of this prayer at a long traffic light one morning this week.

Dear God,

All my life I wish to serve You, and in my current job, I serve You by serving other people. Help me remember that.

Help me remember many things, Lord:

--That not everyone I talk to spends 40 hours a week buried in technology, and that many of them don't know a gigabyte from a kilobyte from a dogbite. Help me to not talk over their heads.

--That many people I work with are AFRAID of technology, and if I appear rushed or dismissive to these people, or if I seem to judge them for not being proficient in technology, they may give up and become even LESS inclined to use technology.

--That I shouldn't yell at this person for not knowing that you can turn off a computer by holding the power button in and counting to ten.

--That no piece of technology is worth more than a human being, especially the human being who is seeking my help right now.

--That though I may have fifty things more pressing to the school district than the issue that this person is telling me about,  their problem isn't unimportant to THEM, and that I shouldn't sound dismissive to them.

--That my job is NOT to tinker with technology all day. My job is to help others to help students to learn, and if I'm not doing that, if I can't trace what I'm doing somehow back to that simple idea, I'm not doing my job.

--That the guy who couldn't get an email attachment to open so he tried to reinstall Windows and in the process corrupted his computer, was NOT trying to sabotage my day. He was TRYING to help, and he probably wants to be thanked.

--That though I may already have been told 17 times that email isn't working, this is the first time THIS person has told me, and they're not just telling me again to tick me off.

--That no matter how many times they're instructed otherwise, people will open unknown attachments and get viruses, and people will purchase technology without checking with me to see if their computer can run it or our network is compatible with it, and people will try to send emails about their yard sale to every student and staff member in the district, and people will email me instead of creating a work order, and then they'll create a work order that they can't get their solitaire program to work. People are dumb, God, and give me the patience and the grace to say that to You and not to them.

Help me to remember these things, God, so that I can do my job well, and so that I can help everyone else do their job.

But it's not just they that need help, God. I need help, too, so I ask these things of you:

--If there's a virus out there, help my machines to be patched.

--If there's a thunderstorm coming, help it to not knock out the power and in the process, fry some server.

--If I have important drives whose back ups are corrupt, help the drives to not fail.

--If I have an important report or technology plan or grant proposal or whatever else due, help me finish it on time.

--If I have to recommend a particular piece of technology for purchase, help it to not break six days after it arrives.

And finally, God, help me to remember that in the grand scheme of things, my job really, honestly, truly is not all that important. When I'm dead and gone, people will not remember how well I kept the network running, or how quickly I came and fixed their computers. People will remember how I treated other people, and what kind of person I was.

Help me, God, to be the kind of person that I'll want to be remembered as...