the iGod shuffle

So I got an iPod Shuffle in the mail last month. I may have mentioned this before, but I won one at the NYWC convention I went to last year. It took a long time to come my way, and I've enjoyed tinkering around with the thing. Apparently I'm cool now.

Then I heard the news - Apple cut iPod prices. In a move intended to delight music and tech lovers, Apple announced it will be cutting prices on its cheapest iPod - the Shuffle (the one I own) - as well as introducing a cheaper version of its most popular model- the Nano.

Pretty exciting, right?

Not really... because now the free iPod I received feels less "cool." Kind of like I had this real sweet deal, only it's not as great a prize as it was before. I want to yell, "It's just not fair!" I finally win something and then it ends up becoming a blue light special.

Wait a minute... this sounds familiar.

Kind of like when I'm thankful for forgiveness only I'm not so quick to extend it to them or that one guy. Or maybe it's like when I have to deal with those people going to see that movie that I would never see. Perhaps it's even a little bit like this one lady that bothers me whenever I go to this one place.

Isn't it funny how something means the world to us until we have to share it? How can we treasure it in one moment only to have it become something of disdain in the next?

It's the older brother who felt his share of the estate didn't mean as much when the prodigal came home... or King David who decided he wants another man's wife... or the Pharisees when Jesus chilled with the sinners.

Or it's me when I try to shuffle into the place of God and decide who should and shouldn't receive grace.

Ah, yes... grace is already an odd thing, not to mention when we cheapen it with selfishness.

I guess I'll go back to gracefully and gratefully trying to figure out the mystery of iTunes.

"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." (James 4:1-3)