Communication

This week has been an interesting one when it came to communication. We now have so many possible ways to communicate in every aspect of our lives.

I noticed while riding,  drivers communicate by the way they drive. Some are very courteous to others, while others tend to drive aggressively. Others seem to be in their own world and totally unaware of what’s going on around them.

This got me thinking about other ways we now communicate with others. This week we lost our internet service for awhile and there have been outages off and on all week in the area. This means that communication by email and FB messenger as well as other social media were affected.  This is obviously more important to some than others.  We rely so much on technology now it’s actually kind of sad.

Today while I was riding, I saw repair trucks parked where they were working on the phone lines, I heard my phone going off as I came to a stop, and it hit me. When I was growing up,  if you wanted to talk to someone, you called them on the home phone ( a rotary dial phone at that) or you went to see them, even showing up unannounced.  Our phone was a party line.  If anyone is not familiar with that,  it meant we shared our phone line with others.  Sometimes I would pick up the phone to call a friend,  and someone else was using the line so I had to wait, or just go to my friend’s house and talk. There was no Facebook,  no Instagram, no texting or snapchatting. We had real person to person conversations regularly.

Unfortunately we can now communicate without ever seeing the other person for any reason. Face to face communication is becoming less and less “normal”. There’s an abundance  of miscommunication as well,  because what’s written in an email, text, or message is interpreted differently than the way the sender intended it. If people spoke face to face more,  I believe there would be far less miscommunication.

Luckily for us, we can communicate with God any time; day or night,  out loud or in our head, regardless of the internet connection or phone signal. He’s always there wanting to hear from us. Have you ever contacted someone and had the feeling they really didn’t want to talk to you? I’m glad God’s not like that.  I personally am thankful He is always there to listen to, support,  encourage, and yes discipline me. He is my rock and my Savior. No matter how bad my day may be, I always know I can go to Him and He will make me feel better.

More and more I see people suffering from medical issues, depression, feelings of despair, anxiety and anger.  These are people of all ages, from all walks of life,  and all income and education ranges. Thanks to technology and the media, it’s not surprising that so many feel hopeless.

My hope is in Christ alone. I turn off the news and media and rarely watch any news of any kind. There is a local reporter I’ve mentioned before who shares good news stories and I do check her reports out, but that’s about it. I have found that since I’ve been riding,  and having way more uninterrupted conversations with God,  I am a much happier person and I let a whole lot less things bother me. God’s got it, so why sweat it?!

I choose joy. Joy doesn’t mean always being happy. One definition is simply, “a source or cause of delight.” Jesus is my source, so how can I not have joy? All I need to do is communicate.