Smart Phone Potential

My smart phone and I just recently marked our first year together.  We've had a good year.  She's still in one piece and I'm still grateful she's mine.

The sleek and shiny mini-computer was an unexpected, yet very much desired, birthday gift from my husband this time last September.  To say I was thrilled was an understatement the day we stopped to browse around the phone store, investigating the endless possibilities before us. 

After careful consideration, we selected the one I now carry with me.  As the salesman was preparing my phone for purchase, I listened intently as he began to convey to me the multitude of things I would be able to do with this new phone. 

I remember how incredibly lost I felt just turning it on for the first time.  So many buttons.  So many options.  So many places to go.  Everything was foreign and so new.  Just holding it up against my ear felt so strange.  So incredibly different from the standard flip phone I was used to holding in my hand.  Yet, I was eager to try it out.

Since it's been a good twelve months,  one might presume I have this small technological masterpiece figured out by now.  After all, I've had a year to play around with it, right?  But one might not understand that I'm no technological expert.  No ma'am.  No sir.  Not by a long shot.

Sure, I can make the standard phone call.  I can text.  I know how to take photos and videos.  I can post and upload to Facebook.  And I can access the Internet when I need to look up something or have a question that can only be answered by Google. 

But, I have yet to learn how to install a new app or even upload new music straight to my phone.  I can't download my pictures from memorable events to my home computer without assistance.  I don't even know how to utilize the GPS feature which would sure come in handy when I'm trying to navigate my way from one place to another. 

I constantly have to ask my technology-loving, technology-proficient husband how and where to locate things on my phone.  Bless his heart.  He understands so much.  I understand so little.  His exact same phone is loaded with a myriad of apps and he appears to use his phone to its maximum potential.  I don't.  I still have so much to learn. 

Which gets me thinking...

It would seem as if my smart phone and I have a lot in common. 

Similar to my phone, I am loaded with possibility and promise.  There's so much I am ultimately designed to be and do.  God has pre-programmed me with unimaginable potential.  It's how I was manufactured by His creative hands before my life ever began.  

Unfortunately, on most of my seemingly ordinary days, I don't feel I'm living up to the fullness of my design, just like me with my phone.  

Why is this?  

I believe a great deal has to do with apathy.  Some has to do with fear and intimidation.  And yet more has to do with my willingness, or unwillingness to surrender.  

Philippians 4:13 states that "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." 
John 15:5 reminds me that "...apart from Me (Christ) you can do nothing." 

As long as I continuously tap into the power of the Holy Spirit and rely solely upon Him, I can be and do all I was destined by God to be and do.  But without Him--apart from His leading and His presence--I can do nothing.  Absolutely nothing.

With that in mind, I think I'll continue to stretch myself with my phone--trying new things and attempting to utilize it to its maximum potential.  

Knowing it's been built for so much more, why would I want to settle for so much less?