Life is like a Smartphone

by Mike Inger Helmke

Some people can't remember even their own phone number. I can still remember our first telephone number from fifty years ago, I also know my own number, but if I had to call my girlfriend from a public phone I couldn't. I simply don't know anybody's phone number anymore because I just touch their names on the screen without paying attention to their number.

I still have my old address books safely stored somewhere in my office, one is already getting moldy. But I haven't looked at them for years, except for very rare occasions when I needed the number of somebody I hadn't called since when I still lived somewhere else a long time ago.

I don't worry about losing my phone or having it stolen, because every now and then my phone company updates my address book. I stopped writing down people's numbers a long time ago, because even if my phone dies the company will replace all information into my new chip or phone and my address book will be exactly the same.

The only thing in my Smartphone that seems to die quite often is the battery, but just like us humans it only needs another feeding to keep running again. What has died more often are my computers. And worst of all, many of my beloved files went to the grave together with them. The hard disk gave up the ghost and my memory was gone forever.

I guess everybody who has gone through this experience has started to make regular back-ups. First they were on CD's, then on pen drives, and now many of my stories are somewhere in the so-called "cloud", which is actually some gigantic computer somewhere far far away.

People who die and come back often tell how they could see their lives in just one second. Like fast forwarding a movie, we all know how that works. Well, if my phone's memory can be copied and movies can, who says there can't be a copy of my life's memories somewhere in some cloud far far away? Just because my brain is dead doesn't mean my memory disappeared, no more than my phone numbers are gone after my Smartphone dies. They're just somewhere else far far away.

Modern car factories have plenty of robots doing the dirty work. They are programmed to weld frames, paint doors and do a lot of other stuff. Other robots assemble chips and Smartphones. But without a program the robot would be just a dead piece of metal and plastic, it's all those bits and bytes who make him work happily all day long and all of the night too. Likewise the code in our DNA tells our bodies how to digest food to build new parts and repair themselves all day long and all of the night.

So if those robots have their programs safely stored in far far away, who says the program in my DNA can't exist in some other place too? Especially since there seem to be so many almost identical models running around. I admit that there are certain individual differences, each of us is unique. Just like Smartphones, they seem to be identical on the outside, but once you take a closer look you notice that inside they aren't. First of all each has its own serial number, just like we each have our own name, our personal identity card number or tax number.

Besides our personal data, there are all those other memories like the pictures we took and the music we have downloaded. Just like each of us, we all have our own memories of our own lives. All those things we saw and did, all those experiences, like short little clips and long movies during the many days of our lives. Moments that we treasure and incidents we prefer to forget.

The operating system of my computer or my Smartphone has its own serial number, but it is actually just one in a million copies of the original. Likewise we humans have the same operating system in our DNA since the day we were conceived. Identical codes that run our bodies, just that instead of different serial numbers we have different names.

The outward differences are actually minimal in comparison to what we have in common. Like there are different brands of phones there are different basic types of humans. Still, each is filled with a totally different individual memory.

How many of us have wished that instead of learning we could just copy the answers into our brains when we were studying for our exams! Like on our computers where we just "copy" something and then "paste" it somewhere else. Copying files into a different memory has actually become a day to day experience for most of us.

So if life is actually like a Smartphone, why worry about death when all the information is safely stored somewhere far far away? Jesus said that "even our very hairs are numbered". What did he mean by that? That each of our hairs has a number embedded in its DNA? Or that those numbers are stored somewhere far far away? If life is like a Smartphone both options are plausible.

If somewhere far far away there's a back-up of the information and it can tell the robot how to build a car or a Smartphone, then of course the information needed to build us humans can also be safely stored somewhere.

The company can just build another identical phone, give it the same serial number and copy the back-up files into the device, all those contacts and pictures and videos. Once the same data is in the new phone it will be almost one hundred percent identical, except for the scratches on the screen...

If Smartphones can be built again and memory retrieved, why can't we also get a new body with the same codes in the DNA and then have exactly the same memories and features put into it? We'll have a new body with the same mind inside, just like the old one. Minus the scratches and wrinkles of course...

When you call your phone company the girl who answers seems to be right next to our ear, so you never realize how distant far far away really is. Your files might be safe in a cloud far far away, but you actually just drag and drop them into an icon right in front of you on our screen. You don't think about all those bytes quickly rushing along the information highway thousands of miles from Timbuktu to Silicon Valley.

What matters is that all your files will live on forever on some gigantic server in the some big building in the US, together with all the details the NSA collected about us. All our calls and emails are safely stored. Who cares where far far away really is? What really matters is that everything is "at hand" and instantly available.

When I was a kid mice still had heads and tails and were always running away instead of resting on their mouse pad. Icons were pictures of saints painted on wood. One of my favorites was a picture from a monastery in the peninsula of Sinai, the oldest picture of Jesus. His face is similar to the ones that are now popular based on the shroud of Turin.

Today there's a mouse on every desk, icons are everywhere on our screens and our data is safely stored somewhere. Finally we can comprehend what Jesus meant when he said that our hairs are all numbered and that not a sparrows falls to the ground without his father knowing. He said that all that information was stored somewhere far far away.

That "big brother" in the digital cloud is very similar to what Jesus called his "father in heaven", he even called him "daddy". He was obviously on very personal terms with that father. He didn't show fear or worry like some of us do when they speak of some impersonal human surveillance organization.

Most of all, he said that he had come to bring us good news. The good news was that the realm of far far away was now "at hand". That meant that even though it is actually far far away, you could now touch it with your fingers, like tap "heaven".

Jesus didn't give complicated explanations, but some things he said sounded a bit strange, like "I am the way". Today we can understand what that meant. It is like an icon on our screen. We tap on the "cloud" icon and know that our data is being sent to far far away. We do not literally store things in the icon itself, that information travels thousands of miles along the data highway.

So, if life is like a Smartphone and Jesus is the icon where we can get saved in far far away, then in makes perfect sense when he said that all we had to do was receive him, like installing him in our hearts.

When you download a program, finally a question appears and you have to respond if you want to install program: Yes/No? Then you simply click or tap the "yes" button and have the program installed.

You don't open our phone and take it apart and connect the parts of the program, you don't have to know a thing about technology! You just tap "yes" and something that had been far far away until that very moment enters into your Smartphone right before your eyes at that very moment.  

I tried learning Chinese and programming, but I just wouldn't get it. I can say hello and thank you in Chinese and I know how to use a mouse and click "yes" or "no" and a few other things on the computer, that is all. I tap on my girlfriend's name on the Smartphone and then tap "call".

I do not need to know much more, I get along fine. Thus I have a lot in common with the people who met Jesus but didn't understand all the technological details of far far away. They just didn't want neither their data nor their soul to die and disappear.

I installed most of programs because somebody recommended it. I never had a clue how they were created. I just wanted them because I saw how they worked for others. So I bought or downloaded them and then simply touched "install/yes" and I could start using them.

Now I have my stuff safely stored far far away in the cloud. I use some smart little program to send a message to my kids on the other side of the world. In an instant, they can read what I wrote and answer me. 

How it works? I don't care how, I just know that it works.

That Jesus program is the same, I can't really explain it exactly, but I tried it and know it works great. I can wholeheartedly recommend it to you as the greatest program on Earth. It has millions of five star evaluations from those who tried it.

It is for free and always will be, because none of us can pay for something that was made in heaven. It is only a fingertip away from you. The choice is something like this: "Do you want Jesus to come into your heart?" Now is the moment for you to say: "Yes, I do. Come in".