Is God on call waiting?

I recently switched phone companies, going to one that offered me a bundle of services at a very good price. Though that was a compelling incentive for me to switch, I might have stayed with my ‘unbundled’ phone company, if they had only truly listened to me when I had called them on several matters. They didn’t, so I moved to another telephone service provider, hoping to have better luck with them.

While not on par with the calling told of in the reading from Isaiah today, they both shared the same intent. They both involved calls from someone trying to get their message across to people telling them that they needed to listen or there would be big changes coming. The people of Israel didn’t. Instead, they put God on call waiting, took another call, that of the easier path, and never went back to God’s call.

Two of Jesus’ disciples didn’t engage the call waiting, but answered the call by Jesus to follow him and take up his teachings. Thousands didn’t. Those thousands used the call waiting to take the call of the easier path, and never got back to Jesus at all. It is a story repeated throughout the Old and NewTestaments.

But the father, who is wise in all things, also has a way around us putting him off and simply focusing on life. It is both deceptively simple and rather effective. He simply does not give up.

Have you ever been on a phone call when someone tries to call you? You get that tone, however your phone renders it, that announces that someone is trying to call you. If you are like me, it throws you for a second, and you pause as you realize that someone is trying to call you. It happens in twos most of the time, with another tone interrupting your conversation, trying to tell you that person is still on the line, still trying to reach you.

Usually that’s it, and the call gets routed to voicemail or the person hangs up. Every once in a while you get that third tone, or maybe a fourth. That is because the person hasn’t gotten the message, hasn’t hung up, and is still trying to get you to switch over to them. It gets increasingly annoying, and you almost want to switch over the call simply to tell the person that they are being very rude, and that you will call them back. You could think that this may be a very important message or the person would have hung up and tried again later. Maybe you just ignore it out of spite.

That is God’s way of getting your attention. He doesn’t hang up. He keeps that annoying tone in your ear. Being infinitely patient, he can hold on as long as has to in order to get through to you, whether that be days, months, or decades.

Ever get that twinge that something has not been taken care of in your life? That’s call waiting. Ever get that guilty feeling like you have been ignoring something for way too long? That’s call waiting. Ever get reminded of something that you have put off for way too long and say to yourself, “Someday, someday”? That’s call waiting. Ever get the feeling that you know you need to accomplish something, do that thing that has been gnawing at you for some time? You don’t know why you have to do it, you can’t see the benefit in it for you, but still know you have to do it. That’s call waiting.

We have many views of God, given to us from the bible, from literature, from paintings, and from many other sources. We view the Almighty as ruler, king, protector, avenger, and guardian. I would venture a guess that the word ‘pest’ would not make the top 10 in descriptive words about God. If you think about it, though, he really is. He is always calling us to be more than what and who we are. He is telling us time and time again that all we have to do is abide by his rules and we can have paradise on earth. He has to be the biggest pest of all time, as he has told us this over thousands of years, eventually getting his son involved in this pestering. Geez, talk about carrying on a family business!

Many people I know hate call waiting. They miss the old days when you could actually get a busy signal and just call back later if you wanted to reach the person. They miss the days when there wasn’t that little tone in your ear and your caller ID showing who is trying to reach you. There was no flash button allowing your phone to suddenly become two lines and you having to let one person know that they are the lesser important of the two people trying to talk to you. The roundly ignore their call waiting, thinking that if the call is important enough, that person will just call back.

God, I think, is okay with that, because he will call back, and often does. The problem isn’t on his end, but on ours. We don’t want to pick up that phone when he does call. So all he can do is keep trying to get through.

Why is God trying to get through on your call waiting? And why aren’t you getting back to him?

Amen,
Michael Gow