The Auto-Attendant

There are moments in life when you come to an acute awareness that something just isn't right. I had an eye-opening day. Through prayer, (and from being on the awkward-side of phone calls that I didn't have to make in the first-place) I discovered that many of the relationships I have tried to hang onto and nurture, have in fact been completely one-sided.

Presently, my life is exceedingly and abundantly above all I could ask or think--and it is far better for me than I deserve, I might add. As a result of this awareness, I have sincerely tried to reach out to other pastors whom I thought could possibly use encouragement or relationship because their ministries are still in a developmental state. What I've found is that many of them are simply too busy to acknowledge the need for relationship with anyone other than their DayPlanner. This at first seemed odd to me, because of the place in ministry many of them are at. When I was at their station of life and ministry I would have loved to have had someone (especially if they were pastoring a lot more people than me) call and attempt to establish a relationship. However, it never happened and at the time I ached with insecurity as a result of feeling unaccepted by my fellow, more successful, pastors. So, I made a decision early on that if God ever gave me any success, I would make myself available to those who might benefit from anything I learned on the journey. But today, I realize something I've never noticed before...

I believe many yet-to-experience-success guys are deceived in the illusion that they must appear busy in order to be validated by their peers. And if I may be so blunt? They would be much more effective if they would get their noses out of the air and look around. Perhaps then realizing that their busyness is actually not real at all--it is simply manufactured by their own imagination. The result is that they falsely feel as though they're impressing their peers; yet, little fruit hangs from the trees of their ministries. I'm afraid that the truth may be: from hearts of insecurity some have masqueraded inner feelings of inadequacy with wasted, howbeit full-schedules, in hope of giving the appearance of busyness. While being passionately-driven by the illusive goal of potentially garnering the respect only statistical-success seems to bring.

How can I speak so matter-of-factly on this subject? Because, I now see clearly that I used to be one of those guys. You know... The one who puts an auto-attendant on his phone--not because he needs one--but because it at least presents the illusion of importance. (Yet we call it professionalism). Now, I wonder if perhaps that auto-attendant shielded me from the voices of more successful men who might have called to check on me, but were ultimately deterred by all the smoke screens of busyness, I had deceptively placed around me.

Today, my phone rings off the hook and I don't have, nor want, an auto-attendant. An office staff I do have, not some computer that I have manipulated to make me sound better than what I am; but rather real-life, breathing human-beings who can honestly answer as to the location of my where-abouts--that is when I remember to tell them...

Maybe this is a blog post or maybe it is a rant, but most-likely just another rambling thought from Jack. Irregardless, I must go now. I've got more IMPORTANT things to do than click away at keys. Such as: call guys who will act as though they don't have time to talk to me, but they need me whether they realize it or not. And in all truth, I need them--not because they make me feel important, but rather because their behavior keeps me humble... SELAH