My sweet fourteen-year-old friend leaned back against the
wall of the fellowship hall at church as a group of us chatted. Her shoulder
hit something and she spun around.
“’What is this?” She asked holding out the cord of a wall phone
as if it the most bizarre thing she had ever seen.
“Is it a telephone?” She giggled. “A telephone with a . . .
cord?”
More laughter from her.
I am not making this up. By this time, the rest of us were holding
ourselves as we cracked up with her.
She picked up the receiver and studied it a moment, then put
it to her ear. “It works,” she almost shouted her eyes lighting up with delight.
She punched in numbers and someone answered on the other end. “I’m calling you
on a telephone and . . .” she cackled again and waited for affect, “it has a
cord.”
I don’t know if I’ve ever felt as dated as I did
witnessing someone who had never seen a landline phone.
Once while on a prison ministry weekend, I was sitting at
the piano about to help lead praise and worship when a telephone behind me rang
interrupting the person who was speaking. Somehow, I still don’t know how, singers
and we musicians simultaneously launched into a chorus of that old rhythm and blues
song, “Jesus on the Mainline, tell him what you want.” The song, maybe written
early in the twentieth century, brought in a little of the current technology
to communicate a spiritual truth. In any event, it was a big hit that day in
the meeting.
As I’ve thought of my young friend discovering the novelty of
the landline phone and that she could actually make a call on it, as well as
the "Jesus on the Mainline" song, I was reminded that we should have the same
delight as our girl did over how we can call on the God of the Universe.
No cords required.
Anytime.
Anyplace.
Shouts and laughter entirely appropriate.
Recently, while I awaited a medical procedure in the
hospital, I once more marveled at how comforted I was that others were praying
for me, and that I too, could call on the Lord as I faced uncertain results. “Tell
him what you want,” the song says. And I did. However, I knew that no matter
the results, God would still be there.
So there you go. Call him up. No matter what’s going on. And
you don’t have to worry about that pesky cord.
I’m pretty sure it’s going the way of the dinosaurs anyway.
Wonder what my friend would do if she saw a telephone booth?
“In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for
help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears”(Psalm
18:6).