Anyone who knows me reasonably well knows that I have been working tirelessly and expensively on a media center for my entertainment center. (That sounds a little redundant.) This media center, for those who are not enthusiasts, will act like a Tivo, mp3 player, radio, dvd player/recorder, etc. It’s a jack in the box of entertainment fun!

As I’ve put more and more time and money into this project, I’ve found myself putting a lot of importance into its success. And this is partly natural…I doubt any of you would want to spend hundreds of dollars on a project and have it not work like it should.

Well two weeks ago, the media center had some serious file corruption. I had to reinstall Vista. At the time, I was very depressed about it. It seemed like everything was going wrong in the world. Now if you think that is silly, you are correct.

I fixed this problem with about 5 hours of effort, and the world was once again my oyster.

During this time, I kind of felt like there was a possibility that God was trying to tell me something…that maybe I was spending too much time with ye ol’ media center and too little time with Him. Unfortunately, with my media center fixed this was no longer my concern. I didn’t think about it again. I simply started planning its implementation and spending more money.

The pinnacle of all this spending and enthusiasm happened last Sunday. The media center was ready to go. I had mounted my 42″ flat screen HDTV on the wall the day before. And I had spent at least 4 hours installing a giant antenna 30 feet off the ground out back so that we could receive free, over the air, HD football that night.

I set it all up; it was working perfectly.

And then, through the most unlikely chain of events, I decided to demonstrate its use to my roommate. This turned out to be the divinely appointed time at which I would learn my lesson once and for all about putting too much importance on a toy.  It was this very moment that my media center not only crashed, but refused to start. Why? The motherboard (If you don’t know what that is, it’s fine. Just keep reading.) had fried itself.

I immediately slipped into depression. It ruined the whole day. It ruined my night. It ruined Monday. (Which isn’t hard, because after all…it’s Monday.)

However, God did take the opportunity to show me why this had happened. In talking with two of my friends about this issue, I heard things like “Man, God must be punshing you.” or “Maybe God is trying to tell you that you are placing too much importance on your media center.”

Adding this to my internal suspicions, the picture was very clear.

Presently, my media center is still broken. I’ve learned to accept it. I will be trying to get the motherboard replaced by the manufacturer soon, but no longer am I going to allow it to be the most important part of my happiness.

Anything can be an idol. Let that be a lesson to you.

Cordially,
Clifton