Wednesday, September 17, 2014

The Phone Call

Picture this:

You are out at Target, Home Depot, or Costco running errands and just being busy on the weekend. You walk around a blind corner in an aisle and come face to face with someone you know from work or church. What comes out of your mouth? “Hey! How’s it goin?” They say, “Not much, just out with the family, picking up some stuff for the week. And you?” You say, “I’m fine, just chilling and picking up some stuff for the week too. Anyway, it’s great seeing you. Have a nice weekend.” Seems innocent enough, but look closer. You know, down inside where it’s quiet and your thoughts are bouncing around somewhere below the conscious world. There is a little sadness. A little loneliness. Unfulfilled heart desires. I know that if you look closely and think about it that you’ll agree.

You see, God did not make us for these surface things. We require more feeding and watering than shallow communication can provide. We once walked in the garden with our creator and somehow we expect that our arm’s length relationships will now fill that void?

I have been feeling this way lately you see: We need more than this. I need more than this.

In this supposedly very connected, social age, why is it that I hear so much loneliness, why I feel it so often? We have cell phones with us at almost every moment. We have social media apps by the bucket load (Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, etc.) and yet people seem more isolated and insulated than ever. Why is that? How could things have come to this?

God did not create us to live in isolation. We were meant to live in community. We were meant to build deep and lasting relationships. We cannot survive life’s storms as islands. We were not meant to.

So when your friends call. Don’t ignore them just because there might be pain on the other end. Don’t ignore them because you might miss 10 minutes of your oh so important date with Candy Crush, or the ball game, or staring at the fuzz between your toes.

Pick up that phone and connect. Support the eternal. Live a real life and don’t drown yourself in things that have no eternal value. You just might lift someone’s head up to see hope again. You just might revive someone’s spirits. You just might save a life.

Step outside yourself and feel the refreshing breeze from the garden of the eternal God as he calls all of us to once again walk with him. And bring a friend!

Call that person who’s been on your mind today. You just might change the future!