january 30, 2010

From the Rule of Benedict:

Chapter 7: On Humility
The second degree of humility is that a person love not his own will nor take pleasure in satisfying his desires,but model his actions on the saying of the Lord,"I have come not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me" (John 6:38). It is written also,"Self-will has its punishment, but constraint wins a crown."

This morning we got a phone call from a collection person for Macy's. The caller informed me that we owed money to the tune of $550 and that it was late and wanted to know when we were going to pay it. I couldn't imagine that we owed that much! and in fact, we didn't. He informed me that oops, it was in fact more like $150 and it was past due. Really? It was due on the 25th of January. Wow, it's the 30th. Since when do companies sick a collection agency on you when you're 5 days late, especially when the debtor has never been delinquent in a payment ever before? So, he wanted to know how I was going to pay it and when. He offered to take care of it immediately for me, if I so chose. I gotta say this phone call made me feel rather badly. It felt like I had inadvertently mildly offended someone and the offended was reacting REALLY STRONGLY. However, I didn't apologize, because we're talking money here, not someone's feelings. I wrote the check and mailed it off this morning. Anyway, my point is: it is hard to recover from the bashing that the world wants to give us or to keep our bearings. Then, to be conscious of our deepest desire to be on good terms with the One who made us.. to commit to that goal is hard enough. I know though that it will bring me to my deepest happiness. Hearkening to the call to humility, I made a phone call today that I'm really glad I made. It wasn't to Macy's collection agency.