It
is frustrating to make a phone call and get trapped in the endless automated
system. Hearing the robot lady’s voice say over and over:
Press 1 for this.
Press 2 for that.
Press 3 to leave a message.
Press 4 to return to the main
menu.
She
asks for my account number, but then when a real live customer service rep answers they ask for the number again,
like it was just a stall tactic by the robot lady. I have started immediately
saying, “customer service rep” as soon as the robot lady starts speaking. Even
then she will say, “I understand you want to speak to a customer service rep.
If your question is about this, press 1. If it is about that, press 2.” Aaugh!
Recently
I was at the hospital for my son’s surgery. They needed me to call my insurance
company and find out what I owed. It seemed like a simple request, surely there
was a simple answer.
First,
my husband called. I could tell by his deliberate answers he was talking to the
robot lady. After 20 minutes he gave up and said it was my turn. I called. I
answered all the robot lady’s questions just like he did. Finally, I tried to
override her and said,
“Customer service! Customer service! Customer service!”
Somehow this baffled the robot lady and she sent me back to
the main menu.
“If this is a medical emergency,
hang up and dial 911.”
“If this is a mental health
emergency, press 1.”
That
was interesting. They must have added the mental health option, because after
being on hold for 20 minutes they knew there would be a mental health
emergency.
Finally,
she said, “You are caller number 14. Press 1 to leave a message and someone will
call you back. Press 2 to continue holding.”
Since this was not my first rodeo with the robot lady, I
knew better than to leave my number. I tried that before and nobody ever called
back. I lost my place in line and had to call again and wait another 20
minutes.
Sometimes
I think we view prayer like that. We call God and we want to:
Press 1 to have a good day
Press 2 to bless the food.
Press 3 for help on a test.
Press 4 for God to be with us.
Press 5 for a close parking spot.
And if we have a bigger request we become frustrated when we
have to wait longer than 20 minutes for the answer.
Prayer
is so much more than that. God is not a robot guy dispensing immediate answers.
Prayer is talking to our heavenly Father who loves us more than we can
understand, about things that truly matter to us. It should be like a
continuous conversation with our best friend. It is more about our relationship
with God, our love for Him, our reliance on Him, and our faith in Him than it
is about Him blessing our food.
I
never did get through to a real person that day in the hospital. No doubt they
will bill me what we owe for the surgery. Thankfully, God never puts us on hold
or makes us wait to get through to Him. He is always with us, always hears us
and truly cares about the details of our life.
This is the confidence we have in
approaching God: that if we ask anything according
to his will, he hears us. 1 John 5:14
**************************
Don’t you love that God
always hears us when we talk to Him?
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