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There was a time when phones were found on office desks and kitchen walls. Residential customers had the option of having a private line or party line to utilize the convenience. Private lines cost more but you could always know you could make or receive a call. With a party line several customers shared the line and as such could easily listen in on your conversation if they chose to do that or stay on the line so long you couldn’t access it when you wanted and voice mail was unheard of. I still recall what it was like on a party line in my childhood.

We’ve come a long way since then. Most of us have a phone in our pocket or purse every waking hour of the day and party lines are long gone unless you invite a family member to join a conversation if your phone has that feature. We count on our phones and many of us no longer have “land lines” or old-fashioned answering machines connected to them. Our phones are usually connected to us all the time unless we are sleeping and some of us are reluctant to turn them off then. Little question we need them since the days of “pay phones” on nearly every corner are long gone.

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Voice mail comes automatically with the phone and we can and do ignore calls if we choose and do so regularly if the number that shows up is not one we know. But the phone is more than a means of a conversation. It gives us alerts and alarms and keeps our calendar (or is supposed to). For the highest tech most expensive device it can keep track of our heart rate, blood pressure and more in the fitness realm. All this is for our convenience and yet can result in a love/hate relationship with the phone.

The phone can ring in the midst of a class, appointment, or church service if we forget to silence it. It can create anxiety for any number of reasons whether our blood pressure numbers or how often it can interrupt us if we do not use “do not disturb.” It can misspell a text as well without our catching the word we did not intend and more. Threads of text messages can leave us trying to sort out who is included or responding.

This device has also served as a means to share hurtful information about us including lies and distortions that impinge our character on social media sites or in texts where the other person doesn’t need to face us. We are too often looking at our phone just to look at it and see if we are missing anything and consequently stay attached to it when we are with people we could and should be talking and listening to and looking at. We can be addicted to this device (sometimes without realizing it).

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The voicemail feature is one that can really be an irritation for us when we are calling any business or medical office. Rarely does a real person pick up the call now. Instead of that we get a recorded message with a menu of options and extension numbers to choose from. That can be confusing at best when we just want to ask a question or clarify an appointment or information left on our voicemail. Beyond confusing it can provoke a great deal of frustration.

Too often whatever menu option we choose leads to yet another recorded message with a lovely message telling us they will return our call within the next 24 to 48 hours or the next business day. Of course they may or may not get back to us or if they do we may not be able to accept the call and the process starts all over again.

When we want to connect to a real person to ask a question, share a joy, unburden a heartache or find out how they are we have never had more options and yet often with more obstacles.

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It would be so nice to have someone we could connect with who would always answer personally, never send us to voicemail, be too busy, or be unavailable during the hours of the day we most wanted or needed to connect.

But we do!

There is and always has been someone available 24 hours a day seven days a week including holidays. He is always glad to hear from us and never tires of listening. He doesn’t judge us when we dump all our feelings out nor does He offer trite cliches in response. He knows us better than anyone else and still loves us the best. 

The only challenge is that too often we don’t initiate a conversation with Him when He is eager to hear from us. Sometimes we call everyone else before Him. Sometimes we have bought into a false narrative that He really isn’t interested in all the little things that bug us or won’t understand when we messed up again.

That’s a narrative the enemy of our souls would want us to believe and sometimes we fall prey to his smooth talking and forget he is a liar and always has been.

You see, with God, there is no voicemail, no long list of menu options to choose from if you call Him. He is always delighted to hear from you no matter whether you’re having a good day or bad, are full of anger, disappointment, indifference, melancholy, doubt, or joy. He is always there, waiting, and eager to hear.

Photo by Pam Ecrement