June 5 – “Just push the button”

I spent another hour or so on the phone yesterday.  Yep.  All at once, not making numerous calls.  I received a text from Dianne, our illustrious and gracious volunteer who monitors the phone messages at church.  Seems she had tried to access the messages as she usually does, but was met with a recording telling her the account had been suspended.  Wonderful.  Just a day before I had spent a week on the phone trying to track down a different issue – one that led to the discovery that our phones themselves were not working.  So when we went to WalMart to get groceries I picked up a new set of phones to install. 

And then came the weird computer alert that some intergalactic interference had led to our service being disconnected.  I hooked up one set of phones and made the dreaded call to the service department.  Dreaded, why?  Because it is one of those set sequences where you can’t just get a human being to speak to.  First you have to let the computer do its thing.  Then you wait ten minutes for the computer to call you back.  Then you tell the computer that whatever it did was not helpful.  Finally it connects you with a human.  Thankfully the two ladies I have worked with have been really helpfully and exceptionally pleasant.  You made some good hires there, Comcast. 

After doing some initial tinkering on her end, my specialist (Named Candy) asked what I had been dreading.  I had to be in the same room with the actual modem.  That is kept in the office upstairs in the retreat center.  So I took off, carrying with me the second phone set I purchased to be installed in the retreat center.  While my new friend then ran a systems check on the modems, I hastily plugged in the new phone so it could begin charging.  It took several false starts and rabbit trails, but finally I heard what I had been listening for the last two days.  “Oh.  I see the problem now.”  Guardedly optimistic, I rushed over to the modems again to see what might look different.  But it wasn’t the modem at all.  Wasn’t even the phone system per se.  Apparently someone at their office had pushed the wrong button and turned our service off.  All she had to do was just push that button again.  Problem solved. 

Psalms 119:165 says, “Those who love your instructions have great peace and do not stumble.”

Father, thank you for the great helper I got to work with yesterday.  Bless Candy with an easy day today.  Amen.