Take the First Boat

Have you ever heard the parable of the man in the flood?  A man is trapped in his house by rising flood waters and a boat comes along and offers to take him to safety.  The man says refuses, saying "I know God will provide" so the boat leaves him there.  The waters continue to rise and now the first floor of the man's house is flooded and he is trapped on the second floor.  Another rescue boat stops and they also offer to take the man to safety.  Again, he refuses, saying that he believes the God will save him so the boat moves on.  The flood waters continue to rise and now the second floor of his house is flooded and the man is now stranded on his roof.  A helicopter comes and they offer to take him to safety and once again the man declines the offer because he is sure that God will save him.  The helicopter leaves and eventually the man drowned.  When he reaches heaven, he says to God what happened?  I believed that you would save me.  To which God replies "I sent you 2 boats and a helicopter, what more did you want?

I'm sure many of you have heard this one before.  What I am trying to say is when it comes, take the first boat.  In my life (and probably yours) I have noticed little signs or hints or nudges, when something is wrong or there is something that I should do.  I think many of us have a habit of ignoring these when we should be taking action.  Before our audit we received many of these, from plots on TV shows to spots on the radio and as the time came closer they became more blatant.  What did I do?  I tried my best to ignore them, if I had taken action things would not have gotten quite as bad as they did.  As a result, I am doing my best to watch for that sign or nudge and take action then.

Today was one of those times.  Last night about 8:30pm our company's phone system went down and after a late night trip to the office (on a Fri night no less) it was determined to be the PRI Circuit (phone co).  I called and after an hour and a half on hold they put in a service ticket, gave me a ticket number and told me someone would call.  This morning, I checked and the phones at the office were still out so I called AT&T and found out that they had marked the trouble ticket "No Testing" which means they were not planning on testing the circuit, ever.  After holding for an hour Friday night just to be told I needed to call a different department and holding for over a half hour with the correct department they mark the ticket don't test when that is exactly what needed to be done.  When I woke up the next morning (Saturday) I called our office to check if the phone system was back up and it was not.  I had one of those feelings or nudges, whatever you want to call them, that I should call ATT and check on the status of our trouble ticket.  Now normally I would not do this, my attitude would be "I did my part, I called for service now it's their job" and I would not follow up on it.  This course of action does not usually work out well.  When I called, the automated system told me that the ticket was still waiting for a technician to pick it up, meaning it had not been acted on yet.  So, I waited to be connected to a tech and when I did get one on the line he tested it remotely right away and then dispatched a technician to our office (on a Saturday no less).  Without testing the circuit there would be no resolution to our issue and since we run a call center phones are a must have.

My point is this when God sends you a boat, take the first boat don't wait.  Don't wait for something better, don't wait to make a wrong that you have committed right, don't wait for someone else to do something that you have to have done without checking on their progress.  Do it when you get the sign or the nudge or feeling, don't wait.