“I’m Trying to Connect You”

“Hey Siri, call John.” Nowadays, that’s all you need to do to contact somebody. The artificial intelligence in your smartphone will do the work for you. You can also send a text message or e-mail in less than a minute. Technology and the internet have made present-day communication instantaneous.

But it has not always been this way, as some of you may know. Before the days of smartphones and computers, we relied on switchboards and their operators to contact people. Calling your neighbor or relative required an operator and a manual telephone switchboard. You would dial the operator and they would connect you by inserting a pair of phone plugs into the appropriate jacks. And oftentimes, especially if there was a bit of delay, the operator would say, “I am trying to connect you.” That was their purpose and mission—to connect you. And operators were indispensable and necessary for connecting you with whom you needed to speak—there was no other way.

While cellphones and laptops have eliminated the need for operators, one kind of operator will never be replaced by technological advancement: you. If you are a follower of Jesus, the Lord has commanded you to be an operator to connect people to Him. It is your glorious mission and purpose to connect people to Jesus. The Lord commissioned you with this blessed task when He said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15, KJV). He also charged you to be His witnesses and to make disciples of all nations (Acts 1:8; Matt. 28:19-20).

The word of God teaches that the only way sinners can be saved is if they “dial” Jesus: “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). People have to get connected with Jesus in order to go to heaven. As Christ Himself said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). There is only one way, one Circuit that will connect a person to God, as Paul said: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).

And you are essential for connecting people to Christ and helping them dial Him for their eternal salvation. No person can call on the name of the Lord without an operator! You must preach the good news and publish the gospel of Christ to the unsaved or they will never call out to Jesus for redemption. That is why Paul asked, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Romans 10:14). Christian Operator, to whom are you saying, “I am trying to connect you”?

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Bible Gleanings is a widely-read weekend devotional column, written for the Murray Ledger & Times in Calloway County, Kentucky.