I picked up the charger that came in the box and plugged it into the phone. Then I waited for it to charge.
I checked back later and noticed that the battery had gone down to 11%. This charger was obviously broken. I bought more chargers, one after another, and tried them too. My phone continued to lose battery life. It was finally down to 3% when I took it, and the chargers, into the Apple store. The Apple expert finally pointed out that although I was connecting the charging cord to the phone, I was not completing the circuit by connecting the other end to the wall.
Ohhh! Okay. That makes sense. So I went home with my phone at 2%, plugged the charger into it and then plugged the other end of the charger into the wall.
6 minutes later, I checked on it and was pleased to see that it was charging successfully. 10 minutes later, I unplugged my phone to answer a call. Imagine my frustration when my phone died on me halfway into my conversation! I turned back to the charger with a scowl on my face. "I already plugged you into my phone AND the wall and you still didn't charge my phone?!"
I plugged it in again. I waited at least 10 minutes before unplugging it to work on my grocery list. The battery STILL wasn't fully charged.
Then I played a game of Sudoku and checked the football playoff scores. (Yeah, now you know I'm making this stuff up.) I took a few pictures of my kids and then set my phone down so it could rest.
When I picked it up again, the battery was nearly dead. Again! Ugh! The phone seemed so attached to it's charger, it was ridiculous! I plugged it back in again. Then I received another call and then texted a few friends. Then it was nearly dead again! This was an exhausting task. It seemed that my phone would NEVER get fully charged. What a lousy method of charging.
I went back to the Apple store and let them know that their charging system was faulty. I told them that I had lost faith in the ability of these chargers to bring my phone to a 100% charge. I handed the clerk all the chargers and demanded a full refund. They complied with my demands and I walked away with a pocket full of money and nearly dead phone.
When I got home I set my phone on the counter and watched the battery life fade until it was completely dead. I was frustrated beyond measure and decided that iPhones were not as grand as everyone made them out to be. Maybe they worked for others, but they didn't work for me.
Every morning, I walked past my dead iPhone and scowled at it. "Worthless, useless, piece of junk," I grumbled.
A few weeks later, a dear friend came to visit. She took off her coat, greeted me with a hug and said she'd missed me since she couldn't call or text me any more. I just shrugged and pointed to the dead phone on my counter. "It's not my fault," I said. "This phone just doesn't seem to want to work for me." I went on to heat some water for our tea and she said, "Do you mind if I charge my phone while we chat? It's only half full but I like to make sure it's fully charged for my drive home."
She pulled out a charger that looked identical to the ones I had returned. "Oh, those don't work, " I pointed out to her. She just smiled and plugged her phone in. She turned the sound off on her phone and sat down to visit with me.
We chatted for at least an hour or more, catching up on life and events. She got up to get some more tea and picked up her iPhone. "Oh good, 100% charged," she said.
"What? How is that possible?" I asked. "Those chargers never worked for me."
She offered to let me use her charger. I plugged it in and went back to sit down. I heard a text come through and I got up to check on it. She waited patiently for me. I unplugged the phone and sat back down on the couch to respond. By the time I had responded to some long overdue texts, my phone was dead again. "Ugh! See what I mean?" I griped. I got up and plugged it back in.
A few minutes later, I received a phone call and I answered it immediately. The phone died 2 minutes into my conversation. I plugged it back in.
We chatted about a few more things, then I remembered some things I needed to add to my grocery list on my phone. I unplugged it again and added my items. The phone was once again dying.
"I don't understand!" I said in exasperation. "There must be something wrong with this phone!"
My friend just looked at me and then responded quietly, "You're not letting it charge long enough. There's nothing wrong with your phone or the charger, you're just not giving it enough time. You're interrupting the process repeatedly and you are taxing the life of your battery without recharging it."
I just stared at the phone in my hands and couldn't realize how ridiculous I had been.
She laughed gently and continued, "Can you imagine what life would be like for us if we recharged our spiritual batteries like you recharge your phone? Wow!" She laughed again. "That would be a disaster!"
