thoughts out !oud

a Christian’s news, views, opinions and occasional poetry …

Worshipping the iPhone 3G

Posted by Mathew | 9 July 08

It’s being touted as the Jesus-phone - presumably, as it’s the 2nd gen model and is practically worshipped, this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Jesus’ second coming. I’m talking about the iPhone 3G, of course!
iPhone in dock

There is no doubt that there is an air of religious fervour surrounding the impending release of the Apple iPhone 3G. Reading up on various Mac enthusiast websites and forums, there is most definitely a buzzing obsession - not too much disimilar to the opening of Australia’s first Apple owned and run Apple store (which had people queing up 48hrs before the official openening time and attracted not just people from interstate, but international sojourners as well) in George Street, Sydney, last month. But given the obvious hype, and it’s gadgetry coolness, the release of the iPhone 3G has been infiltrating elevator talk for over the past week which - and as any office worker can tell you - is the pinnacle of an object’s newsworthiness.

The release in Australia is made even more special - it will be the first release of any iPhone product into the Australian market. Up to now, if you wanted an iPhone, you had to import it, hack the firmware (the software that operates the hardware on a device) for it to accept your network’s SIM card and go without some of the item’s coolest features (like visual voicemail) because no local carrier could support them. And then, the iPhones available were only 2G network compatible (which supports both GSM and EDGE technologies). There’s no question that this release is both long and anxiously awaited by Australian’s (and those Kiwis over the throw).

The fever pitch that is mounting in anticipation of the release of the iPhone 3G is nothing short of religious. I recall that the opening of the iTunes Music Store in Australia and New Zealand in 2004 also had an equally zealous faithful. Actually, looking over my short seven years as a Macintosh user, there have been a handful of eagerly anticipated product releases from the iconic company. Among them, the most notable (from my vantage point, at least) being: newly revised iMacs in May 2005 and their built-in iSight brothers in August of the same year; the video iPod (5th generation) in October 2005; iTunes Music Store (Australia) in October 2005; the wide-screen, movie playing iPod Touch in September 2007; Apple Store opening, Sydney, in June 2008; and now, of course, the iPhone 3G worldwide release in July 2008). And look, I have to admit, I’ve become an Apple evangelist of sorts - but the ongoing obsession among Mac enthusiasts regarding new product releases from Apple really is nothing short of cultish.

So what does happen when people, who obsessively follow and eagerly await a material item’s release, then find out that they have missed one? After all, Optus’s marketing slogan for the iPhone 3G is “Get ready to be happy”. Well, if, perchance, one is unable to secure for themselves an iPhone 3G (Optus state they are giving preferance to those lucky people who pre-registered and paid a deposit - before they serriptiously ceased taking deposits), are they doomed to be unhappy? That such slogans are what make marketing a worthwhile task (everybody wants to be happy!), at the end of the day, the iPhone 3G really is just a mobile phone (or a iPod Touch with a phone, or the other way round?). It is a device that is subject to breaking, to theft, to being lost, to being washed along with your jeans, to being outdated by the next model.

Such is the fate of all consumer products. BRAND NEW! NEW AND IMPROVED! BIGGER! BETTER! CHEAPER! These are marketing catch-cries and they always get our attention simply because, in our heart of hearts, that is what we crave - for something to make us feel good, to make us feel complete and whole.

Of course, the Christian response to such a materialist view on the world is that we were made to worship.

O LORD, see how my enemies persecute me!
Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death,
that I may declare your praises
in the gates of the Daughter of Zion
and there rejoice in your salvation.
- Psalm 9:13-14

The Westminster Shorter Catechisms, Q.1 states:

What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. (See Psalm 86, Romans 11:36 and Revelation 4:11.)

If we do not worship the one true God of the Bible, then we will inevitably worship something/someone else. We see this with single mothers who lavish and smother their sons in ‘love’; we see it at the bottom of an empty hard liquor bottle; we see it with the mind-altering, recreational drugs; we see it in being lusted after and lusting over; we see it in having a larger house, a more expensive car and a faster boat than our neighbour; let alone that we see it in everyday consumer goods like the iPhone.

Now, possessions are not wrong. To paraphrase Madonna, we most certainly do inhabit a material world. We need clothes to keep our modesty and heat to keep us warm. The Christian does not deny these things. Yet what the Christian does deny is that these things are the be-all and end-all of things; they are not what is truly important - they are as chaff in the breeze, a chasing of the wind. Instead, the Christian asserts that Jesus is the only person who can quench our feelings of emptiness and incompleteness and inadequateness. So can Christians own expensive items and that latest and greatest toys? Sure. But they need to hold the following words nearer and dearer to their hearts above all other things because the object of this fount is the well-spring of life.

Jesus said: “whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)

It will not be the end of the world if you miss out on an iPhone. It’s not the end of the world if you’re not a super-model, either, or have cash in the bank to buy a small island. These are only material things, things which pass away and can be enjoyed for but a little while. (Eat, drink and be merry, goes the phrase, for tomorrow we die.)

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19-20)

In Him is a joy and peace that passes all our understanding. Put your heart into His hands.

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