Breaking up

It may have been a poor signal, or some kind of interference.  The woman I was talking to on my mobile phone said, ‘You’re breaking up’.  A few days later I rang her again, and the response was the same.  Her words were a kind of 'shorthand'; what she meant was simply ‘I can’t hear you’, or ‘the signal is intermittent’.  I was intrigued by this form of words, and began thinking about them a slightly different way.

When you’re speaking on the phone, you are communicating with someone.  They think of the person they’re listening to, not specifically your voice, or the electronic apparatus that brings your words to them.  To the man or woman at the other end of the line, you and your voice and the words you speak are one entity.  Let’s take it a stage further.  The words you speak - unless you are making a joke - usually reflect what you think or believe.  At least, it’s reasonable to expect that the people you talk to will take it as such.

And that’s what is important.  How well the other party understands your communication determines how well they will know you.  You and your words are one to them.  We must be careful to ensure that what we say to others reflects what we really hold dear … all the time.  Look at James 3:5-12 and Ephesians 4:29 to see even more clearly how vital this is.

So complete was Jesus’ humanity that, as he hung on the Cross, He too seemed to experience this ‘breaking up’ phenomenon.  He bore in His body the pain and agony of execution, and in His heart the injustice that it wasn’t for any wrong that He had done.  Did it appear to Jesus as He quoted words from Psalm 22: “My God, why have you forsaken me?” that His prayers weren’t getting through to His heavenly Father?

There are times when we all feel like that.  Our prayers don’t seem to be answered.  It’s at such times that we have to trust others.  Usually in our most desperate situations there are others who are praying for us - or who would do so if only we were bold enough to ask them - and their prayers will bear us up.  Another aspect of trust is encapsulated in that famous rhyme Footprints: “You could only see one pair of footprints during the bad times, because that was when I was carrying you!” 

If at times you feel that God’s voice is ‘breaking up’, try to remember that He is still there.  Think of Jesus’ words, “I am with you always - to the very end of the age” (Mt. 28:20).