Have you ever received any phone calls where instead of someone actually speaking to you they start off with an automated message? It sounds something like this…”We’re sorry that we cannot speak to you personally…” and then it goes on to ask you to “Hold please” until they find an actual human being who can speak to you.
Really?
Let me get this straight. THEY are calling me, but too busy to actually pick up the phone and greet me, so I’ve been sent to an automated line where I am the one who has to sit around and wait until THEY are ready to speak to me about whatever it is that is so important to interrupt my day. Unfortunately for them, the only thing they will hear is the clicking of my phone as it hangs up.
I’m sure we’re all in agreement that that has to be one of the most ridiculous phone calls we could ever receive. I mean, do they really expect us to wait around for them? Are they even surprised when there’s no one on the line? Do they ever ask themselves if this tactic really works?
By now I’m sure you’re all nodding your head in agreement. But before we all take up arms and wage a war on telemarketers I want to ask a question.
Are we doing the same thing to God?
Okay, we’re busy. I get it. We are real people with real needs and real demands on our time. Sometimes it’s so much easier to put God on hold while we take care of other things, especially knowing that He has promised in Hebrews 13:5 that…”I will never leave you nor forsake you”. So of course we expect that He will remain on hold, cheerfully and patiently waiting for us to make some time to actually speak to Him.
Really?
I know my reaction to those automated phone calls. I find them annoying, bothersome and rude, even a little offensive. They definitely don’t make me want to wait around to talk to someone who obviously, by their own actions, doesn’t care about inconveniencing me.
So I have to ask myself, why do I expect God to sit on the sidelines, taking time out of His busy life, so that I can comfort myself with the thought that He is at my beck and call? Why do I assume that He is okay with being relegated to an automated message in my personal life?
I mean, He does have an entire universe to run, not to mention all the minor trivial things in life that we take for granted.
After all, if I’m not okay with “Hold please…” from random strangers, why would I assume that God is?