Monday, March 19, 2012

CELL PHONE OVERBOARD!

"But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed." (2 Kings 6:5))

Recently, I heard a story on the radio about a new cell phone/smart phone which is being developed and will be COMPLETELY WATERPROOF. It's meant to solve the problem of people dropping their cell phones into the toilet, or into a sink, or a swimming pool, a puddle, or some other body of water. The phone is expected to be on the market in eighteen to twenty-four months. As I listened to this story, I was surprised to hear about all the people who have dropped their cell phones into water, frantically tried drying them with hair dryers and sadly discovered they were ruined. I was so glad that experience had never happened to me, and I was pretty convinced that it would never happen to me.

Never say never, and never THINK never!

Late Sunday afternoon, I got a phone call at home as I was in the midst of trying to clean up dishes. My phone is a very simple three-year-old cell phone, it's not a smart phone or anything fancy. It's either the third or fourth cell phone I've owned since I first got a cell phone in 1999. I had the phone propped with my shoulder and talked on the phone as I was washing some dishes.

Yes, you guessed it!

Suddenly, the cell phone shot into the air and plopped directly into the dishwater! It was submerged for no more than three seconds. I grabbed it and quickly dried it with a towel. Amazingly, my friend was still talking, unaware of what had happened.
After the call, I rushed frantically upstairs. I got out my hair dryer and blew hot air all over the phone. I took the battery out and put it back in. The phone started going through cycles of shutting itself off and me turning it on, only to have it shut itself off again. I made a quick phone call, and then I hooked the phone up to the A/C charger in the bedroom.

I love taking Sunday afternoon walks, and I went out for a late afternoon walk. I was out around forty-five minutes. I came back and checked out the phone. It was OFF; and pretty well DEAD. I tried and tried to turn it on. I took the battery out and put it back several times. I sprayed the hot air on it again. I then SLAMMED the phone onto the top of the bathroom vanity several times. Some water droplets DID spurt out of the phone. After awhile, it very briefly came on, only to quickly turn off again. Once again, no matter WHAT I did, it was DEAD.

As much as I really believe in prayer, throughout life I have had a difficult time with people who pray for a car to start when the starter is burned out, or who pray for a lawnmower to work when a mechanic has pronounced it ready for the junkpile, OR who pray for a computer to work which a geek has said is "fried". This was very unlike me. I held the cell phone in my hand and I prayed for God to fully restore and revive the cell phone just as if it had never been in water. I plugged it in to the A/C charger. In a few moments, the phone WEAKLY lit up saying "phone charging".

This morning, I went to the cell phone, not sure of what to expect. The message on the phone read "battery required". I have never seen that message before. I wondered if the battery was truly dead and if the phone just would not work. I popped the battery out one more time, and put it in again. I turned the phone on. IT STARTED UP NORMALLY!

I have been using the phone today. It's completely normal! Would the phone have been OK anyway, or did God really fix it? You decide, but I think it's the latter!

1 comment:

Pete from Colo Spgs said...

I don't know if God was involved, but I think slamming it around probably helped. Kris and I have a running joke that whenever anything doesn't work, especially our car, the proper thing to do is to hit it with a hammer.