To Live is Christ — learning obedience

Some days the spiritual truths that I know and the way God works in my life are frustrating. Yesterday was one of those days.

The DVD drive on my desktop computer will not read two new program update disks because they are multiple-layer DVDs. After ascertaining that the disks were not faulty, I went online to the Dell support page and did the phone call option. Within seconds, a technician from Canada called and he knew exactly what I was talking about. He said the only solution was a new drive, and that they are about $30 in any PC store. I asked if a new drive would work in my particular computer. He put me on hold to check, and that was the beginning of a huge patience-test. I think I flunked.

After a few minutes, instead of background music, a menu started. I waited. Eventually I was taken to a USA office, who scolded me for calling the US instead of Canada, transferred my call supposedly to the Canada office, but I wound up again with a US tech, who scolded me again, and transferred my call. This time it went to Canada, but the person was in the commercial division and scolded for calling him instead of the home division. He transferred me.

I finally got to talk to a person in the same office as my original caller, but he not let me talk to the original technician. He wanted me to go through the whole story again, and kept telling that my DVD drive was okay, and that my disks were faulty. I told him that I loaded the programs on the two disks to my laptop, so there was nothing wrong with them. This had to be repeated several times. He didn’t believe me. Further, he mumbled a lot, and when I asked him to repeat something, he told me that I needed to turn off my speaker phone and then I could hear him. He would not repeat anything he said.

To make a three-hour long story short, they finally decided to send a tech to my house to replace the drive. However, they are not going to put in a drive that will read multi-layers. They will replace the one that I have with the same thing. It will not read these two program disks either, but they would not listen and said, “After we are done, you will be happy.”

I already know that I need an updated DVD driver. I just wanted to find out if my system will support it. No one ever answered that question and I didn’t get to talk again to the savvy tech who knew what I wanted and went to find my answer.

After all of this was over, I remembered my confession a few days ago concerning lack of patience. I also thought about the only way that God builds patience — it is through trials. Then I also remembered the verse I’ve been reading the past few mornings:

. . . being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6)

Today I also remember the verse that says, “though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8) and I chafe a bit. I’d rather just be obedient and skip the suffering part.  Yesterday’s three hours plus telephone tag and talking to a person who was more like a recording isn’t huge on the list of painful events, but it was a test of obedience. Would I be like Jesus? Or not? Sigh.

God, some days, patience isn’t my first priority. Some days I just want people to listen to what I am telling them and believe what I say. (I’m sure that You do too.) Some days I wish PC tech people would drop their “check list” and pay attention to what the customers are saying. We know a few things too. However, You know that my patience-development is not yet completed. This was all about what I need, not what I want. You have begun the work of making me a patient person, but here I am wishing you could just zap me with a big dose of it instead of having to go through the only process that works.

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