The Disconnect

You are Offline. That was the terse message of my computer. Offline! The lights on my modem were still on. I checked all connections, and the little blue light on my laptop was working. The screen suggested clicking Tools to see if the Working Offline key had been clicked. I couldn’t bring up Tools, and when I went further to see why, I was advised that to run the program recommended could harm my computer, and did I want to take the risk? I will wait until a decent hour and call my son.

Offline. That’s the way I felt last night as I sat in the waiting room of an urgent care clinic. We were told it would be a 45 minute wait. “You got here just 5 minutes too late,” the perky desk clerk had said. When I asked her what she meant, she said, “Three people just walked in before you.” It was over an hour, but it would be worth it to get my probable sinus infection treated and get relief from a stubborn headache.

After another hour wait in the patient room, a chipper, joking, PA gave me a choice of two shots or oral medication. Then he loaded me down with prescriptions for an aggressive antibiotic, steroids and Mucinex. Whoa! This seemed like overkill! I just wanted an antibiotic, even though they are rough on me. I should have taken the shots, I thought later.

“Do you want to get something to eat?” Howard asked. We had missed supper so my husband could take me to the doctor right after work, and now it was past eight and we were hungry. Nothing sounded good except a bowl of soup, so we headed across the parking lot to a restaurant, ordering a cup of soup and half a sandwich. The young man promptly took our order, then came back and asked if we wanted our soup now. Of course! We were famished!

“Are you doing okay?” the waiter said as he came back to check on us. Our miniscule cups of soup were almost empty, and I remarked how small they were. “Well, I’d give you another, but I have a new boss, and I like my job,” he said apologetically. That was okay. I’d just eat my sandwich without soup when it got here. But it never came! We waited forever, it seemed, sitting next to a glassed in area where I could see people eating. Howard told me it was the smoking area, and the way the door was swinging in and out, I was sure we were being polluted by cigarette smoke (and they had babies in there, too!)

“I thought you should have some more soup,” the waiter said, setting down a cup in front of us. “I’m sorry you have had to wait so long, we had some big orders come in just ahead of you.” That sounded familiar. I really didn’t want the soup, and by now, I didn’t want the sandwich, either, which didn’t seem to be coming. We finally left, amid their apologies and proffered coupons.

Sometimes it’s easy to feel “offline” with God. Especially when we don’t get well quickly enough, or when it seems everything is going wrong. I think of the old song, Royal Telephone, couched in terms of old time telephone service, “Central’s never busy, Always on the line; You can hear from Heaven, almost any time.” It’s true. God is always there, leading and caring for us, and ready to restore our imagined disconnection as soon as we call. (P.S. Just as I went to post this, my internet worked! I’m online!)