July 16, 2010
Taking the Time to Make a Difference
A tale of two phone calls
BY PAUL R. LEINGANG
(Listen to Paul read this column | Weekly podcast)
It was the worst of calls. It was the best of calls.
(Forgive me, Dickens, for I have punned.)
I made two phone calls in recent days, with remarkably different results. The experience is worth noting.
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First, a credit card company.
It took me a couple of tries to enter correctly the last four numbers of my credit card and the first three letters of my mother-in-law’s maiden name. Since I didn’t do it fast enough the first time, I had to start over and enter all 16 numbers of the card.
After achieving what I thought should be success, the automated voice provided me with too few options. What I needed to do — find out how to prepare for a significant purchase for a tour company in India — was not among my options.
The automated voice told me to talk to a real person in customer assistance, after a waiting period estimated at 10 minutes.
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Second, the cable television company.
My family had gathered around the television set to watch a movie, a rare event at our house at the end of a rare visit involving my son and his family.
The movie was available “on demand” from our cable service, but every time we tried to start it, nothing happened.
I called the cable company, worked my way through the various menus and options, and after only a short waiting time, I was connected with a real person.
I told her that we wanted to purchase an on-demand movie. She did the technological magic to make the system work again, and told me it would take 10 or 15 minutes to complete the process.
I told her I hoped it wouldn’t take too long, because my grandchildren were waiting for the movie we promised them.
The business part of the call was complete, but she added something at that point. She said she missed her own children that evening, and wished she could be with them.
That was the surprise, connecting with a real person — not merely a customer service representative, but a mother of children, working the evening hours required to earn a livelihood.
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It is often difficult, if not impossible, to recognize the human person on the other side of the phone call, or at the check-out counter, or wherever it is we interact in daily life.
It is really just a matter of respect for each other, I think, that could make a tremendous difference in the world today.
It is very simple. I alone can’t stop a war — but I can stop shouting at the referee on the soccer field or the basketball court. So also can I be polite and respectful in a one-to-one phone call, or in a one-to-hundreds traffic jam.
Each of us could make a small difference in daily life, in our dealings with each other, in our business relationships, in arranging for purchases or services, in traveling from here to there.
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The core of our Christian tradition includes the world-shattering events of death and resurrection. But we should never neglect to acknowledge the humble birth or the daily life in a father’s carpenter shop.
The details of a healing story may be extraordinary — people cutting through a roof and lowering a sick man down into the presence of Jesus. Just as powerful is the account of Jesus in the middle of a shoving crowd, turning to ask, “Who touched me?”
The man lowered into the crowd got up from his sick bed. The woman almost lost in the crowd was healed too. The dramatic gesture and the private glance into another’s eyes are equally important.
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If these simple reflections on phone calls and Gospel stories provoke any reflection on your part, take the time to respond with respect to one other person today. And again tomorrow.
Just as God was revealed in the humanity of Jesus, so could the presence of Jesus in your life be revealed by you to your family and to your neighbors. What a difference that would make!
Comments are welcome at office@cfm.org or the Christian Family Movement, P.O. Box 925, Evansvsille, IN 47706-0925