Slow Down, Brian

Every have one of those days when you feel like a complete idiot? I appear to have those quite often. Today was one of them. As I finish up my second master’s degree I of course need to pay for my schooling. So today I called my university to pay the amount due on my account. I called their 800 number, had a lovely chat with switchboard, and got transferred to the right people. I gave them my ID number and they couldn’t find me. I gave them my name, and they couldn’t find me. I gave them everything, and they couldn’t find me.

After 20 minutes I asked them to transfer me to someone in my department, they couldn’t find that person, at all. Or her husband. At that point, 30 minutes into the telephone call, I asked what university I had called. Sure enough, it was the University of Manitoba. I go the Northwest Nazarene University. Turns out that I called the right 800 number, the problem is that my university has an 877 number. Let’s just say that I immediately told them I would take care of it, thank you very much, and hung up.

It’s funny how looking back so many things could have clued me in that I was at the wrong place. They tried to convince me that my student ID was too short. They didn’t patch me through to the person I usually talk with. I hadn’t looked up the phone number. The people’s accents were slightly off. One of them swore mildly, and another referenced some new age spiritual thoughts.

But none of that clued me in. I just blundered ahead without even thinking. It’s amazing how easy it is in life to ignore a whole host of signs that tell us we’re heading in the wrong direction. If we notice any one of them, we can change our direction, but if we close our eyes to it all we can walk straight into a nightmare far worse than the simple embarrassment I got today. This is especially true in our spiritual lives, when we are going down a path and ignore everything that God tries to use to show us it’s the wrong way. I’ve been there too, and it’s not any fun.

So how do we avoid it? To some extent I think we’ll always mess up occasionally and go down wrong turns. But the key thing is exactly what I forgot to do. Pause, check ourselves, and listen. Let me put it this way; someone walking can be stopped with a gentle hand to their chest, someone charging can’t be stopped with anything less than a baseball bat. If we want to be guided by God, it hurts a lot less when we don’t force God to use a baseball bat just to get our attention and show us where we’re supposed to be heading.