Yesterday I received my new cell phone in the mail. I opened the box and eagerly pulled out the contents. There it was. My beautiful new gadget with its handy little slide-out keyboard, a multitude of tiny little buttons, and a slick new screen.
I got my old cell phone and took out my loaded SIM card (I looked it up…it stands for Subscriber Identity Module) and reloaded it into my new phone. Then I plugged my new phone into the wall so it could get some juice into the rechargeable battery. After it had some time to get revved up, I unplugged it and turned it on. That was about as far as I got.
The phone was an unsolvable puzzle to me. In no way did it resemble my old phone. I had no luck navigating the touch screen, and sliding out the keypad didn’t help at all. I called my teenage son Dylan into the room to see if he could help. (Why are teenagers just so much better with this stuff?) His first words: “All of your stored numbers are gone.”
WHAT??? The representative I had talked to before making my purchase had assured me that all of the numbers would be there when I got my new phone and transferred my SIM card. I asked Dylan if he could tell me how to store new numbers; no, he had no idea how to program this new phone, it was so different from his cell phone. Did he know how to change the ring tone so it would be different from my husband’s phone? Again, no. My frustration built steadily as my efforts to decipher the new phone led nowhere.
So this afternoon, I’m taking my new phone up to the local outlet for our wireless provider and I’m going to have one of the nice salespeople there show me how to use my cell phone. I’m going to ask them my questions and let them show me the map of this new terrain. They know this phone. It came from them.
At some point last night, it occurred to me how very much this situation reflected how we often deal with new circumstances in our lives. We find ourselves in new or difficult settings, in positions we’ve not dealt with before, in trials that may eventually destroy our foundations. And we panic.
So we go to our most convenient problem-solvers. We ask around for advice. We read books. We take classes, attend seminars, hire mentors, do everything within our own power to seek a solution.
Only when we realize that none of these sources provide answers do we finally turn to the one who made us. The one who created life itself. The one to whom we can give all of our confusing, perplexing, confounding problems and trust that He will unravel the knots of life and make straight our paths. We finally come to God and put these matters in His hands and allow Him to have control. And then the answers come and the way is made clear.
So I’m taking my cell phone to the retail store to get some answers. And then I’ll program in my son’s cell phone number and give him a call.
“Make me know Thy ways, O Lord;
Teach me Thy paths,
Lead me in Thy truth and teach me,
For Thou art the God of my salvation;
For Thee I wait all the day.”
(Psalm 25:4-5)
