Taking the tablet by Andy Oxley.
I was excited last week … Jane had ordered something and arriving with it was a 'free' 7" tablet. I used to have one of my own but broke the glass and chucked it out, and ever since then I had been in mourning. I liked playing Scrabble and Angry Birds on it just like Jane does, ad infinitum, on her own unbroken one. I have spent hours sitting jealously watching her enjoy herself, but now, a new one was coming and I could once again try to form words with more than two letters.
The thing is, I can afford to buy a new tablet, but I am too tight. It comes from living an early life of abject poverty, where living in a gutter would have been a step up. So to get anything free or cheap is where my heart truly lies.
On the auspicious day of its arrival, I decided to open the box really slowly. To savour every moment of the un-boxing experience. Everything looked good, nicely packaged, a lovely shaped mains plug and charger (only a man would say that) and the tablet itself looked very much the same as my broken one. Except it was not broken. I was pleased as punch. A new tablet is one thing, but a free one, that is sublime.
My little mind (only a man has one) began to gloat. I had a tablet... so what, so do many other people. But mine is free, gratis, cost zilch. Hey, that makes me better than you in a subtle but significant way. When I operate my touch screen, it hasn't cost me a penny, not many an Apple user can say that.
Of course, material things are always ultimately disappointing. Even I know that; I should do, considering the number of cheap gadgets I have had. The fact is that this cheap tablet is precisely that: cheap. The word nasty also comes to mind. Far from being an object of desire it turned out to be a poor copy, a miserable clone, a fake, a counterfeit
Oh yes, it did work. It did everything it is supposed to - that's not the problem. The problem is how it did it. The screen is dull, fuzzy and unresponsive. The buttons don't feel right, and the whole thing is a bit heavy. Worse of all, its brain is slow. Ok, so it manages to keep up with my brain ok. But I prefer to have technology that makes me appear smarter. Appearances can be important - they are so effective at hiding the truth.
I should have learned long ago not to expect much of cheap stuff. Surely I could have guessed this abomination which goes under the name of 7" Tablet, was going to be naff. Perhaps somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind I knew it would disappoint. The trouble is, my naively enthusiastic search for something for nothing always rules.
Some of you (at least one of you reads these articles, and I know your name) are probably thinking that I am using the above in a metaphorical way, to illustrate a truth about faith. Well, as it happens that has just crossed my mind. Originally I was just having a moan, but what the heck, let’s be metaphorical, especially as I need to string it out to meet the word count.
If you think I am going to say that our faith is the one free thing that is of true value and does not disappoint, I'm not. There is some truth in that, but no. My point is that you only get what you pay for, and if you think about it, our faith has been at a great cost. The cost to Jesus is plain, but this faith also involves a great cost to us as individuals. Think about it, it's worth it
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