iCons, iDols, and iPhones

Today was one of those rare days when I woke up way before the alarm was supposed to go off. Typically, I roll over and go back to sleep. Yes, I’m one of those people who would rather grab a few more minutes - or, in this case, another couple of hours. I am not a morning person. But I couldn’t get back to sleep. I guess with all of our scheduled Ash Wednesday services and other things filling in this day’s calendar, my mind immediately started sorting through all the things I needed to do.

At noon, we had a wonderful service with our neighbors across the street at St. John’s UMC. Then, as is our custom, all of us leading worship went to lunch together afterwards (this was not our day to fast from Dos Salsas). I so enjoy these times when we can fellowship together as we rarely have (or make) time to get together. Filled with yummy Mexican food, I was dreaming of a brief siesta...but, alas, no time for it.

Afterwards, I spent two hours in a meeting before leading my Wednesday afternoon bible study. I will admit that, at this point, I was starting to notice the early morning start, the full stomach, and was dragging. In my study, we are working our way through the book of Jeremiah. We read/listen then discuss and have made good progress through the first half of the book.

But my tired must have caught up with me. The prophet Jeremiah has spent at least the first 28 chapters speaking out against the idolatry of the people and alerting them to their fate for having chosen other gods to worship, for putting other things before God in their lives. It hasn’t been uplifting reading. Not much of what we’ve read would find its way onto an inspirational plaque to hang in your home or office. Obviously, Jeremiah was not aware of the power of positive thinking.

In our conversation today, we acknowledged a similarity between the expectations of the people as they lived in exile and the intent behind our observance of Lent. Both were/are opportunities for us to return to God, to let go of the things we have placed between ourselves and God. And here’s where my tiredness caught up with me…in the middle of this discussion, one participant said we need to let go of our icons, our idols. I thought he said let go of our iphones.  I took just a few minutes talking about our phones before someone corrected me. Humbling, really humbling.

So, I’m pondering. I can come up with many valid reasons why turning off my phone for 40 days would be a bad idea. For one thing, I don’t have a landline and my mother would have no other way of reaching me (she does not get online, so no email or social media). For another, it would make it difficult for church members or our office to be in contact with me when I’m away from the office. Oh, the rationale could go on and on…

It does have me thinking though. I’ll confess that I’m more than a little hesitant to look too closely at the myriad things that I turn to throughout the day that may actually turn out to be obstacles in my relationship with God. So, I’ll sleep on it. With the alarm on my iphone set…