The story of the man with such little faith, and an iPod

I was browsing my site the other day and came across a post I had done on the iPod Touch that Apple introduced last summer. I was drooling even back then.

By late autumn I had decided that if I could squirrel some extra money away I would try to get one. And so it went. An extra speaking invitation or doing a special service for someone, might see me get a small honorarium. And I saved them through the Fall. I finally had enough near mid November and I was preparing to make my purchase.

But then we had some surprises around here, financially I mean, and I couldn't justify such a purchase. The funds I had saved were the perfect size for our needs. I used them where they needed to be spent. But I did talk to God about it.

And talked to him again about it. Not begging or whining, but asking, exploring if there was room in our relationship to ask for such an extravagance.

Within three weeks, this faithless man received an iPod Touch, out of the blue, as a gift. And what a gift it's been.

I use it more for work than I ever thought I would.

The Calendar and Contacts sync with my Outlook nicely, so I use it to manage my appointments. The contacts are sweet because if I click on an address of someone, Google Maps opens up and shows me exactly where they live. Google Maps also shows me how to make the journey from my place to any other location I type in. Plus, it's fun just to zoom down onto your house and see where you live.

The Current Weather App was helpful when it was so cold and I needed to know what it was like outside before I headed out. And the Photos feature is kinda fun, to look and remember.

The Notes app allows me to keep some short notes as I head out to my meetings, and change them while I'm in the meeting. Then I can email the notes to where ever they need to go.

The You Tube connection is fun, and I can watch Preachers preach if I can't fall asleep at night. That helps.

But I suppose the two things I use the most is the Internet browser, Safari, and the Email App.

I get on average between 20 and 40 emails a day that I need to respond to, so this baby allows me to not to have to open a computer and fire off a response. I can do it quickly while I'm in the washroom, ahem, or even when I am waiting for somebody to get out of the washroom. It shows PDF's without a problem and I can read the Prince Albert Daily Herald on it. It also displays Word documents and Excel spreadsheets very nicely.

This has been the greatest benefit to me. I am able to deal quickly with these emails and move on with other, often better things.

I check your blogs over a quick morning coffee or milk, see what's up out there, and sometimes when I start the day crazy I head over to Pray-as-you-go to settle my spirit and start the day better.

Prince Albert is quite well supplied with free WiFi, so if I'm shopping for groceries at Safeway or researching something at the library, at a mall or even anyplace downtown as the whole area has coverage now, this tool works.

It really has helped me to do more and to do it better. Not that that's a good thing but it is what it is.

In fact, the thing I use it for the least? Listening to music.

I have 4 gigs of my tunes on it, and a bunch of my home videos and the Iona videos on it for when I have a moment or want to show someone where we were last summer.

But besides all that crap, it is a reminder that God likes me, cares about what I care about, and is taking good care of me.

If you ask, maybe he'll get you one too.

:)