On Headphones, Cellphones, and Car Repairs

So I was sitting at the bus stop the other day and some random realizations came to me. If you've ever had to wait at a bus stop, especially for more than 20 minutes, you'll find that you have a lot of time to think about random stuff. Why was I waiting for a bus when I have a car to get me around everywhere? Well, my car was sick. I had just dropped it off at my mechanic's and was forced to wait for a bus to take me home.

Car Repairs. Since we're on the topic of my car, let me share how amazing God is. A couple days ago my car started randomly stalling out. Twice it cut off completely on me while I was at a stoplight. This sent me into a panic. My first reaction: "Lord I don't have money for this!" This would be my theme for the rest of the repairs experience. So since I didn't have much cash (actually that's not true, I did just get paid but I had other plans for that money and apparently my plans didn't match up with the Lord's) I told the Lord that the car was His and that it was up to Him to provide the money or miracle that would fix the car, keeping in mind that I did want to tithe to Him out of this paycheck that I'd just received. I thought I was prepared for any answer He would give to this somewhat cheeky prayer but I was still surprised when the answer finally came. It turned out that the repairs were fairly minor; it just took some digging around to find the problem. I actually received my car back the same day and the cost was exactly enough take my whole paycheck except the amount that I wanted to give as a tithe. Before you freak out about how expensive the repair was keep in mind that I work part-time at Starbucks and this last paycheck I received was the smallest I've received in months. The repair wasn't really that much at all. But the cool thing is that I can still tithe. I think the Lord is waiting to see if I'll actually stay faithful to Him about that money that I've set aside for Him. He's promised me that He'll provide for all my needs and the money is ultimately His anyway so I'll definitely give it back to Him.

Alright, back to bus stop musings.

Cellphones. I've decided that cellphones are a great way for people to disconnect with each other. I knew this anyway, but at the bus stop I had a longer time to dwell on this. Between texting, Internet surfing , playing games, watching videos, etc, we as humans have a variety of excuses to avoid interacting with others around us. And they all can be carried in the palm of your hand. Notice I didn't include talking on the phone because in that situation you are actually connecting with someone. How often do we pull out our phones at a restaurant to "check" our email when we're not sure of what to talk about with the person across the table or even next to us. Even leaving the cellphone on the table during the whole meal sends a subconscious message that says, "I'm cool with talking with you right now but the next text that comes in is way more important than our conversation." Ouch! Or how about when we find ourselves in a new situation like at a get together where most of the people are new faces to us? It's too uncomfortable to actually start a conversation with someone new so we sit down, pull out our phone, and begin texting or surfing the net to look busy. Unfortunately this type of behavior has two negative results: 1) we don't develop the skill of connecting with new people so that it becomes easier with each new situation 2) that new person across the room who thought about saying "hi" to you decides not to because you look "preoccupied." Don't get me wrong. I love cellphones and all that you can do on them but it's really sad to observe this behavior EVERYWHERE. A device that claims to connect people all over the world is slowly disconnecting people in the same room.

Headphones. Ok. Lest you think I'm trying to act like I don't have this problem, let me tell you about my device of disconnection. My Mp3 player. I love music. I love listening to it everywhere I go. And I love consciously ignoring the people around me by throwing on my headphones. I do it at home, on my breaks at my job, when I'm feeling unsocial at church, and at the bus stop. Now I'm not saying that every time I listen to my headphones I'm trying to disconnect with the world around me. I do just LOVE listening to music. Just as those on their cellphones aren't always trying to escape interacting with the people around them; they're actually just having fun playing around on their phones. But, I know the times when I'm consciously ignoring others in favor of my music. God has really begun to convict me about doing this. I've had to fight the urge to put on my headphones when I'm sitting around at a Praise Team practice waiting for the instruments to finish their section of practice. The Lord is showing me that when I make the decision to keep the headphones off and talk with the other vocalists around me I can have some good conversations. Even when I'm on my break at work, God is showing me that when a coworker comes into the back and wants to talk I should not be hesitant to take off the headphones and just talk.

Which leads me to the bus stop. Often no one wants to talk at a bus stop so we all pull out our cellphones or our headphones and get absorbed in our own world. Well, I was doing this very thing when a older lady walked up to me with a question about the bus. I pulled one earbud out of my ear to listen to her and then answer her question. See, I didn't fully want to give up my means of ignoring her and the rest of the world. Well, she had other questions so I turned off my player completely and engaged in the conversation. When all questions were answered I immediately put on the headphones again and turned away from her. A few minutes later I had this nagging feeling that I should talk to her some more instead of listening to my music. I fought to ignore this nagging and it temporarily worked. (This was about the time all my musings about cellphones and headphones popped up.) I was really struggling with the issue of my ignoring her when finally I snatched off my headphones and asked her where she was headed. Our conversation lead to her discovering that the bus was going to come too late for her to make the class she was trying to get to. In the end she decided to head back home.

Moral of the Story: Sometimes it is better to turn off the headphones, put away the phone, and just be a friendly person to a world that so desperately needs a little kindness.

Check out this song by Jars of Clay that captures a little of this theme.