The call heard round the classroom…
A little context before we begin, I grew up in the razor, nokia, Nextel generation. I kind of miss it. I mean, who didn’t enjoy hearing a stranger’s entire conversation on their adult walkie-talkie?
One day while in college I had a pretty big test. This was one of those general classes with an auditorium full of students. It was packed. Everyone was quietly working hard on their test. Then my phone started to vibrate. It wasn’t really a big deal, I just pressed the buttons on the side and sent it to voice mail.
Immediately it rang again. I did it again. I pressed the buttons on the side and sent it to voicemail. This time I laid it on my desk. Guess what? It vibrated again. But this time the vibration shook the wood of the desk. It sounded like I took a woodpecker out of my backpack and let it have an afternoon snack on the desk…in the middle of a dead silent auditorium. It scared the crap out of me.
Everyone’s eyes turned to peer into my soul. I panicked and hit the side buttons of the phone. The vibrating stopped. But, something worse took its place.
In the middle of the quiet silence of a test, I hear the voice of my mom coming from my table. She was shouted, “Hello? Shelby? Hello? Are you there? Shelby?” Come through the little speaker on my phone.
I guess, in my panic, I didn’t send the call to voicemail, instead I put the call on speaker….literally the worst thing I could have done.
My mom was relentless. She wanted to talk. She just kept calling!
[Insert corny pastor shift here.]
That’s how Jesus is. Look at what He says, “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. “ Rev. 3:20
Read that sentence again. Notice, it’s not conditional. It doesn’t say, “Once you jump through a bunch of religious hoops, then I will come knocking on your door.” No, he’s there now. Jesus is knocking and ringing the proverbial phone none stop. You can keep sending it to vibrate…but he’s going to keep calling. He wants to be in your life. He wants to hear from you and share a meal with you. All you have to do is answer.
I know there are elements of my life where I kick Jesus back outside for a bit. I mean, I’ll let him back in when I’m done playing king (and failing horribly at it). Do you have those elements too?
I wonder what it would look like if we just answered the door? If we let Jesus into all of our life. How would it be different?
Today, when things get tough and you are in the middle of the test of your life (or maybe just the test of your day) go to the door and let Jesus into that moment. He wants to help.
