"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before hand that we should walk in them." NKJV
"For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."
The phone rang at ten to seven this morning. That's early for me. Horrible thoughts raced through my head as I leapt out of sleep and out of bed to answer.
"Did something happen to a family member? Who else would be calling this early?"
The family is fine.
It was a phone scam regarding my credit card. They called to tell me someone had just spent a considerable amount of money using my account.
I confess my morality slipped. After a few choice words about the unseemly hour of the call, and reeling from the rush of adrenaline, I asked to call them back.
A quick call to the actual credit card company verified my suspicions. It was a scam. Again. An audacious one that would call early in order to catch someone half asleep and off guard.
Never give out your credit card or personal info to ANYONE who calls you!!!!
The duct cleaning company has started calling again. I swore at them, too, out of utter frustration in trying to end these calls.
I don't know if other countries in the world are so plagued by telemarketers or fraud artists like we are in Canada. Some people I know get a dozen a week. I went and checked out my phone company's privacy policy. If the number is listed, they can't stop anyone from calling the number. The next step is to have my number unlisted even though it will add to the bill.
And I am left sitting here dealing with an extra dose of anxiety this morning because it feels like a mugger just tried to steal my purse.
Lord, I feel I've let You down because of my lack of love towards these callers. I feel I've let You down in my language choices. I feel I've let You down because I am thoroughly p'd off about the phone thing, and at the people behind the scams. I feel I've let You down because grace has left the building along with patience, forgiveness and compassion. I feel I've let You down because I've let someone's actions shape my behaviour.
Forgive me and thank You for giving me enough alertness this morning that I didn't fall for the scam.
(My phone is now unlisted as well as having spam callers blocked which I didn't know the phone company could do. All for the princely sum of a couple of bucks. It'll be the best two dollars I've ever spent!)
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The Robes
"Coming up behind Jesus, she (the woman who had bled for 12 years) touched the fringe of His robe." Luke 9:44 And she was heal...
I had a credit card scam at about 2 in the morning recently. Talk about nerve! I yelled at him about the hour. He said the card had been used inappropriately at midnight. Great recovery. Then he wanted me to report the inappropriate use by logging on to a website. Yeah, right. I had quite a lengthy argument, saying that if they called me to report the misuse, why did I need to report it to them? He wanted my credit card number, and I said if he was a company rep then they already had it. The whole time I knew it was a scam, but I was so annoyed I wanted to make my point. The person on the phone ended up yelling back at me. Wow. Then he said the call was being recorded so I should stop yelling. I said I was glad it was being recorded so someone would know his customer service was terrible. Ha! In the end, he hung up on me.
ReplyDeleteWe know the people on the other end of these calls are only trying to earn a wage, but we have no one else to take out our frustration on than them. When they call at inappropriate hours and especially when they wake us from our sleep, we don't have the mental ability to go beyond our emotional reaction and treat them with the respect they don't deserve.
But God knows our mental condition in these moments when we are being victimized. I don't believe he holds us responsible. I've been taught in recent years that God is the perfect judge, who can differentiate between intended meanness on our part and weakness due to circumstances, ill health, fatigue, hunger, etc. He does not expect the same abilities from us when we are, in effect, disabled.
Don't be harder on yourself for your reaction than God is. He understands that we get pushed beyond our limits, and I would doubt He feels let down. These moments serve to make us humble, by reminding us of just what lurks beneath the surface of our carefully monitored reactions. We can therefore be honest before God and thank Him for his mercy and love.