Before "Outside-The-Box Thinking" Was Around

There are all kinds of things which were once thought to be impossible but now they exist. For example, almost everyone reading this post has a device in their pocket that can perform functions which would have been considered outside the realm of possibility even 75 years ago.

Think about telling a person in 1940, “Seventy five years from now I will have a small device in my pocket—which will be unconnected to any wires—and I will be able to speak the name of a destination into that device. The device will then give me precise verbal directions to the destination.”

The person would have been likely to tell you, “I doubt it.” Ironically, a smarter and better educated person would have been more capable of providing legitimate reasons why such a thing would not be possible.

But here we are in 2015 and we practically take such a miracle for granted. In fact we are irritated if our phone’s GPS service is a little slower than it ought to be.

Think about this: Much of what exists in terms of technological achievement, if we go back in history far enough, would have been considered impossible.

Long ago—way before cell phones—God was challenging us to think in terms of possibilities. With His help; His guidance; His insight; His encouragement; His power and an understanding that He is not limited in the ways we are; utilizing the intellect and the skills He has given us; God wants us to consider impossibilities to be mountains which are capable of being moved.

God was encouraging outside-the-box thinking, based on faith in Him, long before the phrase “outside-the-box” had been coined.

“I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” Jesus, Matthew 17:20

Didn't Know She Was On The Phone

I was on a walking trail this morning and out in the distance I saw a woman on the trail coming toward me. I was walking in one direction and she was walking in the other direction coming my way.

When we were about 10 feet apart she looked right at me, I looked at her and she said, “I don’t think so!” She said this with some attitude and she sounded stern, even a bit perturbed.

I was surprised and taken back. “What is she talking about?” I thought. “What happened?!? I didn’t do anything. What’s going on? Why is she upset? What does she mean by ‘I don’t think so?!?’”

I started to say to her, “What happened, is something wrong?”

However, in the time it took for these thoughts to flash through my mind we were now within a foot of each other as we passed on the trail and I noticed she had a Bluetooth type device in her ear. Of course, I then realized she was talking on the phone. She wasn’t actually talking to me, after all. But I had been fooled because she was not holding a phone up to her ear and her hair covered her ear in such a way that I did not, initially, notice the phone device.

As she walked past me I breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment, I thought I was about to find myself involved in some trouble I was not looking for, did not intend, and did not even understand.

I chuckled and thought, “I think it’s time to establish a new rule. My new rule, which I am sure everyone will now abide by, goes like this: whenever a person is talking on the phone in a public area—and the phone is not visible because it operates according to some type of hands-free capability—the person will be required to wear a large sign which reads…

            DON’T BE NERVOUS.

            I’M NOT TALKING TO MYSELF

            AND I’M NOT TALKING TO YOU,

            I’M ON THE PHONE.

I will be speaking with the President and the U.S. Congress in the next few days about my rule. I’m relatively certain they will agree with me. It makes perfect sense, right? I will let you know what they say. They are usually pretty open to my suggestions.

A Cell Phone Tale...Really

Last fall, we changed cell phone plans and Nadia came home with these fancy new cell phones.  I mean they could do it all…texting, pictures, music.  I accidentally left my phone at home one day, when I got back…it had painted the house.  That’s how incredible these new phones are!

When she first brought the phones home, I was like, “…Yeah, whatever.  They’re nice.  That’s cool, but it doesn’t matter to me.”  In fact, at the time, part of me would prefer not have a cell phone.  I don’t necessarily like being available to people all the time.  (Actually, there aren’t that many people who are dying to reach me, but just pretend to accept that last sentence at face value.)

But you know what?  Then I started texting, and taking pictures with the phone, and posting things on line.  And very quickly…well, I’m a little embarrassed…but very quickly, I got to where I really liked it.  In fact, I loved my new phone.

Around Christmas, I was walking in the door at my sister-in-law’s house and I was carrying a bunch of things, including my phone and a large cup of iced tea.  And in a strange fluke of an accident, I dropped my phone and it fell right into the iced tea!

I was heart broken.  Electronic gadgets don’t do well when they’re submerged in liquids.  (You knew that already, didn’t you?)  My phone was dead.  That phone that initially I didn’t care that much about…?  Now, I loved it.  Now I was sad and crying.

We used a blow dryer on it. 

Nope, it was dead. 

We buried it in rice because that’s what people told me to do.

Nope, it was dead.

We gave it a paint brush and tried to coax it into doing some painting.

Nope, it was dead.

Finally, I took it to the phone store and told the guy, “I dropped it in a cup of iced tea.”

He said, “You’re not supposed to do that.”

I said…“Really?”  

(That’s my famous response to everything… “Really?”)

Anyhow, for a fee, they replaced the phone and I was happy again. 

But wait, then my brand new phone—the new replacement phone—began to have some problems.  So, I took it in last week to the phone store.  And the guy at the phone store looked at it and he said, “Oh yeah, I’m familiar with this model.”  Laughing, he said, “We had this dumb guy in here back in December who dropped one of these into a cup of iced tea.  Can you believe it?"

And I said…“Really?”

Today, the “new replacement” of the “first replacement phone” came in and I went to the phone store so they could…I don’t know…do their thing that they had to do.  (I hope I didn’t lose anyone with that sophisticated technical description.)

They transferred all of my contacts and pictures, etc. over to the new replacement of the first replacement phone.  And the guy at the phone store said, “Take care of this one, I don’t think we’ll be able to get you another one.”

I said, “No problem.  I’m really careful with my phone.”

But I don’t think he believed me…really.