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Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Ephesians 4:29-32

I had a major meltdown yesterday. After three days of dealing with my cable provider over a service issue... I hit a wall. Several weeks ago I received a flyer in the mail from my provider offering to upgrade my service to digital at no extra charge. It seemed like a great deal. I decided to think about it and finally gave them a call to learn more about the service. The young lady on the phone was very helpful and very informative. She promised to send me not just one received, but two for no extra costs. Wow. I was really impressed. It seemed like a great deal and since my husband and I love to watch movies, this was a great option over going to the theater or even renting movies for that matter. In the long run, I thought this would save us a lot of money. I had no idea how frustrated I would eventually get over this process.

It took a while for the receivers to come but when they did I was quite excited. I didn't know how long it would take to install them so I decided to wait until the weekend when I would have more time. Saturday morning rolled around and I pulled them out and started the installation process. One of the steps requires waiting 45 minutes for the software to download. I got to that point and decided to run out and do some errands while it did it's thing.

When I came back, I tried to finish the installation only to discover the unit upstairs had not initialized for some reason - so I called for help. It was an easy fix, but required that I wait another 45 minutes or so for it to download the software. Meanwhile, I thought the unit downstairs was fixed, but learned later that evening that it was not. I called again and was told they would resend the signal and try again in the morning.

Sunday afternoon came and I discovered I still did not have service working downstairs. After several phone calls, being on hold, being transferred around the country to different teams who could not help me... I finally spoke to someone locally who said it turns out I had received a defective receiver and they would have to send a technician out to fix it.

Well as luck would have it, my husband was going to be home on Monday - so that was going to work out okay. Or so I thought.

When no one came by - my husband and I started the phone call process again. After waiting on hold for quite some time I learned that they did not have me scheduled for a technician that day, but for Thursday, in the middle of the day.

I became furious. I had reached my limit of being patient and nice with this company and I wanted someone to take responsibility for the mistake.

I could feel my heart rate increase. I knew my blood pressure must have really shot up. I was so angry.

I am surprised at how fast my temper escalated over something that I now consider to be trivial.

Normally I'm very easy going and can remain calm under pressure.

For some reason this just set me off.

Thankfully, when I got home, my husband and I talked about the situation and then we prayed.

The peace of God just flooded over me. Immediately I was convicted in my spirit by my actions... which were witnessed by my coworkers. I felt horrible and ashamed. Tears poured from my eyes and I knew I had grieved the man who died for me. He had extended me the gift of grace and yet I could hardly do that for someone else.

I thought a lot about my actions and wondering how I could have handled things differently. I also thought about the impression my coworkers might have of me since they know I'm a follower of Jesus and yet my actions did not show what I believe is evidence of God in my life.

I guess all that thinking weighed on me and when I laid down in bed, I immediately fell asleep and slept for over 9 hours. It was a heavy and very sweet sleep.

I woke up this morning filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit. I was empowered by Him and knew that His love covered me such that there was no way I could walk through this day without it spilling on to others.

My cable service situation is still yet to be resolved, but I've resolved it in my heart and it will get fixed when it gets fixed. It's not that important in light of eternity.

I have faced many challenges in my job today - but walking in the Spirit has helped me to deal with them with a joyful spirit and to have complete peace in the midst of it.

My prayer today is that I can pray without ceasing over these things so that I can daily walk in the Spirit and let the light of Christ shine through my actions and not just my words and that I can be forgiving and compassionate with others, just as Christ has been with me.

"Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life" from Tom Kelley

The Best Ace

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