Is That You?

“There are ‘friends’ who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24 NLT)

In sharing a quote by Andy Crouch, Dr. David Jeremiah, in a recent Turning Point devotional, wrote: “Our technology has eclipsed our psychology. ‘Is it a coincidence, or just a kind of grand irony, that loneliness has spiked just as our media became “social,” our technology became “personal,” and our machines learned to recognize our faces?’ (Andy Crouch)”

When I was first in ministry, I got a call late one night. This was long before cell phones, so I had to get out of bed, find my way to the big, clunky phone, and answer it. SILENCE! My first inclination was to hang up, but this wasn’t the first time it had happened, so I stayed on the line and listened. I said some version of: “I’m here, I’m listening, and I care, so please speak with me.” I was in Youth Ministry then, so I assumed it was one of the teens in my group, but it turned out to be one of their friends whom I’d only met a time or two. I learned a valuable lesson that night.

Often during our daily lives, we encounter people or circumstances with which we’re not acquainted, and we’re forced to ask: “Lord, is that You? Have you engineered these things? How would You have me respond?” His still, small voice is hard to hear in the loudness of our cell phones, tablets, iPads, and other devices that demand so much of our time each day.

Dr. Jeremiah wrote: “Every morning millions of people check their phones and social media, then go into their day with little true human interaction. They retire at night after checking their phones again and fall to sleep with a hunger in their souls for love and significance. Is that you?”

Are you the one holding in silence, waiting for someone to notice you, listen to you, care about you? While working from home can be a great blessing, it can also be the catalyst for anxiety, loneliness, depression, and worse.

Centuries ago, John Donne wrote the poem “No Man Is an Island,” the first line of which says: “No man is an island, entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” John Donne has been referred to as “The Poet of God’s Love,” so it rightly reminds me of the fellowship of believers that has been, and continues to be, so vital in my life. Certainly, this critical piece of what it means to be a child of God rang in the heart and mind of Donne as he wrote.

Often, while I was a Pastor, people would come to me for “counsel,” and it always baffled me when I’d sit and listen to them for an hour or so, but when they left, they’d tell me how helpful my “counsel” had been, when I hadn’t said 10 words. It causes me to wonder how many lonely people are dying for want of someone to hear them? To see them? To acknowledge their existence, their “part of the main?”

Sometimes it seems to be such a waste of time to be on the phone or in a restaurant with someone who goes on and on about nothing. I’ve been there, but it occurs to me that for them it wasn’t “nothing.” To them it was a lifeline of hope that someone was willing to listen to them, to acknowledge their existence.

Throughout my day I often turn my heart, mind, and voice to the Lord in conversation, yet He never interrupts me or hints in any way that I’m “wasting His time.” Quite to the contrary He says to me: “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Would to God that we could be more like Jesus in being available to those in our spheres of influence who so desperately need a listening ear. Is that you?

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