This past week I had the wonderful pleasure of going to visit a cousin I barely knew growing up. We had the most amazing visit getting to know one another; learning about our respective childhoods; learning about our relationships and marriages, etc.
The last day I was there I received a text message from the airline I was booked on to fly home. The message said the flight was delayed by about 2 hours. There was no explanation, only that the flight was delayed.
Within about an hour, another message arrived and it said the flight was now delayed 3 hours and still no explanation.
So, after urging from my cousin, I called the 888 number the airline had provided which was supposed to give the passengers more information. Instead I got the “Dial 1 for X”, “Dial 2 for Y”, and you get the picture. After some frustration, I pushed 0 just to get past the crazy menu (as sometimes that works).
Thankfully, this time it did.
When the airline agent answered, and I explained all the text messages I was getting, she said she would try to find out why the flight was delayed.
Now, the number I called connected me to the major airline. The flight was actually being operated by one of their small partner airlines. So, the agent had to call that smaller airline to find out why the flight was delayed.
She politely asked if she could put me on hold so she could call them. Of course I agreed.
Ten minutes later she gets back on the line with me and said, “They have me on hold, can you wait a bit longer?”
I agreed.
Another 10 minutes passed, and she got back to me and said, “I am still on hold. I am really sorry. Can you keep holding?”
I agreed.
Another 10 minutes passed, and she got back on the line with me and said, “They still have me on hold and are not acknowledging I am even holding.”
Trying to keep my cool I told her that what she was experiencing is exactly what we, the customer, experience whenever we try to get help from their partner airlines customer service. Now that she had experienced it maybe she would consider letting the upper ups of the major airline know how poorly their partners treat their customers. She said she most definitely would. Now I don’t know if she will, but there is always hope.
Why the long story?
It got me thinking about how God must feel when He tries to communicate with us. He tries to reach us through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and I can only imagine how often we ignore the communication. How sad (and maybe frustrated) must He be with us? Here He is trying to get our attention, get us help, let us know He is listening to us, and we don’t pay attention or acknowledge the one trying to get us that message.
The only way I finally got an answer to the delay was to go to the airport (four hours early) and speak directly with an agent face to face.
It makes me think of how God (in the Old Testament) would make Himself heard in a more physical way, such as through the angel in a burning bush.
There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. ~ Exodus 3:2
Or through a staff turning into a snake.
The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. ~ Exodus 4:3
We don’t have that these days, or if we do I have never experienced it. However, I have the intermediary. I have Jesus. I have the Holy Spirit. I just have to acknowledge that they are reaching out to me and passing along messages from God.
God just wants our attention. I can only hope that I can be better at acknowledging His communication than the small partner airline was at acknowledging the call from the major airline partner.
I can only hope, and pray, that I love God so much that I will give Him the attention He deserves.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever — the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. ~ John 14:16-17
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