First phone call at fourteen

Korr's a funny old place in some ways. Many people here have mobile phones, but there's never been any mobile reception. Never. Still, people keep charging up their phones, playing music on their phones, using the alarms on their phones, making the most of the torches on the end of their phones. But no one makes any mobile phone calls in Korr. Ever.

I know what you're thinking - sounds like heaven. No mobile phones = no rude interruptions. No people texting under the table. No people randomly giggling to themselves. Proper conversations. No ridiculous ring tones going off in the meeting? Bliss.

But if you have an emergency in Korr, you have to walk to get help. No mobile phone reception. Car breaks down in the middle of nowhere? Walk. Want to text a friend to see if you can meet? Walk. (Keeps you fit, I guess).

But this week, life has changed. Network is here. You can be connected. The wait is over. Suddenly the phone can be used (wait for it) AS A PHONE. Yes, actually talking to people using your phone. Even casually checking Facebook.

 

 

On my way home from school I was called over to a house: "We have network." It was local kids who had never seen a real phone in action. (Teenagers who had never seen a phone call before). Someone from Nairobi was speaking, somehow, through this device. Remarkable, when you've grown up and never seen it before.

 

All this talk of connecting got me thinking. What use is a phone if it is not actually used as a phone? Yes, you can do lots with it, but you have moved far away from the original point of a phone.

 

Bit like humans really. Made to connect with our Maker, to live for Him, to know Him and bring glory to Him. But we have moved so far away from that original purpose. Yes, we can do lots of clever things, but going back to basics, why are we actually here?

 

Joy erupted this week as phones were used in a way that goes all the way back to their original design.  

 

And our original design? To know God. To have a relationship with God. In the words of Jesus:

 

"Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17v3)

 

How do we connect with God? In John 1 it tells us:

 

¹² But to all who believed him (i.e. believed in Jesus) and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.

For a fuller explanation, try this link:

http://www.gotquestions.org/knowing-God.html

Thanks