For the major part of her life, Funke had desired to own an iPhone. Quite weird, you might say. But I can’t blame her. I can’t blame her at all, because she wasn’t born with a silver spoon in her mouth. She has had to endure sharing classrooms with a bunch of spoilt kids from rich homes, flashing their smartphones in her presence as they would pose for various selfies after each class, while she managed her Nokia “torchlight” phone.

Funke had been an understanding daughter all this while. She understood that she came from a different home and should learn to be content with what she had. However, on a certain Tuesday evening, back from school, she couldn’t help it anymore so she confronted her mom.

“Mom, when would all this enduring stop?” she asked.

“Enduring? Girl, you’d better tell me if someone has been bullying you in school, so I can treat the person right!” her mom said.
“Relax, mom; I am talking about my phone. My mates in class are using sophisticated smartphones and I’m stuck with this thing. It’s embarrassing,” Funke said.
“Emba what? Wait. Just wait. If the phone can allow you make calls, send texts, and help you see whenever the power is out, then you shouldn’t be embarrassed; it’s simply doing what it was made to do,” she replied.
“No, mom, phones do more than all that these days; they send instant messages, snapchat great moments, tweet your thoughts and take high-quality selfies,” she said.
Hissing and shaking her head, her mom replied, “It’s clear to me that you are not serious and have your priorities mixed up. When I was your age, students didn’t even have mobile phones, not to talk of smartphones. So you’d better keep on enduring it because I can’t afford an iPhone or a Samsung. On the other hand, you can call your aunty, who should be coming back from the U.K. next week, to get you a smartphone for your upcoming birthday.”
And that was what she did. Fortunately for her, she called her aunty while she was in an Apple shop, so she was able to get her an iPhone 5s.
Funke finally owned the phone of her dreams. She was now able to “feel among” during the selfie sessions after classes and tweet her thoughts — from what she was presently doing to how someone driving just splashed mud on her uniform with their car tyres. She immediately got so attached to and reliant on her phone. She hardly had a decent face to face conversation with her loved ones because she just had to quickly reply the instant messages. She began to live in her phone…and the thought of ever losing it scared her a lot.
Two weeks later, on her way to a wedding ceremony in which she had to take a bus to get to, she took about 50 selfies.

Suddenly, there was a gun on the neck of the driver; the robber commanded the bus driver to stop the bus, and of course, he obeyed.
“Everyone, get down and bring out all the valuables you have on you right now before I blow your brains out!” the robber said.
Everyone did exactly as he commanded; everyone except Funke. Her heart had begun a 1oom race the moment she saw the gun, so she quickly hid her iPhone. The robber began to take possession of all the valuables that were brought out. When he got to Funke, all she brought out was the money she had on her.

“Young lady, you must think this is a toy gun, abi?” the robber asked; then made sure he cleared Funke’s doubt (or “smartness”), “POW! POW!” he shot into the sky.
Funke began to shake uncontrollably, with the gun now pointed at her head.

“My friend, will you bring out that lovely iPhone you were taking selfies with throughout the journey before I literally burst your head! Your iPhone or your life!” the robber said.

After hearing this, various thoughts flashed through her mind. The thought of losing her precious phone was a very scary one that she never thought could be overcome by the present thoughts, which are — the thought of losing her life and not getting to see and spend quality time with her loved ones again, the thought of not achieving her dreams, and the thought of not making heaven if she died that moment, as she had been postponing giving God a chance in her life by surrendering to Jesus Christ. It was a moment of epiphany. She realized that all this while, her mom was right about what she said the other day — she had misplaced priorities.

Matthew 6:19-20 (NLT)
Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.