iCan't get things iWant

As Mick and the boys would say, "You can't always get what you want... but you just might find you get what you need." I want an iPhone. Just because. It's cool. It's what I've been hoping smartphones would progress towards for some time. I've had a couple of palm pilots over the years, and I've really enjoyed them, but the gap between what a computer can do and what a palm pilot can do is enormous. That gap is closed considerably by the iPhone, as far as how I've been looking at it.

I don't need an iPhone however. I actually do pretty well without any phone, and the last thing I need is something else to make me unproductive. Yes, the power to watch stupid Youtube videos in the palm of my hand probably overshadows any use I could make of the thing. I'm also not important enough to need that much phone. I get 1 or 2 emails a week, and I'm pretty sure they can wait until I get home before I answer them.

I've been thinking lately about how to downsize a bit. Cut out the fat and get down to what's important. I decided that the month of July I would drink nothing but water. It was a lesson in discipline. It's still July, and you'll notice I'm already using the past tense to refer to my experiment. It lasted 10 days. I think I would have made the whole month had my co-workers not forgotten about my pledge and bought me a slurpee on a hot day. I was grateful, and as much as I wanted to stick to things, I didn't want to spit on their generosity.
What do slurpees and iPhones have in common? I don't need them. I also don't need 2 servings at dinner, but I am accustomed to eating that much. It is hard to pull back the curtains of "wants" to expose what we really just need.

I mentioned to a co-worker the other day that I don't feel as though I have much will power, and that was part of why I was trying to drink just water. He didn't agree, he felt I had lots of will power from what he could see. Maybe he's right, but more accurately, I think that our society is not accustomed to depriving ourselves of anything, and when someone does, even in the smallest way, it is viewed as out-of-the-ordinary.

A couple of weeks ago at church, the pastor was using the beatitudes to illustrate where we actually are as believers, and where Jesus wants us to be. I know where I am... I know where I want to be... Somehow, I'm nearly completely lost in how to get from A to B. In my fumbling efforts to follow Jesus, I feel a stronger and stronger conviction that I need to deprive myself of the things I want, in order that He might provide the things I really need...