Butt Dial

Sooner or later it happens to everybody. You get a call from a friend and pick up the phone thinking they want to talk. You say hello, but instead of getting a response they just start talking about random things. You keep saying their name louder and louder, but they just keep talking.

After a few seconds or moments, you realize the truth: you’ve been butt dialed. They didn’t mean to call you. It was just the pressure in their back pocket that made it happen.

Almost always, it’s just meaningless chatter. What food they’re ordering. Directions they’re taking. Plans they’re making.

But sometimes, you’re let into conversations that you didn’t want to hear. The person on the other line begins talking about someone you know. Or worse, they begin talking about you. And it isn’t the same things they would be saying if the phone was in their hand rather than their back pocket.

Or maybe the content of their conversation simply isn’t what you would expect out of them. It’s vulgar or low-level compared to the way it is when they’re talking to you directly.

Right now, this could easily turn into a judgmental or woe is me situation. But I want to flip the tables for a second.

What if the situation was reversed (because it often is)? What if your phone accidentally dialed when it was in your pocket?

• Would we say the same things we say about people?
• Would we have the same conversations?
• Would we sound as spiritual as we did in small group or at the coffee shop?

We often talk about the need for the content of our lives to match the content of our speech. When it happens, it’s called integrity. But it’s just as necessary that the content of our public discourse match the content of our private discussions. When it happens, it’s also called integrity.

What would it look like if we lived our lives as if our phone was dialing someone at all times? In other words, what if the microphone was always on?

I wish I could leave it at those theoretical questions. But I can’t. Because they’re not theoretical. The phone is always dialing. The microphone is always on:

"There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs." Luke 12:2-3

(Credit for this post goes to Steven Furtick. I saw this on his blog and straight cuffed it. Thought it was great!)