A MESSAGE FOR SPIRITUAL FOLKS

Religious prescriptivists have come again to dictate to us how to react should we lose our phones. You are not permitted to cry or whine about your automatically lost 32 gig memory card, about your lost contacts, about the beautiful memories lost with your gallery photos. Why? Because they are sure you will not get worked up as much if it were your Bible that went missing. 

This almost makes sense, considering that Jesus even said that where your treasure is, so will your heart also be. But if I worry over a missing phone than a missing bible, does it necessarily mean that I value my phone more than I value God's written word? Let's see. 

In my final year in the university, I had this new neighbour whom I invited to fellowship at my church. He honoured my invitation (and even became a regular member), but he had no bible. I had four at that time, of at least three different versions. I used the New King James Version at religious gatherings, but used the Goodnews Version for personal study as it made me understand better. I got the Goodnews bible as a gift back then in secondary school from Bible Society of Nigeria when I went to represent my school in a bible quiz. It was the favorite of all my bibles.

Somehow, I decided to give my new neighbour my Goodnews bible that Sunday morning, thinking I'd get it back after church. Weeks later when he still hadn't returned it, I got really uncomfortable. I had gotten so used to studying it, with popular verses marked over the years with different-coloured markers for easy reference. Yet, I decided not to ask for it. I felt if he really didn't have any bible of his own, my well-used and well-marked bible might make it easier for him to study God's word. 

Luckily for me, he later got his own bible and returned mine. After a month or more. I was so relieved and happy! 

Now imagine if it was my phone he collected and didn't return for a month, even if I had another one, would I have remained silent? Okay. If I had gone to demand for my phone, would that mean that I'm materialistic? 

You can not expect a person who saved so much to buy a good phone not to hurt over its loss just because it is an "earthly treasure". Same way, I can not start feigning spirituality by weeping over a missing bible that I can easily afford, and that I can start marking all over again for easy reference. 

Sometimes we want to pass across messages with spiritual meanings but the analogies we use are downright laughable. It's as though in the state of our spirituality, we are losing touch with reality. The reality is that most phones are waaaay more expensive than bibles. And unless you have all your important life documents in your missing bible, it is not more important than your phone of N50,000 (or more, or less).

Wait. Before you conclude I'm the devil's advocate. Lol. I'm just trying to remind you that that God's Word you're so desperately advocating for can still be found in the pages of a N500 bible, so go easy on yourself. You can't even buy any phone for N500 here in Nigeria so allow yourself to feel pained when you lose your expensive phone, with the gallery contents that would have served as nice mementos from your beautiful past experiences, with the numerous email and phone contacts of people that God specifically placed in your life (it will not make you go to hell), just don't dwell on it too long, and trust God to make another provision. He has you in mind. 

Don't let some over religious people guilt-trip you for not crying over a missing bible when you probably have three others. Most people that cry over bibles don't cry about losing God's Word (and it can't even be lost) anyway, they do so out of the attachment they have developed with that article of possession over the years. Trust me, even people who own these bibles without reading them feel the same way. It's more a materialistic feeling than a spiritual feeling.

Hopefully, by now you've gotten my point. 😉

Let me know your thoughts in the comment box. 

Happy September!

01.09.18