Recently I have read a number of news reports about “interesting” 911 calls. An intoxicated Florida woman was arrested after she called 911 and declared she was lonely. A woman in Pennsylvania was arrested for disorderly conduct after she called 911 requesting a divorce. She wanted the police to make her husband leave.

Another gal called 911 and asked the police to help her get a refund from her personal drug dealer. She stated that she was penniless and needed to recover $50 so she could make it until her next Social Security check.

Reading those absurd calls sent me on a wild goose chase looking for funny or strange 911 calls. I read about phone calls alerting authorities to all kinds of emergencies involving animals. There was the moose in the garage, a cow in a frozen pond, goats running loose on the interstate and my favorite animal call: a report about a dead frog in the back yard.

Apparently human nature requires us to get stuck in all manner of places. 911 calls have covered people stuck in potty chairs, toilets, closets, gun safes and dog dishes. People call when their washing machine won’t stop operating, when the characters on a computer appear to be threatening them and when they hear voices telling them to call 911.

As people drive along, they see things that need to be called into the police. There was the tractor trailer that ran out of gas, the operator quit on the spot and was blithely walking down the middle of the interstate, a “free man.” There was the person seen throwing dimes and quarters out their window and the call that described seeing a turkey stuck in a wind shield of a moving vehicle.

The common thread among all these silly and strange calls is the fact that these people needed someone to talk to. The perceived “threat” forced them to reach out to another human being for some kind of help. While I laughed at many of the stories, truth is, many of them are mostly sad.

Years ago there was an ad in a London newspaper that offered a personal service. It read, “I will listen, really listen to anything you have to say for ten minutes. Charge: Five pounds.” How very pitiful that a human being might have to pay someone else to just listen to them and their concerns!

As believers, you and I ought to be specifically grateful for the offer made in Psalms 50 where the Lord invites us to “call on me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you and you will honor me.” With real thanksgiving, we should mirror the thoughts of David in Psalm 17, “I call on you my God, for you will answer me; turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.”

So maybe this week, our personal 911 calls should be directed to our heavenly Father who cares and responds each and every time! We don’t have to hear an audible voice on the phone to recognize and embrace the truth of Matthew 11:29:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”

By His Grace and for His Glory,
Sherry L. Worel