Remaining Calm Under Pressure

I’m very grateful to receive the daily calendar statement emails. Today’s daily calendar statement is: “True protection lies in spiritual thinking, our ceaseless struggle to think God’s thoughts and be Christlike.”

This quote from Martha Wilcox really helped me see that I’m not alone in this constant struggle to stay in the Father’s house meaning to think Godlike thoughts and see everything like God sees it. I love how this church teaches us to love our neighbors as ourselves and to follow the example of Jesus and Mary Baker Eddy by choosing not to take offense and always responding with love. At a recent Roundtable, there was a statement made that really resonated with me: “Love without principle is like a jellyfish, and principle without love is like an iceberg.” That visual helped me understand how important it is to hold both love and principle together.

This past week, I experienced a situation where I had to put that into practice. I was dealing with a billing issue with our internet provider, who claimed we owed an outstanding balance of over $600. It was on my mind a lot and after procrastinating a while, I had spent hours on the phone with no resolution. Eventually, one representative did understand the issue. We had switched to a different internet system within the same company, but the original service was never canceled, so we were mistakenly charged for both and this went on for several months. After being transferred between multiple representatives, one woman finally helped by placing a note on our account explaining the situation. She told me that if I contacted the billing department and provided my account number, they would be able to remove the balance.

I began to pray before I made the call to the billing department knowing God was the one in charge and since I stood with principle, principle stood with me. However, when I called the billing department I had to explain everything all over again. She told me that this issue could not be resolved today and put me on hold for the countless time. This time while I was on hold, I prayed. I reminded myself that God was in control and that I was standing on principle. In the past, I would have forced myself to act harsh on purpose because I grew up believing that the only way I would be taken seriously and not be taken advantage of is to act mean and aggressive during these type of situations. That was always hard for me to do because it never was in me to do that. Instead, I calmly continued to pray knowing that God was in charge and that I stood with Principle. Once she returned on the phone, she told me that the best she could do was take down my information and give the information to the back office to review and they would get back to me with their decision in 5-7 working days. Instead of getting angry or frustrated, I thanked her and hung up and left it in God’s hands.

The very next day, I received a text message saying the matter had been resolved and the balance would be cleared. I felt very grateful and thankful to God not only for the outcome, but for how I handled the situation and the lesson that I learned. Trusting in God. remaining peaceful and loving, or as we say here at Plainfield, “staying in the Father’s house” no matter what the situation is, is always the answer.