Post date: Sep 05, 2013 3:24:16 PM
Last night while I was on duty, I got a call from a viewer who didn't seem to want to hang up the phone. I talked with her for more than half an hour, praying with her, trying to advise her (I had tried to transfer her to the front desk where someone could have answered her question better than I could, I thought, but no one answered the phone and she bounced back to me), and I sang to her one of my hymns. She seemed deeply concerned about her charge, a man that she was caring for, and she was looking for a way of getting him into the charge of health care professionals, even though he has no insurance. I told her several times that I don't know the answer to her problem, except that she needed to get that man to a hospital as soon as possible. She, though, seemed more interested in talking with me. Maybe it was a kind voice, a sympathetic ear. Maybe God had a reason for her to talk to me. I don't know.
I had been feeling down about something earlier in the shift. There is a new woman in the 30 day program, who seems quiet, demure, attractive, and has a soft, subtle smile. I had been slipping into allowing myself to think that she enjoyed being around me, since it seemed like whenever I turned around, there she was, in or next to the path I had to walk, and I was starting to enjoy it.
Tonight, though, Rev. Rice took me up onto the third floor, where the women and small or female children stay, to shoot part of a Here's Help episode. We were up there for quite some time, and I started to notice that this new woman seemed irritated at my presence there, even though I was just doing my job. Earlier in the day (before my duty shift) I had prayed to God to make things clear regarding her. This seemed like a negative answer. So, then, I began pondering what Scripture had to say about handling disappointing answers from God, and I was given Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.”
It was shortly after that divine exchange that the viewer called. It was not a transfer, but a direct line.