Becky and I will be away this weekend. There is a very important ballet recital to attend in Michigan. 

I sent a text message to a friend the other day reminding him to double check one thing or another.  As I pecked the word “double” onto the screen, the autofill feature on my phone quickly suggested that the next word might be “bacon.”  I thought about bacon for a moment before continuing on with my reminder to double check.

I am not exactly sure how the autofill feature on a smart phone works, but I know my phone has a good memory.  I’ve tried to replicate my double bacon results, but now every time I type in “double,” my phone suggests I use “check” for my next word.

Maybe double bacon was a fluke, but I imagine somewhere in the bowels of the Apple empire is a program that remembers we Americans like our bacon doubled and kindly suggests bacon, then, as the word to follow double.

Undoubtedly there is a social commentary to be written about clogged arteries and American obesity, but, as a bacon lover, I would be a hypocrite to write it.

My smart phone is notoriously dumb when it comes to Biblical literacy, and is especially bad with Hebrew and Greek people and place names.  So I wondered what a phone more conversant in Bible content might suggest for the autofill after double.

Double is not common in biblical vocabulary, but it does appear in both the Old and New Testaments of our English Bible. Based on frequency of use, a more biblically aware  program somewhere in the bowels of the Apple empire might suggest “portion” or “minded” as autofill words to finish our double phrase.

Just before the chariots of fire come for Elijah, Elisha asks the old prophet if he might receive a double portion of his spirit. Elijah says, “You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you.”  And then the chariots of fire and the whirlwind.

Instead of a double portion of bacon, might we ask for a double portion of a spirit of courage and confidence to live for Christi in our world.

James tell his friends their double-mindedness keeps them from knowing the grace and love of Christ more fully.  Part of who they are desires the ways of Christ above all, but another part of who they are is tempted by the lure of the glittery things the world offers.  They are double-minded and need to be single-minded.

The world offers things much worse than the cholesterol and sodium of double bacon.  Might we ask to be kept from double-mindedness.

My smart phone is pretty dumb when it comes to biblical living.  I need to double check my autofill to be sure I’m not living a double-minded life.  Oh Lord, might I have a double portion of courage and confidence.

BT