DOES GOD TEXT?

I keep my iPhone at my fingertips through most of my waking hours, and it’s near me through the night as well. I leave it on the sink top while I’m in the shower. I put it on the car charger while I’m driving. It’s on the couch next to me while we Netflix in the living room. It comes to the dinner table too often and has replaced the bathroom newspaper, too. It’s become a part of me. How did I ever live without it? Thirty years ago, when phones were stuck to the kitchen wall, I never imagined getting this connected to a device, my primary frame of reference being the handheld futuristic communicators that Captain Kirk and his crew carried with them whenever they were beamed off the Enterprise. Who ever thought that communicators would materialize for real? I’m imagining pesky tribbles and the boulder-throwing Gorn right now, and I’m kinda glad nothing else from Star Trek worked its way into present day reality.

I use my communicator to stay connected too, but not to the mother ship. Instead it handles dozens of tasks all day long, maybe even hundreds. I keep lists of appointments and contacts. I take pictures and post them to social media. I play Words with Friends so I can keep up my faraway friendships. I check my never-deleted email. I google things. I read books on the Kindle app and I am perpetually reading the Bible as the YouVersion app bookmarks my place. More than anything, though, I have the phone in my hand so that I can stay connected through text. All day and night I keep in touch with my children, my parents, and friends by texting. Doesn’t everybody?

The generation behind us is even catching on. I have aunts and uncles in their 70’s and 80’s who send me all-caps texts. It’s cute, and it’s a start. My parents have their own iPhones, and they carry them at all times, too. Sometimes they seem mesmerized by my lightning-fast texting skills. (Am I boasting?) It’s certainly the faster way to communicate. The younger generation is even faster than I am, showing off how they can navigate through functions I didn’t even know existed. That means that my kids aren’t impressed at all by my speedy iPhone use….mostly because my snapchats aren’t as creative as theirs are.  “Mom.  Stop using snapchat filters. You’re embarrassing me.” I do it anyway.

And I don’t use the phone for talking like I used to do. It’s not the same with a cell phone. Cell phones generate so much of their own heat on the ear that it bugs me, and they aren’t comfortable in the crook of my neck like the big cordless phones or wall phones used to be. Making calls has become a bother.  Switching to texting changes the communication game giving me less reason to dial a phone number. Most communication can be done without voice to voice contact. Texting has simplified everything. My pharmacy sends texts now for refill reminders or for pick-up times. Some of my bills send updates by text. Coupons come by text. Peapod even sends me delivery texts to make sure I’m poised and ready when the driver walks in with the grocery bags. 

So, having streamlined most of the communication needs in my life to include texting, it’s no wonder that today I just feel like texting God. Wouldn’t that be GREAT?! I figure He must be busy, too. A lot of people are praying and forever asking for direction. Must be a lot of work to keep it all straight. (You remember that scene from Bruce Almighty?) Just to make things easier on God, I really feel like thumbing him a speedy text message and setting my phone down. I could wait for the vibrating notification to sound off and slide my finger across the smooth glass to hear from God. Easy. No guessing. No missed messages.  No misunderstanding. Quick. Simple. Question. Answer. Done. But, no.

Similarly to how the Pastor of our church is still flip-phoning it and rejecting the smart phone trend, God doesn’t work like that.

Or does He?

I pray as two-way communication. I speak to God and I try to listen for answers. God is so cool. If you haven’t tried it, trust me. It’s real. Take a moment and talk to God and do your very best to stay quiet until you hear back. At first, you may think the answers are just your own thoughts, but with practice people learn to tell the difference between what’s God and what isn’t.

So, what did God say to me last? I was weeping to Him and praying alone one morning a few weeks ago asking Him what I’m supposed to do. I’ve been very isolated because of this illness. I can drive, so I take myself in my Jeep to the water or to drive-through Dairy Barn runs for a cup of tea, (no sugar) but I can’t get out to visit anywhere unless someone takes me in the wheelchair. That’s hard on me. I’m social. My iPhone helps a lot to keep me connected, but it’s rough to not see the faces of friends regularly. God heard me say all of this. He heard me asking what I should do about it. His answer was so simple. I felt the answer in my spirit. “Just spend time with Me.”  

So, I’ve been spending time with God a lot more lately. I’m blessed to feel more clarity and to be able to pray for longer stretches of time. I’m reading the Bible much more than usual, zipping through Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon and now into Isaiah: the wisdom books of the Bible. How perfect. Who doesn’t need wisdom? 

Spending time with God and His Word is absolutely helping me hear His answers. He may have written His text thousands of years before I posed the questions, but I’m just getting the notifications now. So, maybe God does text. Very cool.

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