The UNcooperative Telephone Company

My hometown of Wallace was blessed with a locally-owned and operated "Cooperative Telephone Company." In the 1930's and early 1940's, of course, the equipment was not high-tech, compared to today, and most of the communication was via "party line," which allowed for the widest distribution of the town news! And every household or business had its own special ring; I think Grimes Store was "2 longs and 1 short" and my Dad the storekeeper answered with a cheery "Jot-em-down Store" (taken from the radio comedy show "Lum and Abner"). And, if you were on a party line, it was not necessary to call central first ... just crank out the appropriate "longs" and "shorts" if the line was free. One summer my teen buddies, Dick Fine and Kenny Davidson, and I somehow got hold of some obsolete old wall phones and planned our own private "tele-com" company, not to compete but to experiment, like boys do! We took the wire from the magneto off one machine, not reckoning on its durability, and strung it on make-shift posts from my upstairs room at least a 100 yards to the Fine residence; then, from there another 100 feet or so across the street to the Davidsons. Believe it or not, when the old wall phones were connected the system worked, and the "Wallace UNcooperative Telephone Company" was born! I use the "UN" prefix because the grand experiment succeeded only a few days at most ... until the next summer storm blew that thin copper wire line all to pieces! Now there is a lesson for us in that experience. Our most modern high-tech systems of communication fail, too. But there is one system that never fails ... for the believing soul... and that is PRAYER, actually reaching Heaven on our knees, and with a personal, direct line! And in God's Word we are encouraged: "Let us therefore COME boldly (with confidence in Christ Who died for our sins) to the Throne of Grace (Heaven's 'central'), that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need!" (Hebrews 4:16) And we don't need to worry about the storms of life interfering with or disrupting this connection. In fact, we should call when we are IN a storm!!! Have YOU tried this system, yet?