a time to grieve; a time to dance

Have you ever found a glistening coin on the bed of a flowing stream? You point at it but your friend isn't quite able to see it. Or maybe your friend is pointing at something at a short distance and, for all your neck-craning, you can't quite see what it is.

This blog is exactly that. This is me pointing at something that I know is there and hope you'd see, too. Whether it's at a golden mask at the bottom of the well or an eagle soaring high in the sky, I wish you Happy Looking!

15 July 2012

Grace calls

To make ends meet as an artist and family man, I took on a job at a call center. I have been working for this company for about seven months now, and I am actually enjoying it. I am thankful for it because God uses this job as a channel of His provisions for us.

Anyway, I do want to talk about my call center job a bit. I was thinking how I can integrate my core values of truth and integrity on the stage and in life into corporate job of dealing with customers over the phone.

Now customers would not always be nice or jovial or at least courteous. Some would be righteously or wrongfully frustrated, rude, uneducated... They complain, grumble, vent out, or worse, mumble. (I have bias against lazy speakers.)

Usually, when I get a less than pleasant customer, I just switch off. I build a wall. I distance myself. I become passive-agressive. I get filled with thoughts like: "Oh, God. I'm not your psychiatrist. Nor your parent. It's not my fault you got low EQ."

Anyhow, this attitude of mine is not going well with my scores at work. I know I can do better and engage the customers in a friendlier manner, but if I do that to every person I talk to I'd be depleted! My energy reserves would dry up.

So, I was thinking a lot about this, and how I'm so passionate for theater even though I haven't always been treated right there. And how, when this call center company is treating me right, I'm not giving them 100% of what I give to the theater.

I was looking for a sense of integration. Then it hit me: Grace. Grace. I don't deserve it, but I received it. Grace. If I can dispense grace to every caller, treat them not as I think they deserve, but as grace would treat them, then I'll be better off.

And since God is the Author of grace, if I connect with Him, branch to the Vine, then I'll never be depleted of grace reserves.
I think I ought to appropriate this grace through prayer. "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever" (Psalm 23).
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