TOOLS AND TOYS

TOOL /tu:1/n

1 instrument held in the hand

and used for working on something…

2 anything used to do or achieve something…

TOY /toI/n

1 thing to play with, especially for a child…

2 thing intended for amusement

rather than for serious use…  

I was chatting with a South African in Phnom Penh recently, during the coffee break at a Youth Ministry Conference where I was teaching.  He was like a “tent-maker missionary” in Cambodia.  In the course of our conversation, he said something like this:  “Today, too many Christians have too many toys and too few tools…  If my children come to me for money to buy a tool, I will gladly give them almost immediately without any questions…  But if they want to buy a toy, I would have to think hard and long…”

The two words TOY and TOOL got stuck in my heart and mind, and have kept me thinking till now…  A gift I received from my daughter recently (for Father’s Day) spurred me to ponder further.  Sarah gave me an iPad 2, and she specified that I could only use the iPad for play and not for work!  And, I posted on Facebook that this caveat will make it so boring! Ha!

Increasingly, the line between toy and tool is getting more and more blur.  I remember that there was a time in the past I have regularly (and strongly) reminded my children that the main usages of a computer are one, work; two, communication; and three, education.  I could not afford to spend RM3000.00 on a piece of equipment to be used primarily as a toy.  And even if I could, I think my convictions would not allow me!  And so, that created lots of tensions at home!

Today… music listening, movie watching, emailing, smsing, internet surfing, facebooking, youtubing, tweeting, etc, etc… are all inter-twined into gadgets that “Babylon” wants us to buy and possess.  Personally, I think there are unseen forces at work here…  Beside the issue of mammon and making money, there is also this issue of conformation to the pattern of the world (Rom 12:2).

The attitudes, mindsets and worldviews that are being created, promoted and reinforced so subtly, so systematically and so effectively may be summarized like this:

“It’s all about me…  I want to enjoy myself…”

“I don’t care…  I must have…”

“I must feel good…”

“I like when admired for the stuff I have…”

“I want…  I like…  I…  I…  I…”

Because the big “I” resonates so powerfully with our fallen nature, the drive is so strong that a 17-year old Chinese teenager Zheng arranged to have one of his kidneys sold over the internet; so that he could buy an iPad 2 and a laptop (BBC News, Beijing; 3 June 2011)!  Sigh!  Sigh!  Sigh!

Whether we are young or old… youths or adults… we can just make a simple mental calculation of our possessions and gadgets.  How many of these are tools?  How many of these are toys?

Yes, I agreed with what the friend I met in Cambodia said: Too many of us have too many toys and too few tools…  And, I personally think that too many of us are far more interested in toys than in tools…  And I also think that too many of us are sliding down this dark and slippery slope… unknowingly…

But just a caveat before I end, I have not given away the toy my daughter recently gave me…  And please don’t tell her that I am using it more as a tool than a toy.  Hahaha!

IMPORTANT NOTES:

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