Vol. 17 No. 09 | March 3, 2014
Maybe you have had this or a similar experience. You need information or want to make a change to one of your business accounts (credit card, cable company, utility company). Naturally you call the customer service number. Almost immediately your call is answered…by an automated system. “Please listen closely because our options have recently changed.” Remember those first three words: Please listen closely.
You hear the first three options and realize they do not address your needs, so you press the number 4 to get additional options. Still not sure that any of the options actually apply to your situation, you press the number that is most nearly the reason you called. From there you are taken to another set of options, the final of which offers the opportunity to return to the original set of options. You keep pressing numbers to get more options and wind up back where you started.
Eventually you hear an option that offers to connect you with a customer service person who will assist you. “Finally! A real person!” Yes, it is a real person and they ask for you phone number, your first and last name, your email address, and the last four digits of your Social Security number. After all that you are informed that you need to contact another department. “I will connect you with someone who can help you with your specific problem,” says the friendly voice on the other end of concern. The annoying music starts and you wait. You remember those words from earlier — listen closely — and wish you could get someone to listen to you.
You’re once again greeted by a real person’s voice, so you repeat your problem and you are asked to give them your phone number, your first and last name, your email address, the last four digits of your Social Security number, and the name of the Seven Dwarfs. Unfortunately she says she must consult her supervisor and will now put you on hold for just a few minutes. While waiting for her to return you check your email, check the time you have been on this call, go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, and suddenly realize you have been disconnected. As you redial you shout, “Could I please speak to a real person?”
You can do better. You can speak to the Creator of the Universe any time and any where. John says it well in 1 John 5:13-15:
“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him.”
Although He may not always respond as quickly or in the exact way we may want, we can know at least that He hears us. He never puts us on hold. He never asks us to check our relationship status on His website. He never tells us we have reached the wrong department. He never passes us off to His supervisor. Our call is never accidentally disconnected.
In those times when we wish we had a real person, someone we could touch, or someone we could talk to face to face we can be confident that He hears us when we call out to Him, when we cry, when have no words, and when we can only groan and moan. He will respond. He is better than a real person. He is our real God and He loves us more than we can imagine.
Tom
© Copyright 2014 Tom Norvell. All rights reserved.