I laughed and nodded in agreement. And yet, I knew, as I looked at the world around me, that it was not a laughing matter at all. That kind of mentality was all around me. People going to church expecting that to be enough to recharge them. But that was as logical as the phone lying next to the outlet without being plugged in. In order to recharge our spirits, we need to actually make a connection with our Creator. I know that church helps facilitate that connection but church is not what drives the connection. The driving factor comes directly from my own heart. And that heart needs to find itself in love with the Creator. Others will have that daily 5-10 minute worship moment with God and that's good unless you're planning to depend heavily on God for something. If my phone were just going to sit on my counter all day without being used, that 5-10 minutes of charge could last all day. But when I tax the energy on the battery, I need a full charge, sometimes I even need to recharge it twice in one day, or three times.
That makes sense, yeah?
And yet, so many of us charge only a little bit and then get frustrated that it's not producing the results we are expecting or that we see in the lives of others. "I need God to give me strength but He just doesn't answer my prayers!" "I have sought God, again and again, but He has NEVER come through for me; I feel like He totally ignores me." "I called out to God, many times, here or there, but then when tragedy struck, He was nowhere to be seen!"
But He doesn't ignore us; we just can't hear the call come through from Him because our batteries are completely dead. When my phone dies, I will not receive calls, not because people aren't calling, but because nothing is coming through. That's not my phone's fault and it's certainly not the fault of the person trying to call me.
God is trying to call us; trying to make a connection with us and offer us the encouragement and hope and strength that we so desperately need. But a few minutes, a few prayers, that's not enough for some of the heartaches we are dealing with. Some of the smaller burdens in life? Yeah, that's enough. But for the bigger heartaches and suffering? We need more. More of Jesus. We need to be determined to stay connected to Him. We need to be committed to recharging ourselves for longer periods of time. We need that, otherwise we may not emotionally survive some of life's more painful moments.
I have a thing that I'm a little bit obsessive about. As soon as I get into my car, I set up my phone on its little magnetic docking station and then I plug it in. I unplug it when I get out of the car but then as soon as I get in, I plug it in again. I love to have my battery charged at full capacity whenever I can. I'm not making this up, either, I'm a little bit obsessive compulsive about that.
Now, I'm not excusing any kind of obsessive compulsive action, but I wouldn't mind being as compulsive with my spiritual walk as I am with my iPhone. Like, whenever I have a chance, standing in line, waiting at a stoplight, sitting down for a moment...if I could just sneak a little bit of Jesus into my day, how awesome would that be? A prayer, a whisper of a verse, a promise remembered, etc. It wouldn't be enough, of course. Because when I'm out and about and running errands, the truth is that my phone is off my charger more than it's on my charger in the car. The battery only stays relatively full if my phone started off full. I still need to let it charge, completely, once or twice a day. But those little added moments just to add to the charge already there, just to know that I'm at 100% as often as I can be. How cool.
Anyway, I know this made-up story is long and detailed, but it was important to me that I identify exactly how ridiculous our recharging system is sometimes.
So how about it? Have you recharged lately? Have I? Am I able to sit down and not allow the distractions of the world to pull me away from that moment of recharging? I wish I could. I only got interrupted 3 times during this blog so that's not too bad. (My kid, who should be sleeping, called out to me and wanted to know if I planned to plant watermelons in my future garden, a neighbor came by to help with my broken septic system, and then the cat did a smelly number in the litter box and I had to clean it). So that's not too bad. It's better than my other track records. Oh, and I sent out one text or two. Ugh. Okay. I can see it. I can see how many times I interrupt my moment. And just like the friend who visited, God just sits there waiting patiently for me to return me attention to Him. He doesn't get mean and say, "Um, excuuuse me. I didn't come visit you so you could interrupt our conversation constantly!" No. He just sits and waits. Smiles at me when I find myself in foolish situations and offers a helping hand even when I'm grumbling.
How can I not want to spend time with a Friend like that! Of course I do. And I will. I hope you will too, 'cause the iPhone works so much better when it's not dying all the time. And your spirit will work so much better, too, when it's not constantly dying because of a low battery.
So plug in, tune out the world, and tune into Jesus.
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
James 4:8
