In Sync

This Christmas, my father gifted me his iPod. He had recently acquired an iPhone, and when I expressed that my iPod Nano was not working properly, he graciously offered me the use of his iPod Touch. He made sure I knew that all of his music was on his iPhone, so I didn’t need to worry about erasing any of his songs to make room for mine.
I took the iPod home, but I wasn’t able to sync it to my computer until I went into work a few days later. You see, my iTunes account is on my office computer, and it doesn’t pay to try to sync an iPod to more than one computer, because it just doesn’t work. So instead of syncing to my home computer, I had to wait until I had access to my entire music library. I plugged in the iPod and was met with the disheartening message to the effect of: “the iPod is unable to sync with this user’s library.”
Now, I had a feeling something like this would happen. Not only is it difficult to sync with two different computers, but it is also nearly impossible to sync two separate music libraries to one iPod. My father’s account and my account were not compatible, and in order to make the iPod functional for my use, I had to erase everything on the device and start over. In a matter of moments, all of his music was erased from the iPod, and I was able to add my songs to the now empty device.
I was kind of sad that I couldn’t keep my father’s songs on the iPod. I liked his music, and wished I could have maintained his library, but it was not to be. You see, the Apple Corporation is quite the stickler for keeping everything to one account and one device. Sure, you can sync your own library to any device or computer of your choice, but when you start to bring in unknown devices or other libraries, there’s no way an iPod or iPhone will ever sync correctly.
I have found this concept to be true in my life with Christ as well. I have spent a great deal of time in the past few weeks thinking about my personal relationship with Him as it relates to my work and social life. In conversations with other people within my circles of friends and co-workers, I have come to realize that maybe some things just aren’t syncing up. I may not be making choices that are obvious to the average observer, but inside my heart, I know this to be true.
At a recent Bible Study, our facilitator asked us to share about the condition of our hearts. She then proceeded to talk about her prayer for herself personally and for our church— that we would stop just talking the talk and actually walking the walk. I heard what she was saying. Far too often, we as Christians (and me in particular), live out our lives with the joy of Christ in our hearts, but yet, we don’t truly share it with others. We don’t seek out the lost, the hurting, those who may possess a different lifestyle. We don’t truly get into the hearts of those outside our door. We say we’re Christians, but we don’t often take the leap to link our hearts with theirs.
Why are we so afraid to reach out? Is it because we think our friends and family will think us crazy? Do we worry about personal sacrifices we will have to make to unite our lives with that of another? Do we think that the lack of faith in a person’s life will be reflected on us and our good reputation will be at stake? Do we walk around with a chip on our shoulder thinking, “Well, at least I don’t sin like they do; their issues are way beyond my ability to help. Besides, someone else can help them; I’m not called to that.”
“That,” my friends, is the very thing God has called each one of us to do. “That” thing or person may look different to each of us, but we are not meant to sit by and watch life happen around us. For if we don’t reach out, the lost and hurting may reach out to some other source, and instead of syncing up to Christ, they may reach for substances or practices that will be harmful instead of eternal.
Now, I’m certainly preaching to myself here. Often, I feel as if I’m far from what God intends me to be. I am that girl who offers up worship on autopilot, says I’ll pray for someone but puts it off until later, stops to only read a chapter or two of Scripture when I should be absorbing more, neglecting to call that one person that God has placed on my heart because I’ll hopefully have more time later… I have lived out my days in apathy, thinking that I’ll have more time and energy to deal with it later… days when synching my computer to my iPod has more importance than syncing souls up with the heart of God.
This heart is seeking for more purpose and less apathy… more walk and less talk… How about you?