I gave up my StarTac

Last week I finally gave up my StarTac cell phone. For several years, I would get an interesting reaction when people saw me pull out my StarTac. People would often say, "I used to have a StarTac. That was a good phone." Others would say, "Why do you still have that ancient thing?" But I loved my StarTac. It got good reception, so why change? So what if I didn't have caller ID? It was beginning to get worn from years of use, and I wondered recently if the hinges would soon fall off, but that didn't seem like reason enough to change.

Anyway, my wife's cell phone tore up and needed replacing. When she went to the Alltell store, they told her that she could replace hers with a great LG camera phone and get another one free, so she asked the question that caused me to have a personal crisis: Should I give up my trustworthy StarTac and get a new LG cell phone? It was a scary thought, but I knew I had to make a decision. After asking a barrage of questions about the reliability of the phone and getting good answers from my wife, I took a leap of faith and told her to switch me over. I have been amazed. The LG is a camera-phone with all kinds of easy-to-use features that my StarTac either did not have or were hard to figure out: caller ID, different ring tones, voice memo, a hands-free driving mode, contact lists, alarm clock, note pad, calculator, speed dial, etc. Wow! Now I wonder why in the world I kept the StarTac so long. When I showed up at a church event with the new phone, one member said, "I thought you were the last person alive who still had a StarTac." I promptly told her that I knew a funeral director who still has one. (Hmm, I wonder if that should have told me something?) This reminds me of the experience a person has in accepting Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Life in Christ is so much better than life without Christ-- there is hope and peace and purpose, not to mention eternal life in Heaven. As the apostle Paul put it, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old has gone, and the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17). Yes, becoming a Christian offers so much more to life, that a Christian would wonder why anybody would resist making the change. Yet changing over and giving up your old life is still a scary thought, and still requires a leap of faith. Kind of like giving up the StarTac. It's a little frightening until you do it, but then afterwards you wonder why you didn't come to Christ years before.