The One Thing I Need More than the New iPad

It’s reviews like this one that made me want to buy an iPad:

The whole thing feels fast fast fast … $500 is affordable but not cheap, and the iPad does not feel cheap in any regard … The iPad display is, overall, wonderful. Colors are bright and accurate. Photos and videos looks great. Touches seem precisely accurate. The glass feels good. Viewing angles are shockingly good.

I could go on, but you get the point. The bottom line: the iPad is a great product.

Think that’s a review of the new iPad being released today? Not at all. The review I quoted was posted in April 2010. It’s not about the new iPad; it’s about the one that came out not even two years ago.

Here’s the thing. The review is still accurate. The original iPad is still a great product. My iPad still feels fast. It is still a well-made product. The display is still wonderful, and the colors are still bright.

So why am I tempted to ditch it?

This post has nothing to do with iPads, and it’s not meant as an indictment against anyone buying the new iPad. This post has a lot more to do with my own heart, specifically about one character trait that I seem to lack: contentment.

Jerry Bridges writes:

To be content with one’s possessions is one of the most strongly worded exhortations in Scripture. God deemed it important enough to include a prohibition against covetousness together with prohibitions agains the more abhorrent sins of murder, stealing, and adultery … [Contentment] is not a spiritual luxury. Contentment with what we have is absolutely vital to our spiritual health. (The Practice of Godliness

)

It turns out that I need one thing more than I need the new iPad: contentment with what I already have. I checked, and they don’t carry that at the Apple Store.