One Unheard Message

It is the vibration so penetrating that we have trained ourselves to hear its buzz. It sends shockwaves through our body and chills up our spine as we realize that someone, somewhere wants to talk with us. It is our cell phone, and it is ringing.

It is tough to let any call go to voicemail. Today’s world of fingertip technology has trained us to always be ready, to always be available in case that life-changing moment or that split-second emergency or that chance to intervene is just on the other side of the ‘answer’ button. If we put it off to voicemail, maybe we miss our moment, our invitation, or our last chance.

But sometimes, as we all know, it is not possible to take the call. Maybe we are in mixed company where such an
interruption would be rude. Perhaps we are at the movie theater, completely engrossed in the fantasy playing out before us. Maybe we have our hands full with the dishes, the groceries, the kids, or the housework. Maybe, as often happens at least to me, this call caught us with our pants down (no explanation needed). Or maybe we just screen our calls, looking at the caller ID to see if whoever is on the other end is worth interrupting our lives for at that particular moment.

If they are not, we ignore the call or send it straight to voicemail, waiting to listen to their message at a later time. A more opportune time, in our own opinion.

One missed call.

What if that call was the important one? What if that was our moment, our invitation, our last chance? What if the Caller had something life-changing to speak to us in that moment, and even though we could have guessed He really needed us, we sent the call to voicemail anyway because we could not be bothered with His interruptions?

Later, we tell ourselves. Not now.

And later, we press that speed dial button on our phone – 1. One leads us to our message. One takes us to the call we missed. One registers, connecting us to our voicemail box where we hear the words that can only haunt us:

“You have one unheard message. First unheard message….”

Silence. Leaving us to wonder what He wanted when He called.