Just Pick Up the Phone

Affirmation:  When I quickly and directly resolve an issue, I feel less stressed and more peaceful.

This is the age of electronic communications.  On Longmire, one of my favorite TV shows, Longmire's deputy checked the victim's phone for text messages rather than for phone calls.  And, that was the correct method for finding out about the victim's activity.  It's so very easy to send a text, an email or a tweet but it isn't necessarily the quickest way to communicate with someone.  One day my grandson texted me from another room in our home to ask me a question.  I thought he'd left without telling me and I panicked but he hadn't.  He's 13 at this writing.  If he continues along this path, he may not make it to 14.

Recently, I've had several situations that were making me a little anxious.  In all cases I had emailed the person or the company and had either not received an answer or I didn't get the answer I wanted.  The first issue was with amazon.com. I had bought a faucet for our kitchen.  The kitchen was being remodeled and by the time the plumbers were ready to install the faucet, my return date had passed.  The faucet didn't fit.  When I went online to return it, I got the pop-up that it was too late to send it back.  I was quite annoyed and then I thought, "Just pick up the phone."  I had a quick conversation with a very nice person and he waved the return date so I could send it back.  It was easy but if I hadn't made the phone call, I'd still own that faucet.

I was on a roll now.  I've become my Mom's financial caretaker.  She's always done an amazing job with her resources but it had become too much for her.  Her credit card bill came and I put it on the shelf.  For the first time in her life, her next credit card bill came with a service charge on it.  Oh my!  I was in trouble!  It was quite a penalty for a very small overdue balance.  I picked up the phone and spoke with a very nice young woman.  I guessed she could immediately see the bill had never been late before and she immediately took off the penalty fee.  Whew!

It seems this is the lesson I needed to learn at this time.  Once I began looking at different situations with an eye towards finding easier, quicker resolutions, more and more opportunities kept presenting themselves.  I found with each episode that came up if I acted immediately and directly rather than just mulling over what to do, I was less stressed and more peaceful.

The faucet wasn't the only remodeling snafu.  We had hired a very nice young man to be our contractor and he seemed quite efficient.  At the beginning of the project he put together some sort of computer notification system than showed us the exact time of each part of the job and the exact cost of every single step.  Over the next few weeks that program would pop up almost daily with some sort of time change or even worse, some sort of price increase.  Needless to say I was becoming more and more anxious every time I'd see an email with his company's name on it.  At first I found my stomach would knot up and my head would begin to ache but then I changed my approach and when something was changed, I'd call him and many times he'd relieve my anxiety with a detailed explanation or he'd remove the extra fee because he'd made a mistake.  (I chose to believe it was an error.) With that phone call came the ability for me to take deeper breaths and relax about whatever was being presented.

Even with my family I've noticed how often we now text or email one another rather than calling, although not as readily as my grandson.  All too often I wasn't getting an answer to my questions or they were wondering why I hadn't replied to their queries.  Usually it was because the emails got lost in the ether somewhere.  But, with a simple phone call, whatever question we had would be resolved, immediately.

 

Since this was my lesson for now, I began to wonder if I shouldn't apply it to my prayer life too.  How often did I obsess over some life issue that needed to be let go of and turned over to God?  What if I took my new lesson and rather than letting the issue weigh me down, I immediately "picked up the phone" and shared it with The Lord?  What would that look like?  What number would I dial?  I closed my eyes and sat quietly and envisioned the phone.  It wasn't a cell phone.  Interestingly, it was an old fashioned phone like the one in Dr. Strangelove with Peter Sellers and it was red.  Of course it was because in the movie the red phone was a direct line to the President.  I didn't need a phone number at all.  I just needed to pick up that old fashioned red phone and God would be on the other end.  God is always on the other end, waiting for me to call.  Once I've taken the time and made the effort to connect, I am connected.  No, the situation may not be resolved as quickly as it was at amazon.com or LL Bean although it might be, but I quickly realized I felt better about my concerns.  By taking the time to "call" God, I felt less stressed and I felt more peaceful.