A year ago I was jazzed about the iPhone, but decided to wait for two things before buying one ... GPS and 3G. Well, as of this past Monday, those desires were answered so, on July 11, you'll be able to find me in line at the Cherry Creek mall waiting to get myself a new phone.

Sure there are some things that the iPhone is still lacking, the primary one being the ability to cut and paste text, but, the beauty of the iPhone is that most of it's functionality is driven by software, not hardware, and the two main hardware upgrades I was wanting are now part of the phone (although an upgraded camera and iSight would have been nice) ... all the other stuff, well, that's just downloading an update.

This whole hardware and software thing got me thinking about the key question I bring up in the "wind" section of the elemental life. The idea behind "wind" is, in light of "earth", "water", and "fire", how do we now live out our faith. My proposal is that, rather than asking, "Where does God want me?" that we ask, "Where does God have me?" Part of the "have me" question, especially as we think about things like gender and family could be phrased as, "What's my hardware?"

You see, hardware is that stuff you have whether you like it or not (and let's be honest, at different times and in different ways, there are plenty of things about the hardware that we don't like). Moreover, I'd say our hardware should be more like an iPhone than a desktop tower in that it's not designed to be "upgradeable" (change the gender, ditch the family, etc).

The challenge then comes in with what we do with the hardware that we have. It's our thoughts, feelings, and other pieces that drive our actions. These things, which are changeable and upgradable (or down-gradable ... is going back to XP from Vista an upgrade or a downgrade?) are the software.

So, legit analogy, or am I completely off my rocker?

I have a few friends who occasionally shoot me emails and ask random Bible questions, often because someone asked them and they weren't sure, so they ask me. I received one of these the other night: In both Exodus and Deuteronomy it talks about the 10 commandments and refers to not coveting your neighbors wife. Why doesn't this refer to spouse? The problem the individual who originally asked the question had, was that it's sexist by only addresses men coveting women. So, how do I address this?

First, I think we need to ask, "What's the context of the Law, from the 10 Commandments on down to the final details in Numbers to the second giving in Deuteronomy?"

In Exodus to Numbers, the Law is what God gives to his people at Sinai after he's taken them up and out of Egypt. The giving of the Law begins with a statement of this Gospel action, then moves on to the 10 Commandments, and then on to the rest of the Law. In Deuteronomy, it's a reminder of this Law being given to the people before they enter the Promised Land.

So, why does this matter? Quite simply, because the Law, in both cases, is being given to a group of people who are categorized by their ethnicity and history. They are descendants of Jacob who were brought out of slavery in Egypt (either personally or their direct ancestors). This means that, literally, the 10 Commandments don't apply to you and me.

Now, before anyone loses it, take note of that word, "literally". Because, in a way, the 10 Commandments do apply to you and I. They are, after all, a solid framework for understanding God's will, especially when we follow Jesus interpretation of them as opposed to the interpretation of the Pharisees.

So, for our purposes here, the key for you and I isn't the letter of the 10 Commandments, but their heart ... and that heart doesn't include sexism.

But this still leaves us with the problem that, in the original giving of the Law, God gave the command specifically to men so, "Was God being sexist? Shouldn't God have said that you shouldn't covet your neighbor's spouse?"

In response to this, my mind flashed to Matthew 19 and Jesus teaching on divorce. In short, he doesn't think divorce is a good thing, which makes sense because I've never found anybody who thought divorce was something they were just dying to experience. Challenging Jesus anti-divorce stance, the Pharisees point back to Deuteronomy 24:1-4, part of the Law, which gives permission for a man to divorce his wife because, "he has found some indecency in her".

How did Jesus respond? He says that the Mosiac Law is something less than God's design and is, in a sense, scaled back because those God was giving the law to, had hard hearts. In other words, could their be sexism in there, absolutely, but not because God desires it, but because God recognizes the human condition. I'd say the same thing goes for all those men in the Old Testament who had multiple wives.

If you expand this same heart of God beyond this one issue, it's actually a very good thing that God is aware of our condition, and is willing to work with us in our weakness to accomplish his much larger purposes.