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| Lead us not into temptation. Must........ resist...... the wondrous... beauty!!! |
But my ancient iPod isn't the only reason why I am not getting myself a new sleek iDevice. No, the main reason is because, well, I think God does not WANT me too....
Lately I've been hearing the message about waking up spiritually, specifically becoming more aware of God's voice and when He's speaking to you. I feel like I desperately need to grasp and understand the meaning of that message! Really though, all of us do, but sometimes the messages that are meant for everyone are the ones we ignore the most.
With our ears constantly clogged with music from earphones, our eyes on instant streaming movies from our mobile devices, and there being so many inescapable words and images flashed at us from virtually everywhere, it's no wonder so many of us are having a hard time hearing God. I may sound like someone from the 1800's right now, but if you really look at how digital we are, you have to be a little freaked out. It's not the technology in it of itself that's scary necessarily, but rather how involved and consumed humans are with it.
OK, back to me and the whole iPod thing...
Here is an interesting pattern that I was partially unaware of until after the death of my iPod. One day a couple months ago I felt like God was telling me to "unplug" myself from my iPod for a whole week in order to focus more on Him. I obeyed, and found that I was closer to Him than before! Even though it was wonderful, after that week was up, I felt like God wanted me to give up iPod time for longer. Being the human being that I am, I ignored Him and reattached myself to that thing immediately.
I always knew I was a music fanatic, even when I was very small I knew music. But plugging my iPod into my laptop and viewing how many times I had played songs off it was quite alarming. For example, I had listened to my favorite song nearly 2000 times, when I had purchased it just a few months ago... listening to that song ALONE was 5 and a half full days long... and that was only 1 song out of the other 600.
Simply put, and I confess publicly on the internet, I loved that square of plastic, metal, and wires more than my own Father and creator. Sure I didn't pray to it and I didn't have an intimate relationship with it, but I was with it more than I was with Him. I would use that thing for my own desires and pleasure rather than for His glory, which is possible, believe me, with the awesome free Bible apps and all... But I relied on it too much. I began to want it, to need it. I was addicted, and I had no clue what harm it was doing to me.
Wasting time is probably the most dangerous thing you can do yourself or anybody else because, literally, it is the easiest way to steal LIFE out of yourself. Our lives are determined by how much time is given to us. No one can ever know how many years they are going to spend here on earth, and when you die, THAT'S IT. No more time will be granted to you. Your life is gone when your time is up.
It's amazing how limited a human's knowledge is. We can know everything there is to know about the universe but know nothing of our souls, our time, and our hearts. Here is something for YOU to consider: what do you place higher than God? C'mon, we all do it. It could be technology, people, food, money, even habits; anything that is earthly. Think about that one thing and try a week long fast like I did and see if your relationship with God has improved at all. If it has, perhaps God has been calling you to give a little more, and all this time you didn't even notice.
For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
It IS scary. People are putting their wallets, their journals, their correspondance, their ideas, their knowledge, basically their WHOLE LIVES into these little external boxes. And then eventually, they won't even be external. I'm sure sometime in the future all this stuff will be surgically implanted somehow... it's awful to think about. We aren't doing any of the work ourselves any more.
ReplyDeleteI've thought about if I could give up my iPod (like, for life, not just a fast). I'm sure I could definitely live without it. I still use several apps as tools, and it would be a little less convenient to NOT use them, but I could manage. I try to use my iPod only as a tool, but honestly sometimes I go to it out of boredom and then it starts eating away at me. I open random apps that I didn't need to and start tapping away. It's awful. I do the same thing with the internet. I'm so bored so I open a new tab and search something random on google. My response to boredom should be to GET OFF THE COMPUTER.
My iPod still works great and is a very useful tool, so I'm not going to get rid of it, but I should definitely try to curb my usage of it. I wish I could disable Safari! I hate browsing the internet from that little screen and I rarely need to anyway.
Whoops, I wrote you an essay again. Sorry about that!
This is definitely true. Electronic devices can be used for God's glory, but it's a very thin line and I think you have to be a really strong person to not let computers eat you up.
ReplyDeleteAnd I just got a Macbook Pro XD but I'm going to use it as a tool mostly, for writing, photoshop, school, etc. And I don't think it's wrong to occasionally watch movies and stuff for fun, but as you said, as long as you aren't addicted. But it's crazy how we do let little things become our god so easily.
Good post, good reminder :)