day 1005: Conversations - Part 2: Knowing To Whom We Are Talking

"And he said, Who are you, Lord?"

As many of you know, I recently went through the crash of my hard drive.  This was the first time this had happened to me since I working for someone else and had the entire IT organization at my disposal.  When you sit inside of a large organization and your hard drive crashes, with just one phone call, you come back to your desk a few hours later and you are back up and running on the same hardware or it even becomes a good excuse to upgrade to the latest laptop, etc.  It's really no big deal.  But, when you are out here on your own, it becomes quite the ordeal.  Fortunately for me the terrific team of my IT consultant Ryan and  DriveSavers rocked it and within 10 days I was back up and running and other than being very expensive and very stressful, I am no worse than I was before.  This time, though and going forward, I am always backed up.  During the trauma days, the DriveSavers team kept me up to date with what was going on and went out of their way to calm and assure me.  In fact, their Customer Support people also carried the title of Data Recovery Counselors.  You see, they know and recognize how when someone is in a moment of crisis, that the answer is in knowing someone better than they know themselves to help them weather the storm.  How many times do we desperately wish for someone to just know us so we can feel that the right thing is going to happen?  When we are in problem resolution mode, 100% of the time.  Our best and deepest conversations with our customers and consumers come when we know them and they know that back.

On the road to Damascus, Saul had heard the voice from the sky and his first reaction and response was to make sure he knew who it was that was calling his name.  But, look closely at his response and see that he didn't just say, "Why are you?".  He said, "Who are you, Lord?".  Saul, knew who it was who was calling him, otherwise he would not have added the word, "Lord". Instead, what he sought to do, was to find out more before he responded or reacted.  He didn't probably know he was doing it, but he was doing what we all do when we meet someone for the first time, we deepen the conversation by asking and wanting to know more about who it is we are speaking.  Truly knowing someone is powerful.  Taking the time to know them better, if sincere and without an agenda, usually is well received.  How many times are we going to the extra step, taking the extra moment to just get to know someone a little better?  This is called caring and when we do it, we are setting an example to follow.

Reference: Acts 9:5 (New Kings James Version)