Will somebody get the phone!?

I don’t mind leaving messages on someone’s phone “mailbox”. I really don’t.  When I’m at work, I can spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get in touch with parents to let them know some important info about their child at school.  But frequently, instead of being able to leave a message, this is what I get:

The mailbox is full…

This subscriber has not set up a mailbox….

Or the ever-popular:

This is no longer a working number….

Really? Is school just a disconnect from the responsibilities of parenthood?

Calm down, calm down.  Grace, grace, grace.  I know, stuff happens.  To me as well.  To all of us.

Case in point, when Bob and I finally decided to get rid of our ground line in favor of our cell phones, the phone number that we had had for M-A-N-Y years somehow ended up as the direct line to our banker’s office.  On one (of more than one) of the misdirected calls she received for us, her comment to the mistaken party was along the lines of, “No, this is no longer their phone, but I go to church with them and I don’t think Dawn would mind if I give you her new number….”

 I love my small town.

But here’s point: communication needs to be an intentional priority.  That’s true whether it’s with your spouse, your kids, your parent, friends, co-workers, and most importantly, with God Himself.  A few thoughts:

We all have a “spiritual capacity”, and sometimes we allow that mailbox to be overwhelmed by life circumstances, by our own scheduling, or by simple neglect when we don’t delete old and outdated messages, like offenses, like patterns of thinking and feeling. Like guilt feelings over things God forgave and forgot long ago.

Perhaps we haven’t properly set up a spiritual mailbox with God, such as spending time in prayer, reading/studying the Bible.

Or we’ve tried this Christian “thing” for a while, and decided it wasn’t for us, and so we disconnect entirely.  This is really tragic, since it’s missing the whole point of what it means to “die to self and live for Christ” and to “find your life by losing it” for His sake.

God is always speaking, we just have to learn to pick up the receiver. (Right, that’s really dating myself.) 

 The voice of the Lord echoes above the sea.
The God of glory thunders…
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is majestic.
The voice of the Lord splits the mighty cedars…
The voice of the Lord strikes
with bolts of lightning.
The voice of the Lord makes the barren wilderness quake;…
The voice of the Lord twists mighty oaks
and strips the forests bare.

 But just how badly do we WANT to be communicated with?

 

Psalm 29:3-9 Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.