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Over a year ago I was in the market for an mp3 player. On the day after Thanksgiving, I purchased a simple mp3 player, but it didn’t come for a couple of weeks. I called the company I bought it from, and they had oversold. I cancelled my order, and kept my eyes open for other deals on mp3 players.
I thought buying an iPod was beyond my budget, but as I kept watching the deals, I realized that for not much more than the other mp3 players, I could get an iPod Nano. Then, the jump from a nano to a touch (at that time 3rd generation) 8 GB was not too much more, especially for the extra power the iPod touch has as a handheld device.
I gave in and bought an iPod touch, the first “big” purchase of technology (besides my laptop) that I had made in some time, and, without realizing it, I stepped into the world of iPod/iPhone apps and their capabilities.
Honestly, I don’t buy many right-out-of-the-market gadgets, and by the time I bought the 3rd generation iPod touch, it had already been out for some time. And by now, my iPod is so “last year” that it dates me that I’m even talking about the previous model.
Even though my iPod will go…has gone out of date as the “latest and greatest,” I am glad I made the purchase. There are many great features, but the feature that has helped me the most has not been the apps. I have benefitted from these, but, more importantly, I have been able to use the mp3 player to more actively listen to good Christian content that builds my faith and imparts to me wisdom. You may already know these benefits of an mp3 player, but I ask you to consider the spiritual help these features can be to you.
- I can listen to sermons for free. There are many good churches putting their sermons online, and I can download them for free. A lot of churches still sell CDs or DVDs at their church, but I can go online and download it from their site at no charge, (and not have to keep up with a stack of CDs).
- I can put my Christian music on the mp3 player, and have a large library of encouraging music at my fingertips. Good music aids Christian growth. I can focus my mind on the Lord and his character as I am going through my day, and the songs are right there for me to access.
- I can listen to good audiobooks. For a busy person, it may not always be hard to read a book, but it may be hard to actually finish one! Audiobooks help me stay with a book, because I can listen to it as I’m driving down the road and just pick up where I left off.
- I can play the mp3s through my car radio. To do this, I use an FM transmitter, but there are various ways to do this, including plugging into the aux. outlet, or using a cassette adapter (ancient!). All of these great audio resources are with me on my iPod, so I can play them in the car as I’m driving to work, going to visit someone, or running an errand for the office. The potential for being built up in the Lord is right there with me when I have a moment to listen.
You don’t have to have an iPod to benefit from these things. Any mp3 player can provide these capabilities, with only some variation in functionality. Use technology to build your spiritual walk!
How do you use your mp3 player to help your spiritual walk?