Dial tone

Back in the day, before cell phones, we had nothing but landlines.  I know that sounds perilous.  But worse yet … most of the time those landline phones were attached to the wall.  Scary, huh?  8-)   What might blow your mind is that before you could dial a phone call, you had to pick up the handset, make sure you had a dial tone, and then you would dial the phone with a rotary dial.  Something like this. 

Most of the time, you picked up the phone and knew that there’d be dial tone.  It was expected.  When it happened, you didn’t notice it.  It was supposed to be there.  The only time you’d notice it is when it wasn’t there.  When you picked up the phone and dial tone was there, you wouldn’t call the phone company to thank them, or to compliment them on how nice their dial tone was. 

If the dial tone wasn’t there, on the other hand, boy, would you give them an earful and make sure they sent out a technician to fix things.

A lot of things in life are like dial tone.  In my work world, for instance, when people get their paychecks every two weeks, no one calls up our payroll department to thank them for their paycheck and for making sure the amounts were all correct.  In the same way, no one calls our computer support folks to thank them when their computer turns on and they can log into it.  Now mess up someone’s paycheck, forget to pay it, or have someone’s computer have a problem turning on, logging in, or performing basic duties … well, all heck breaks loose (understandably).

A section of my reading this week (Job 36 – 42, Psalms 73 – 79, Ezra 7 – 10, and Nehemiah 1 – 3) reminded me of dial tone, but probably not for straightforward reasons.  In particular, Job 38.  In this chapter, God is responding to Job’s lament throughout the book, asking what appear to be rhetorical questions intended to remind Job that God is God and Job is not.  But in an admittedly indirect manner, I think God is speaking to our human tendency to treat God, His provision, His grace, His gifts, and His creation in a dial tone-like manner. 

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?  Tell me, if you know so much.  Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line?  What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?  “Who kept the sea inside its boundaries as it burst from the womb, and as I clothed it with clouds and wrapped it in thick darkness?  For I locked it behind barred gates, limiting its shores.  I said, ‘This far and no farther will you come.  Here your proud waves must stop!  “Have you ever commanded the morning to appear and caused the dawn to rise in the east?  Have you made daylight spread to the ends of the earth,
to bring an end to the night’s wickedness?  As the light approaches,
the earth takes shape like clay pressed beneath a seal; it is robed in brilliant colors.  The light disturbs the wicked and stops the arm that is raised in violence.  “Have you explored the springs from which the seas come?  Have you explored their depths?  Do you know where the gates of death are located?  Have you seen the gates of utter gloom?  Do you realize the extent of the earth?  Tell me about it if you know!  “Where does light come from,
and where does darkness go?  Can you take each to its home?  Do you know how to get there?  But of course you know all this! 
For you were born before it was all created,
and you are so very experienced!

Principally, God is reminding Job of God’s preeminence over all things, and His dominion over them.  But what struck me as I read this is the magnificence of each of the points God makes, and also the way I can often overlook them.  In effect, I sometimes treat God’s wondrous creation and creativity with indifference in the manner of dial tone.  I expect it, and when it’s there, I look right past it.  Do we notice the expanse of the sky and the multitude of stars?  The power of the ocean and the volume of water contained within it?  Notice the color of the sky at dawn or dusk lately?  Ever think about the light as it appeared after you flipped a switch?  How about the absence of it that creates darkness?  How about the way the air smells after a rain shower?  Or just about how the rain got into the clouds in the first place?  Or what held it up there once it arrived?

Now take one of those things away … cloud up the sky in the morning or evening and we’ll miss the colors behind it.  We’ll call it “gloomy,” “depressing,” “bland,” or just “grey.”  Take away the rain and we’ll curse the drought and wonder why God is drying things up.  It’s interesting that with the presence of grandeur, majesty, and radiance, we’ll see right past or through it, but invoke absence of any of it and we’ll be on the customer service line, blaming God for blowing it.

I think it’s time to take a step back once in a while and notice … notice small stuff.  Notice supposedly insignificant things.  Because things that “don’t matter,” do matter.

What’s wrong with thanking the payroll person for getting our paychecks right?  For paying us on time?  Why not recognize the fact that when we click on an icon, this little two-pound piece of plastic and silicon let’s me have access to nearly every fact in the known world, my cousin in England by video, and every picture I’ve taken of our kids throughout their lives? 

Same thing with God.  How about we choose to notice?  How about recognizing that minor details of His are not the least bit minor?  God isn’t dial tone … everything He does is purposeful and driven by His love for His creation, including you and me.  If we’re going to question Him on the supposed lack of things from time to time, we have to praise Him for the abundance He gives.

This week, let’s ask the Lord to help us better hear, notice, acknowledge, recognize and be thankful for the dial tone.  Nothing about it is inconsequential.

Lord, help us to notice your handiwork and splendor … even the dial tone.

MR