OF FROZEN PHONES AND THE (LIFE) MANUAL

OF FROZEN PHONES AND THE (LIFE) MANUAL

Fire in the skies,

My heart beats,

Ever longing,

For…

  What? Oh, this? You just caught me trying out my hand at poetry. Still beats me how people think my writing is poetic, but then, I can’t shoot myself in the foot, can I? I surely cannot, thank you Sir. So yes, you are looking at the next big thing. The stage is set! The lights are on! The invitations have all been sent out.

  Focus, Raymond. Focus.

  Thank you, oh voice of reason. So…what was I-

  Aha! Got it.

  A few weeks back, something happened (doesn’t something always happen?) to my phone (argh!) Raise your hands if you are tech savvy! Everyone? Wow… What about the days of the Nokia 3310s? The phones that had torchlights and green-and-black screens? Those days when the Sagem camera phone was the biggest deal on earth?

  Simpler days. Nowadays, everything is taking a selfie of you. You pick up a potato, and it takes a picture of you! Argh!

  Stop it Raymond! Focus!

  Okay.

  So, as I was saying, my phone. I currently use the Sony Xperia Z1, the phone that has turned everyone into ducks and platypuses, trying to take pictures underwater and-

  Ach! Who slapped me?

  Anyway, I was using it, when all of a sudden, it froze on me. Strange, but not unheard of. I let the phone be, with the notion that it would resolve itself; it was just trying to fix itself internally. So I let it be. For about 30 minutes. Nothing. The screen was the same. And then the phone began to heat up rapidly. So I did the next logical thing.

  I put it in the freezer.

  I kid you not. I am not making this up. In. The. Freezer.

  *Epic facepalm moment*

  I left it there to cool, hoping that the phone would cool down enough to let the internal workings right themselves. Didn’t work. I cracked my head, and then decided to open up the phone so that I could take out the battery.

  When all else fails, forget not take battery out. I winning. Shish!

  Thankfully, I didn’t have the right tools, so that particular goose ran away.

  Only then did it occur to me to try to get some real, sensible help. Because, you see, I was too proud to admit that I didn’t know what to do in this instance. I was used to having the solution, and helping others find the solutions to their problems in any way I could, so being in need of help, especially in an area I was supposed to be knowledgeable in, felt strange and a bit demoralizing, to be honest.

  So I got online, and went on Google to find the solution. And I got it. There is a reset button in the phone which you press to force-restart the phone. I followed the instructions given, and I got the desired result. Whoop! After about 2 hours, my problem was solved.

  And then, I got a shocker. The article that had helped me out actually went on to mention that this was gotten from the phone manual, if anyone had cared to read it. I joked off in my mind, Who reads the manual of anything they get nowadays anyway? We all prefer to just wing it.

  Exactly. The import of this sank in, and the smile wiped off my face slowly.

  It hit me. Hard.

  I asked the Holy Spirit, help me out here, and He began to draw similarities between what had just happened, and what we do when faced with situations in life. Just look at it.

  My phone just refused to work anymore, staring at me like a constipated smiley face. How many times has life thrown you a curveball you didn’t expect? Something seems to be working smoothly, everything is fine, and then BANG! You need help.

  Usually, we decide to take the next step I took; leave the problem alone and hope it will solve itself, occasionally prodding it to see if it has fixed itself. Sometimes, we try to fix the consequence of the problem, instead of fixing the problem itself, like me putting the phone in the freezer because it was overheating (yes, I get it. That was dumb on a whole new level).

  Sometimes, the issue is simply pride. We get too proud to ask for help when we need it, thereby saving ourselves undue hassle and embarrassment. How will it look like if I ask for help? I am supposed to know this stuff for crying out loud! What will I look like? They will think of me after this as a dunce! Aaaaaaargh!

  No, they won’t. They will be happy to help. Well, most of them, or some o-in fact, bottom line is, you will get the help you need, and then you can move on.

  But then again, how many of us decide to go to the manual to look for the solution?

  Everything in life has a manual that came with it. Every TV. Every phone, smart or stupid. Even your socks comes with washing instructions (yeah, who reads THOSE!?)

  Every life. Yes. God gave us the manual for this life we live in. Look at it. You have an issue, and you go to meet your Pastor for counselling. Where do you think they got the knowledge and wisdom he/she applies to your case? Even if you go to a shrink, or doctor, or whatever specialist you decide to go to, they always consult a manual for your case. The difference is that they have paid the price to fully grasp the contents of the manual they are using.

  In all this, let us not forget the most dangerous side-effect; the loss of valuable time. I lost over 2 hours I could have used gainfully. Sometimes, our pride and refusal to ask for help can cost us days, months…years. Sometimes when we decide to ask for help, it is already too late and the damage has been done. And you can’t get that time back, no matter how hard you try.

  So make up your mind today. Consult the manual whenever you run into a problem.

  Just don’t put your phone in the freezer.

  Having said all this, let me go back to being an awesome poe-what? Music? Oh yeah! You know I can never forget that. With this post, we will go with: Phinehas: Crown Of Thorns. Energetic band, amazing, wonderful song.

Rock on!

Rock 4 Christ!