Cell Phone Theology

So I got a new smart phone a week or so ago.  It seems the Froyo update fried my Fender 3g (below right) phone so the good people at T-mobile hooked me up with a Samsung Vibrant (left) phone.  There were some interesting moments as I changed from one phone to the other.  And several of those occurrences got me thinking about my faith.  It’s funny to me how God does that… takes common things and teaches lessons from them.  He called them parables in scripture, but they still happen today.  So here is the heavenly lesson I learned from my cellphone experience:  The gifts that God gives each of us were given for a reason and we maximize our “Kingdom Impact” when we line up our “lives” with the gifts and graces that he has equipped us with, not what we WISH we had.

I was pumped about getting the latest update for the Android system – The Froyo OS – for my phone.  Who wants to be using older software while other folks have the better stuff and are much more productive than I (okay, so that had better games and apps). So when I got my text notifying me that my download of the new OS was ready, I quickly began the upload, like a kid opening gifts at Christmas.  I was stoked about the great new world of cell phone efficiency that awaited me on the FROYO SIDE.  The excitement ended about 10 minutes after the download completed.  My phone began to function differently alright….it was slower, and the operations that took little or no effort before the download, now took much more effort.  I felt cheated, like I had missed out.  To make a long story short, I had to call T-mobile, do a Factory reset on the old phone and when it still didn’t respond well

they sent me the new Vibrant.  Now I think we as Christians often face a similar situation.  We see other Christians doing what we believe to be “GREAT” things for God and we get a little jealous even of their abilities and gifts and we want to be like them…successful, noticed, in the limelight, etc.  So we begin to try and “do” the things we see them doing.  However, more often than not, we wind up frustrated because those things the other folks do so well, we struggle with.  I believe that is simply because God has given each of us gifts and talents that we are to use to allow his “kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven”.  But when we choose to ignore those gifts and talents, it can lead to frustration and anger.  The solution – spend some time discovering what God has created you to do, then go and do it with all the zeal, passion, and excitement you can.  And watch what happens when you line up your gifts with your passion for God.  Even if you are using some old equipment!

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