Delano Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Delano, Loretto, Montrose, MN, and the surrounding area

Pastors’ Column – 10/20/08



I hesitate to admit it, but I have joined the ranks of the many who have become dependent on their cell phone. It is a wonderful device!

It has many of my most important phone numbers stored in its memory bank. Inside its sleek casing are stored phone numbers for my wife, my parents, other family members and friends, the day care provider, various pastors and parishioners, the person who cuts my hair, the Schwan’s man, and – our favorite pizza delivery establishment, of course.

The other day, I couldn’t find my cell phone, however. I looked and looked, and began to get a sinking feeling. I was hoping one of my boys had it, or that it may have been accidentally placed in my wife’s purse. But no such luck.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t function without it. I put in a full day at work, and functioned quite nicely, but I had to work just a little harder to make the contacts I needed to make. I couldn’t “redeem the time” by making calls while driving in my car to appointments during the day.

A couple of times I even had to fumble with the battered phone book to find a scribbled phone number inside the front cover. Things just aren’t quite as convenient without that handy hand-held communication device.

Later that day, I dialed my cell phone number at home, and listened for the friendly tone. Alas, I heard nothing.

And then, I remembered that the last time I looked, my cell phone battery had shown that it was “near death,” and needed a good charging. So, even if my phone was near, it wouldn’t ring anyway. I remembered how critical it is to have the cell phone charged, and resolved, once again, to always be sure to charge it daily.

Somewhere during this whole adventure, I started thinking of how it is also critical to keep our spiritual batteries charged – by turning to our good and loving God, through prayer, Bible reading, and spending time with other faithful Christians. If we don’t, we can find ourselves going through hard times and not even thinking of God, or realizing we have a good, loving heavenly Father available to us.

If our “faith batteries” are charged, however, we are much more likely to remember that God is always there for us, and always ready to help – in good times, but especially in time of need.

There was a happy ending to the story. I eventually found my cell phone, and promptly stuck it on the charger for the night. I hope this will become a good habit.

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