The (In)Famous iPod Story

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. John 14:12-14

"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Mark 11:22-24

During the summer of 2006, I was alone in London.

In point of fact, I was in the middle of my Master's program, and we had five months off for summer break. I was living in my little dorm room on campus with nothing much to do. Everyone in my Master's program lived at least an hour away and we had no classes and no deadlines and I had nothing else to keep me busy.

Now, when I say I was alone in London, I don't mean I was just living alone or spending a lot of time alone or, really, what "alone" normally means to most people. I mean alone in the sense that I literally did not see one single person that I knew for eight weeks straight. I was alone.

Turns out it was all God's doing, really (y'know, as most things are). He isolated me so He could get into me and work in me, mold me and shape me and get to me. He had to, had to get me by myself with no one else to talk to but Him, because otherwise I wouldn't have paid enough attention and would've just missed all the absolutely vital lessons He wanted to teach me. So He purposefully got me by myself - all by myself - so that the only voice be able to hear was His And oh my, then, did He ever speak.

(Side note: I've found that He does that a lot, actually. If He's trying to get to you - which He always is - because He longs for you and is desperate for you to hear Him and wants so badly to share Himself and His love and His will for your life with you, and nothing else works, He will get you by yourself so the only voice you can possibly hear is His. The only person you can possibly talk to is Him. The only question you can ask is "Why, Lord?" And He will happily answer, and come to you, and love you, because it's been what He's been trying to get you to let Him do all along. Believe me, He will.)

Anyway, back to the story...

Even though I've been a Christian my whole life, and God had spoken to me and given me many revelations and many lessons before then, by August in the summer of 2006 I was deep in the midst of His refining fire. He had been speaking to me about, among many other things, having confidence in faith and standing on His word when I asked for things in His name when I know He can do them (because, obviously, He can do anything) and I know it is His will to do them. I'd never really been confident in that before. I'd say "Well, God, if this is your will, could you please, like, do it? Maybe?" and then leave it at that. God was speaking to me now about the authority that He has given us in Jesus' name to ask for things that we know are in His will and then believe that He will do them, because we stood on His word and He is faithful to it, always. Always.

And so on August 7th, 2006, I was sitting on a train going from Lancaster, England, where I'd been visiting my wonderful friends, back to London. For those of you not in the know, trains in England are very quiet and train journeys can be very dull, especially when one is traveling alone. I had my iPod on and was happily listening to the poetic lyrics of Rob Thomas when I noticed that the battery on my iPod was very low. So low that it was red. Not green, but red.

I've had my iPod battery die on me before (yes, I'm attached at the hip to it) and I wasn't anxious to have it happen again. What's worse, I still had over two hours left in my trip, and the thought of sitting silently in the train for that long seemed excruciating. (Yes, I'm also a bit melodramatic sometimes. I know...shocker.)

So I started to fret. "Oh no!" I thought. (Well, it might've been more along the lines of "Crap!", actually, but this is supposed to be Christian blog or something, so I thought "Oh no!" sounded more polite.)

God immediately, in the "still, small voice" kind of way (He always tries using that method at first with me, and about half the time I'll actually listen to it), reminded me of everything He had been teaching me and that all I had to do was ask in Jesus' name that He keep the iPod battery running until I got home, and He would do it.

So I did. I bowed my head and closed my eyes and dutifully and humbly obliged and asked in Jesus' name that God please keep the iPod battery on until I got home.

I opened my eyes.

Nothing happened.

I waited.

Rob finished his song and began another one. The red battery light glared up at me defiantly.

Still nothing.

So, naturally, I immediately gave up and resigned myself to what was clearly going to be my woefully music-less fate and turned the iPod off to conserve what little battery there was left.

God instantly spoke to me, using His Much Louder Voice with which I'm quite, ahem, well acquainted. "What are you doing?"

I was slightly startled. "I'm sorry, Lord?"

"Do you believe I can keep that iPod battery on until you get home?"

At that moment, as opposed to 10 seconds earlier, the answer seemed obvious. "Of course!"

"Well then turn it back on! You asked for it in My name, you obeyed My word, so now believe that I am going to do it!"

I turned it back on. (Because, really, what would you do?)

The battery light was still red. Rob Thomas picked up where he left off. (I'd love to be able to say the song was "The Difference," because that would be, like, SO totally meaningful right now for a whole host of reasons, but I honestly can't remember. Ah well. Let's say it was, just to make the point, eh?)

And right then, I can't logically explain it, but all I know is that I was changed. He changed me. He changed my head and my heart and I was suddenly absolutely convinced that that iPod was going to stay on for the rest of the trip. Didn't matter that the battery light was red. Didn't matter that it had died on me before. Didn't matter that it was impossible. I believed. I knew.

I sat and gazed out the window, listening to the song.

When I looked down at the battery light again after it was over, it was green.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him. 1 John 5:14-15

Suffice it to say, I don't resign myself to woefully music-less fates anymore.