“What we have here…….is a failure to communicate.”
A line from the movie “Cool Hand Luke”
Last week, I sent out about a dozen text messages, several dozen emails, and left about 4 messages in voice mail boxes. This was a pretty typical week. Your week was probably similar. Technology has made it very easy to send information to another person. But, I am beginning to wonder…….has technology improved our ability to communicate? You see, half of those messages did not garner a reply. Half of my messages were not even acknowledged. Now, it’s true that sometimes a message does not require a reply. But, I don’t know for sure that the messages that I sent were even received.
Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not having a pity party. I don’t respond to every message. I certainly feel no compunction to respond to commercials masquerading as texts, voicemail, and email. But, I am going to try to be better with non-commercial messages. A message from another person…..sent to me should at least be acknowledged.
And that brings me to the point of this post.
I believe that God is far more involved in the details of our daily lives than we suspect. God probably intervenes in our lives many times a day. Sometimes, this is direct. Sometimes, he gives someone else a little nudge to do or not do something to us or for us. I can recall several incidents where I felt a little nudge to do something that was unusual…..something that was way outside of my typical behavior. Sometimes I act on the nudge……sometimes I ignore it. In either case, I believe that these acts were prompted by God. These tiny, subtle interventions are, in effect, communications from our creator.
My point is that daily, God sends us a message, a little nudge, perhaps even a gift, or maybe he spares us from a disaster. And it is like the texts that I sent last week.
I suspect that most of the time, when God reaches out to us…… he doesn’t get a reply. Most of the time, when God reaches out to us……..we don’t even acknowledge him.
Maybe God deserves a reply…….Maybe God wants an acknowledgement………instead of “a failure to communicate”.
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Jesus, Matthew 25:31-40, ESV