At the start of a busy day, a college student loads her backpack with books and papers—and of course her phone. She’s off to a full day of classes, but she also has a number of relationship issues stirring in the background.

She’s hoping for a call from her mom, her boss needs to contact her about her hours for the coming week, and she loves to hear from her friends about what’s happening in their lives—but there’s a particular text message she’s looking for. She had a pretty intense talk with her boyfriend last night, and now he owes her an answer.

Her schedule is packed with one thing after another, and when she finally gets a chance to breathe, a sense of sadness comes over her. She hasn’t heard her familiar ring-tone all day. Doesn’t anyone care?

She reaches into her bag and grabs her phone, intending to call her mom and give her an earful. Why haven’t you called? But suddenly she realizes her phone has been turned off all day. Of course that changes everything. She hasn’t been neglected by all those people she hoped to hear from. They just couldn’t get through.

As a church leader, you minister to a number of people who are just like the student in this modern parable. They want to hear from God. They’re hoping for guidance, security, information, answers, and awareness, but God seems strangely silent. They may even be angry with God or feeling lonely, even depressed about their own lives. Why is God neglecting me?

Maybe they’ve just turned off their phone.

Just as a phone is a channel for our personal relationships, the Bible is a channel for our relationship with God. How can we expect to hear the word we need when the Bible is still in a backpack, or on the shelf, unopened? How can we expect to hear from the one who made us if we don’t spend time in that special place, reading, listening, praying?

As leaders, we must not overlook the most basic message we can give people in this situation: “Turn to the Scriptures! If God seems to be neglecting you, maybe he’s trying to get through, but you haven’t opened this channel of communication. Open the Bible. Read it. God will speak to you there.”