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Why do the nations say, \u201cWhere is their God?\u201d
Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.
But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands.
They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see.
They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell.
They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them. (Psalm 115:2-8)

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Today\u2019s devotion is an invitation to think spiritually about our daily lives.

Did you know that your smartphone includes, among over 70 some other elements, the elements on the Periodic Table known as Ag & Au (click this link to see the periodic table of smartphone elements)?\xa0 In the tongue of us normal people, that would be the elements known as silver and gold.\xa0

These smartphones have mouths: we call them speakers.\xa0 These devices have eyes.\xa0 We call them cameras.\xa0 They have ears which we call microphones.\xa0 I don\u2019t think they have noses just yet, hands or feet either.\xa0 But that doesn\u2019t mean they can\u2019t grasp the things we desire off of Amazon\u2019s shopping shelves or travel back home to turn off the smart lights we left on.\xa0 How far we\u2019ve come from the ancient idol makers whose poor statues were mute.\xa0 Ours our interactive.\xa0 \xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0

Are they really idols though, you might ask?\xa0 They serve us!\xa0 Not the other way around!

Maybe.

These devices made by our own human hands, or at least by the hands of our hands which we call assembly line robots, evoke some strange habits from us.\xa0

They call us to worship with their vibrations and dings.\xa0 We obey dutifully, offering our unquestioning attention as a matter of reflex, despite the car driving or conversing with a real flesh-and-blood human that we might have otherwise been engaged in at the time.

We give of our offerings through the app store and in-game purchases.\xa0 We offer not just our treasures though.\xa0 We offer our time by the hours.\xa0 Our talents.\xa0 Even our trees (just take a peek at that periodic table again at the beginning).\xa0

In prayer, we find that we can ask Alexa and Siri nearly anything, and lo and behold\u2014they deliver!\xa0 No waiting around for answers or material blessings.\xa0 They can make it happen!

And yet, we who make them are beginning to become like those idols of old.\xa0 Losing our capacity to hold a conversation through speech with another person.\xa0 Losing our capacity to see and hear the things occurring in the physical space and time our body is occupying in the present moment as we become immersed in the digital world and experience we\u2019re constantly nudged and notified into.\xa0

Do our devices serve us?\xa0 Or do we serve them?\xa0 Do we trust more in what the perceptions of our devices tell us than we trust in what God tells us of our reality?\xa0

Is that thing in our pockets a tool, or an idol?

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