Being one who got on the smarthwatch bandwagon almost 3 years ago now, with the first Sony Smartwatch followed by the first Galaxy Gear, and then later with the Gear Live, I love the idea of the smartwatches. First of all, I like wearing watches, and have always looked for cool watches that didn't break the bank. Now being able to access my phone with just a quick look at my wrist is convenient and cool still. I get people ask me about it a lot. I think they will become something and not just a fad.
Some of the new watches, like the Samsung Galaxy Gear S can even be your phone if you really wanted to. Though this doesn't make me excited as I more want to be able to access messages, notifications, and the like more than I want to talk to people I am fine with where the watches are now. I don't even like talking to people on the phone in general.
My Gear Live watch is perfect for me, has lots of cool watch faces, can check the weather, emails, how far I have walked, my heart rate, it is a great tool to have at easy access, even when I am at work and can't look at my phone. I think the Android Wear OS is fantastic and with each new update it becomes even more useful.
The Apple iWatch doesn't seem to break too much ground with what it does or maybe it does and I just don't see it yet. Or maybe it will even find a nice niche with other iPhone people. The watches that are out and coming out, and new phones flying around the market, one can't get away from the Apple/Android war. There will always be fan boys and girls of each being paragons of their brands. But they got me thinking about the two brands.
Apple makes some great products. I prefer my Google based stuff and love my Samsung devices, but I will acknowledge that Apple does have some cool stuff out there. But it was Google's current ads that made me think about them in relation to The Church. This is the church as a whole, every denomination that makes up Christianity. "Be Together. Not the Same."
Some adds they show people of all walks of life, people who are on different ends of the social spectrum, but all getting along with each other. They have a common ground. Be together. Not the same. In my opinion, Apple is a company who tells you what you want in a phone, they have basically one option to fit all walks of life, rich, poor, good, bad, one phone to rule them all. Android, being a OS and not a phone manufacturer, feels like it is more designed that each person, where ever they come from, can find a phone that fits them, find the options they want, styles they want, but still keeping everyone together under one roof. In a way, I feel Android has a bit more freedom to think your own thoughts.
For the most part, you can split Christianity up into two groups, Catholic and Protestant. I am not a Catholic Christian. I come from a Methodist background, and as such, am firmly rooted in my Protestant-ness. Here is how I see the two of them. The Catholic Church is like Apple. It is a one size fits all, regardless of where you come from. They tell you what you should believe, think, say, and you get your salvation. I really hope this doesn't sound like I have a bad view of the Catholic Church, because I do not. I have a great deal of respect for them. The protestants seem to me to be more like an Android based phone. You get your salvation still but you can find different people out there that maybe have a similar theological belief as you. You can find a place where you belong and fit you. Be together. Not the Same.
Each, at its very core are really the same thing; iPhone or Android based phone both are phones at their base. They both make phone calls, both receive texts, browse the internet, or whatever else you might like them to do. Same with the Church, whether you are Catholic or Protestant, at our base, we have Jesus Christ and the salvation that comes with him as our Redeemer.
The two parts of Christianity have many similarities and differences, but no matter who you are in the world, you can be the poorest or the richest or right in the middle, Jesus has a place for you. In Jesus we are together, but we don't have to worship the same, we don't have to think the same thing on the details. All we need, the thing that if you don't have, then it isn't Christianity, is Christ. He is every bit like our phone. He makes calls, sends us messages, gives notifications. Yet if I feel small group is important to keep you as close to God as you can be, or you think you need to be submersed in baptism, it doesn't matter as long as we both have Jesus Christ as our redeemer and our salvation. You can call the Holy Spirit a spirit or a ghost, who cares? We have Jesus.
We are together, but not the same.
No comments:
Post a Comment