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A good friend of mine, Phil Conybear, publishes a monthly newsletter called the Independent Evangelist.  The following is an inspirational message that he wrote for his latest edition that he graciously allowed me to use here.

1 MINUTE

 

Telephones were designed to ring ten times per minute.  That odd little fact has made me think about a lot of things in a different way.

 

When my parents were still alive and residing in an apartment in Michigan, I would call them often.  Even though the apartment was small by my standards, it could take more than a minute to answer the phone as they had many physical problems prohibiting fast movement.  I often had to let the phone ring 15 or more times before they would answer.

 

They wouldn’t have those “new fangled” answering machines and in their words, “who needs more than one phone?” so I just had to be patient.  That was okay because I loved them and what was a minute of my time worth if it meant getting through to them?

 

Now I am crippled and have a phone in every room and I still have to have an answering machine because all too often the phone will ring 2 or 3 times and the person will have already hung up.  I guess time really is money and I’m a waste of both.  I have to check the caller ID after I stumbled in much pain to get to a phone that’s done ringing, if I care to know who called.  The answering machine picks up the call after the 4^th ring but in these fast paced times that is too long to wait.

 

It’s true that way too many businesses and charities abuse your  good nature by calling your private number and enter your house unwanted to sell a product you don’t want or ask you to  give to a cause you never heard of before.  They hang up the instant they hear an answering machine.  The odd part is that I have no qualms about giving the little money I have to a good cause but they won’t give a full minute of their time to talk with me and to them I say, “Good day!”

 

We have become a society of neurotic, fidgety fools that have to bring the almighty cell phone everywhere; even church.  When a call comes in I see people jump and say, “I have to take this call”.  Of course the caller didn’t have to wait more than a full ring because the phone was dangling on the receivers’ belt or worse; they were wearing those obnoxious Blue Tooth devices and didn’t have to waste more than a nano second; even in church.

 

When I think of how long an actual minute is, I stop and think of Revelation 3:20; “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”  In these days, Jesus better call first and He better be fast about it.  Of course, I’m positive Jesus would give me more than a minute to answer His call.

 

No matter how fast broadband technology is, a minute is not too long to allow a loved one to cross the room and pick up the phone.  Technology can’t tell what is going on at the receivers’ environment.  Any less time tells the receiver of your call that they aren’t important enough for you and you have better things to do with your time.

 

When Jesus calls (and He will) will you answer, or will you leave the room because another call is coming in on your almighty cell phone and you just have to show that caller how fast you are at answering.  The Lord will surely give you more than a minute of His time but don’t trust the “machine” to take His call.

 

They say that a minute in the Lord’s day is days or more of our time.  I know that to be true because it took most of my life to answer His call but He never “hung up” on me and I am truly so overwhelmed I cry when I think about how much I would have lost if He hadn’t waited a full minute. 

 

I’m slow at answering any call but Jesus loves me enough to wait one minute.  Give someone you love one minute and leave the cell phone at the door.  At times nothing seems as far away as one minute ago.  However, an unhurried sense of time is in itself a form of wealth especially when spent with love.

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