I've recently started to bump up against the capacity limits of my smartphone. I try to download an audiobook or a show, and I?m sternly admonished that I have no more space available. Fortunately, I?m informed that I can do something about this. I?m quickly offered the opportunity to manage my storage. I?m given the chance to review some large attachments to the texts and emails I've sent or received and to trash them, thereby freeing up some space. I?m then encouraged to delete or offload some of my seldomly used apps. Usually, I can find a few of those just sitting dormant on my screen and clear up some more room. It's a good feeling to flip back to the ?storage? screen to see I've opened up more of my phone's ?brain? to receive some new things. And, I know there's always the option of purchasing more storage to expand its ability to hold even more stuff in the future.
Maybe you've experienced the same recurring episode of hitting the upward limit of your smartphone's capacity, and maybe there's a lesson in this for all of us.
You've no doubt read about the most recent series of UFO sighting announcements that have been in the news. Over a month has passed since we were widely informed that our government has no explanation for the forty-foot white ?Tic-Tac? like flying objects that were spotted repeatedly over the Pacific Ocean by US Navy pilots in 2004. Travelling at incredible speeds, defying gravity, the Tic-Tacs moved unlike anything ever encountered. One of the aviators, Chad Underwood, said this about them:
Aircraft? whether they?re manned or unmanned? still have to obey the laws of physics. They have to have some source of lift, some source of propulsion. The Tic-Tac was not doing that. It was going from like 50,000 feet to, you know, a hundred feet in like seconds, which is not possible.
Experts who reviewed the footage considered it authentic and most (though not all) concluded the Tic-Tacs weren't birds, optical anomalies, trick shadows, weather events, or the artifacts of radar quirks or camera glitches. Further, those studying the matter found there was no basis for concluding they involved new aircraft technologies developed by our geopolitical rivals or our own government. So what were they?
It's all pretty weird, right? But as weird as the story was, I sensed my own reaction to the story was even weirder. After reading about the Tic-Tacs and watching several of the videos, I thought huh, how about that, then went back to my day. That is to say, my mind took a story that might represent the most remarkable thing?well, ever--and dropped it into a file somewhere deep in my brain without a whole lot more thought about it. Even if the Tic-Tacs aren't some extraterrestrial object, the potential implications of the events certainly seem worthy of more thought than I gave them. If upon hearing such a big story I just shrug and move on, it could be a hint that my mind's limited storage might be approaching ?full,? and I need to move some things around.
Maybe we need to do the same thing concerning the momentous implications of our faith as well. Our faith teaches that the Creator of Everything has, for mysterious reasons, generously given each of us a series of numbered days to live here and make of our lives what we can. While most of us start our childhood in a state of something like wonder, as we grow up we take on ever-widening, crucial responsibilities that use up a lot, if not all, of our day-to-day bandwidth. As a result, we tend to be running at nearly full capacity all the time.
For at least a brief moment today, consider the incredible implications of the mystery and wonder of the windfall of your life. Give a little thought to what's taking up the available storage in your mind and manage it intentionally. Review some of the large attachments you've been carrying around and dispose of a few of them. Are there some worries and anxieties you could now offload? Through rest, relaxation, and taking a bit of a break, you might buy some more storage to expand your capacity to absorb the remarkable truth of your very existence and prepare a place for something new just ahead.
Free up some space!
God?
Help me to manage my storage, making room for what's most important and for the good things ahead.
Amen.
?Greg Funderburk
