True confession: I kinda like technology–sorta a lot. There’s a really cool feature on my phone. When an unknown number calls, I can choose one of three buttons on the screen. Two of them are typical: Answer or Ignore. But the third button is unique.

The third option is a button that says Screen Call. If I select that, then a very human sounding voice answers my phone, and asks the caller to give their name and the nature of their call. As this computer driven conversation is taking place, it’s all transcribed in real time on my screen. I can literally see what the caller is saying, and then choose to answer, or to ask for more details, or to send a brief message.

I’ve had any number of callers get a little freaked out by this feature. People who spent their professional lives calling people remark, “I’ve never heard anything like that…I wasn’t sure how to respond…where can I get that feature” and so on.

Here’s my point. We like to call screen in life, too. Especially when God calls. Maybe we don’t hit the “ignore” button, but we don’t answer, either. We want more details. We want to see it spelled out in front of us, “God, what in particular is the nature of your call…what’s your agenda?”

What’s remarkable is how accommodating God is to this approach. He will often give us detail after detail after detail. (There’s a whole collection of his details in a unique collection of 66 books.) Or he’ll keep calling and saying, “This is your heavenly Father calling. Please pick up the phone.” We often suspect God has an agenda and a mission that we may or may not want to hear about. I believe that for the most part God is calling simply because he wants to connect with us. With you. He’s your heavenly Father. And you’re his son or daughter. No other reason. Usually. But if there is, it’s worth hearing him out.

So if God’s number shows up on the screen of your life this week, how will you respond? Will you hit the “Ignore” button? Will you “Answer”? Or will you choose the “Screen Call” button? If so, I would suggest that God’s responses can be read in real time on the screen of your life.

-Pastor Mark

P.S. If you want more info on how to recognize God’s calling, be sure to check out our latest series, “Answering God’s Call.”