Growing up we lived on the KY-TN state line. We lived in Ky but had a TN telephone, which caused a problem for me. All of my classmates had a Kentucky phone and to call them would have been "Long Distance". It was unheard of for my family to make a long distance phone call unless it was a matter of life or death. The risk for me at the time was, if I wanted a date with a classmate, I would have to risk a long distance phone call to ask a girl out. If she said yes, I would have a few days to explain to my parents about the call. I figured going out on a date would take the pain out of any punishment I might receive for the call. But if she said no, I could not handle both rejection and explaining a useless "long distance" phone call. So, I found a solution.
I had a cousin that lived in Union City, TN. One night while sitting on the car outside the Dairy Queen in Union City, my cousin introduced me to some Union City girls and a few even said that I could call them.
YES, YES, YES they had phone numbers that I could call without it being "LONG DISTANCE". My problem was solved. I did start dating a girl from Union City which then caused another problem . We had a party line. Now to you young folks it is not what you think. Having a party didn't have anything to do with it. Just so you can understand this, it was like having a hacker on your computer, not really, but that is the closest I can come to explaining it. You see, we had neighbors that shared the same phone line. If you were talking to someone and a neighbor picked up, the polite thing for them to do was immediately hang up. Some were not so polite. For example, my uncle James would always try to listen to my conversations. So, I again came up with another bright idea. I would call around 11:00 PM. No one in the neighborhood would be awake at that time of night. So I did, and it worked perfectly until one night.
We only had one phone in the house. It was in the hallway on a desk. One night I was really tired, but I wanted to talk to my girlfriend. Same routine as before, I called her around 11:00PM. I was all comfortable, leaning back in a kitchen chair, then it happened. I went to sleep and fell out of the chair. The noise was so loud that my hard of hearing dad jumped up out of bed. It liked to have scared my parents to death. So my calling late at night was ended. I was back to the old time face to face line of communication.
Communication today is unbelievable. We can communicate all over the world in seconds for pennies in cost. With cell phones, facebook, twitter, emails, web cams and numerous others, we can be as close to each other as we want to be. No more party lines. People do not even care about other people seeing what they have to say. Even their family pictures are posted for all of the world to see, whether you want to see them or not. Texting seems better, for many, than face to face or even "voice to voice". Serious problems are now discussed by these modern forms of communications instead of the face to face old time discussions. I don't know where all of this will lead our society.
One form of communication that I have been leading up to, some may think is antiquated, is communication with God. God inspired holy men, with His thoughts and commands, to write what we now call the Holy Bible . In the bible we see numerous examples and even commands for us today to communicate with God through reading His word and by praying to Him. ( God's Spirit put in those men's mind what to write down. Our technology can't come close to this.)
When I email you, or if I texted you, it would be difficult for you to see my heart. With God, when we pray, He can also see what is in our hearts. Also, we try each day to communicate, in one of the ways above, to our friends and family daily if not hourly. I check my email every hour to see if I have any comments from these post, messages from friends and family or my clients. If I go a day without hearing from my loved ones, it saddens me. Do you have that feeling?
Even with all of these different modern ways of instant communication, there is still one that is highly overlooked.
I can communicate with my heavenly Father without any internet connections, chances of being hacked, and always quicker than instant messaging. I want you to think with me now. What will be your feelings today if you do not hear from your children or other loved ones? You immediately wonder what has happened to them.
What about God? He has made, through His son Jesus, a way for us to approach Him instantly in prayer. Will He wonder at the end of the day what has happened to you if He has not heard from you? He already knows. Do you? Why don't you pray to Him now and thank him for this instant avenue of prayer that He has provided for His children.
Let me hear from you at rhepler52@gmail.com Remember, it is not "LONG DISTANCE".
Have a great day!
Rick Hepler
