Oh Apple, you did it again. You gave me another reason to look down from the Sunday school chalkboard. Ignoring the scrawl of celestial goals and heated warning signs, I type the word ‘callous’ on my Ipad’s Scrabble board. Forty points. Eat that ‘Words With Friends’ buddy!

 Yeah, I’m one of those members.

I wasn’t always an Appleholic. I actually use to frown on the sudden host of members who brought their smart devices to church. I would burn with righteous indignation when someone would smirk at their lit screen, quickly thumbing a response while the speaker bathed the pulpit in tears.

Then one day, I received my own piece of ‘smart’ equipment; the Ipad2. This was a wondrous piece of technology, telling me where to go while putting the word of God in the palm of my hand. Is this how Lehi felt when he first picked up the Liahona? Did he have an app for that?

Most importantly were the doors this little device seemed to open for me at church. No more bumbling around with a bag full of lesson manuals and scriptures. I could just imagine all those around me feverishly shuffling through their wrinkled scriptures, hoping to be the first. Amidst their chaos, I simply touch my screen and say, in a voice worthy of The Spoken Word, “Brother, I have the scripture”.

Oh but how the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

I was listening to Sister so-and-so talk about God healing her goldfish, when I looked down to find my finger dancing across the screen. To my surprise, I’ve created a picture. Worthy of Picasso, I have drawn the image of…a goldfish with a halo. Surely that wasn’t me? I promised myself that the next speaker would get my full attention.

But it was already too late. The door had been opened. I had partaken.

It started with the halo’d goldfish, but then it grew into a flock of angry birds, and before I knew what was happening, I’m playing god over a pocket of imps. Perhaps the PC followers of the world are right. Maybe this smooth gratifying piece of brilliant technology is the harlot of the earth, taking me away from that which can save me!

Or…maybe I just need to show a little restraint. You know, close that flap when I’m not looking up scriptures faster than everyone else. Yeah, there’s the whole pride thing too.

In the end, maybe it really isn’t so bad. After all, did I tell you who my ‘Words With Friends’ buddy is?

It’s your turn Bishop.

~John