ARE YOU WAITING TO BE CALLED?

                          Back when the telegraph was the fastest method of
                    long-distance communication, a young man applied for a job as a
                Morse Code operator. Answering an ad in the newspaper, he went to the
                                    office address that was listed.

                  When he arrived, he entered a large, busy office filled with noise and
                clatter, including the sound of the telegraph in the background. A sign on
                 the receptionist's counter instructed job applicants to fill out a form and
                       wait until they were summoned to enter the inner office.

                 The young man filled out his form and sat down with the seven other
                applicants in the waiting area. After a few minutes, the young man stood
                up, crossed the room to the door of the inner office, and walked right in.

                Naturally the other applicants perked up, wondering what was going on.
               They muttered among themselves that they hadn't heard any summons yet.
            They assumed that the young man who went into the office made a mistake and
                                       would be disqualified.

              Within a few minutes, however, the employer escorted the young man out of
              the office and said to the other applicants, "Gentlemen, thank you very much
                             for coming, but the job has just been filled."

                 The other applicants began grumbling to each other, and one spoke up
             saying, "Wait a minute, I don't understand. He was the last to come in, and we
             never even got a chance to be interviewed. Yet he got the job.  That's not fair!"

                The employer said, "I'm sorry, but the last several minutes while you've
               been sitting here, the telegraph has been ticking out the following message
                in Morse Code: 'If you understand this message, then come right in. The
               job is yours.'  None of you heard it or understood it. This young man did.
                                         The job is his."

                  We are so busy living in a world that is full of noise and clatter, like
                   that office. People are distracted and unable to hear the still, small
                 voice of God as He speaks in creation, in the Scriptures, and in the life
                                    and work of Jesus Christ.

                 So I ask you, as I ask myself, "Are you listening, or are you waiting to
                        be called? Do you hear the Lord when he speaks to you?