Holla Back
Here’s the difference between me and Jesus: Jesus is available anytime; I might wait a day before I call you back.
I have a friend who is more like a sister—and by that, I mean she drives me crazy. I know if I answer the call, any boundaries that may be in place are suddenly going to dissolve. But what are you going to do? We have history.
If she’s calling, there’s probably a crisis. We don’t hang out for fun. And we almost never talk. But if she really needed me, I’d be there, and I know she’s that one friend who would help you hide a body. Not that I would need her to. But she is loyal like that.
She texted as I was going about my early morning routine today. Within half an hour, she had texted three or four more times and left a voicemail saying she needed me to help talk her down from something. Knowing our history and how what should be a ten-minute call can easily ramble on for an hour or more, left the phone, leashed the dogs and went for a walk.
I felt a little guilty for not taking her call right away, but not guilty enough to answer.
Does anyone else remember a time pre-cell phone? You would have to call someone’s house and hope they were home or were technologically advanced enough to have an answering machine. In an age when we are always reachable, people expect you to respond immediately to their personal crises.
Sometimes, my husband can’t reach me for hours. It drives him crazy. Imagine. Hours without a return call or text. Gasp. How many times does he really need me? Was this a someone's-going-to-the-hospital situation, or did you just want to know when the pack of chicken in the fridge expires?
I try to explain to Jeff that my phone is such a distraction to my productivity that I often leave it on another floor of the house with the volume down. Half the time, I don’t even know where it is - at the bottom of my purse with the receipts and gum wrappers? Fallen into that hole between the driver’s seat and the console? Who knows?
I have been contacted for two actual emergencies, and miraculously, both times, I was standing beside my phone, and the ringer was on. To me, this is another proof that God is real.
When I finally do check my phone, hours after forgetting it was in the console of my car, Jeff will have texted once, followed by multiple exasperated follow-ups. In the interest of stewarding whatever time I have left in my life well and also being available for the rare emergency, I’m lobbying for an old-school house phone. I’m currently trying to decide between a princess phone, a shoe phone, or a burnt orange wall attachment model with an extension cord so long I can take it with me into the bathroom.
In short, I’m not really the person to call when you want immediacy. I’ll have to holla back later.
… Oh, my goodness. She’s calling now. BRB …
That promised twenty-minute call took an hour and a half, as expected. The crisis was that she had a weird dream about me. Sigh. As I said, it's a sister situation.
In all honesty, we talked for so long because, after catching up on everything, it was clear to me that she needed encouragement from someone who has known her for a long time. Life can beat you down. Sometimes, you need to be reminded of who you are. It’s funny how we can forget how much we’ve already come through and how much hope there still is for the future. You need someone who knew you when to remind you that “The good old days weren’t always good, and tomorrow’s not as bad as it seems.” (“Only the Good Die Young”, Billy Joel)
So I was there for her…eventually.
Fortunately for everyone who has found themselves swirling in a sea of doubt and fear, unlike me, God is not involved in a cell phone versus house phone debate. He doesn’t misplace his cell phone, he doesn’t not pick up, he doesn’t hear, “Lord, I need to talk to you,” then walk the dogs before he answers. He’s available 24/7 with just a mention of his name.
He knows our entire story from before we were born. He knows our gifts, our likes, our dislikes, our potential, our mistakes, our victories, even our future. He knows it all and loves us as his children (which is quite different from loving someone like your sister who you don’t always want to talk to). When we need someone to remind us of who we are and what we’re here for, there’s no better friend than Jesus.
Psalm 139 illustrates this so well.
1 O Lord, you have examined my heart
and know everything about me.
2 You know when I sit down or stand up.
You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
3 You see me when I travel
and when I rest at home.
You know everything I do.
4 You know what I am going to say
even before I say it, Lord.
5 You go before me and follow me.
You place your hand of blessing on my head.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too great for me to understand!
7 I can never escape from your Spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!
8 If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I go down to the grave,[a] you are there.
9 If I ride the wings of the morning,
if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
and your strength will support me.
11 I could ask the darkness to hide me
and the light around me to become night—
12 but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
To you the night shines as bright as day.
Darkness and light are the same to you.
13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
16 You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.
17 How precious are your thoughts about me,[b] O God.
They cannot be numbered!
18 I can’t even count them;
they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,
you are still with me!
(NLT)