A certain cable company (rhymes with “Time Warner”) has been causing me difficulties ever since I decided to downgrade my cable subscription. Each day it seems to get worse.
- On Thursday they collected my old digital converter box and reclaimed my cable modem (hence no Friday post). I have high speed internet through them still, so this was a mistake.
- Their mistake forced me to sit in my apartment waiting for them to deliver a new modem for 12 hours on Friday. They never showed up.
- Saturday I didn’t talk to them – so no bad news.
- On Sunday I learned they can’t make it to my apartment until Wednesday.
- This morning (when I finally had some working internet at work) I learned that they also shut down my e-mail address. And since I’m looking for a new job, this is a bit of an issue!
Now I find myself with a choice: On the one hand I’m furious. There’s a big part of me that wants to scream, “I didn’t cause any of this, why do I have to deal with it?!” On the other hand I just wrote a prayer to God asking for patience. Apparently God was listening, because there’s no doubt now have the perfect opportunity to work on my patience!
As Christians we’re called to live differently. We aren’t supposed to respond like someone who doesn’t have that relationship with God. Our lives are supposed to have a different feel to them. Or as Jesus says, people will recognize our faith by the “fruit” we produce. (Matthew 7: 20). The problem is, at least for me, I don’t always want to live that way. I don’t always want to respond calmly, or patiently, and certainly not lovingly. Sometimes I just want to get in there and argue to “prove” just how right I am.
But is this how Christians are supposed to act?
The times Jesus lost his temper with people were the times they were dishonoring God. It was never when they were struggling with their own problems, or their own sins. Jesus always had love, mercy, and compassion for those people. And that’s how we have to deal with people as well.
No one at the cable company was trying to ruin my service intentionally. No one wanted me to have a bad day. In fact, their whole job involves listening to angry customers yell at them. What kind of a toll does that take on someone? So while I was angry I took this as an opportunity to minister to people. While I never said, “hey I’m a Christian, God loves you!” I did try to be calm, not raise my voice, and get things handled in a civil way. It was an opportunity to submit to service, rather than exercise my pride (something I do all too often).
Christians aren’t called to be walked all over, but we’re not called to be jerks either.
