The Power of Common Courtesy

I arrived at the church yesterday morning to see a tag hanging on the door knob, informing me that a gas company meter reader had been here earlier and I had missed him. (The meter readers have to be let in since our meter is behind a locked gate). I found this curious, given that I had set up an appointment a couple of weeks ago to have the meter read between 1:00 and 400 pm yesterday. So I called Nicor to get it straightened out.

Turns out, they did have us on the schedule for between 1 and 4, and the customer service rep did not know why someone had shown up earlier. She asked me if I would be willing to read the meter myself and tell her the readings. After receiving a quick tutorial from her on how to do that, I left her on hold, made the walk to the meter, wrote down the readings, and returned about five minutes later to find her still holding for me. I gave her the readings. She said, “Wow, you did that really well.” I have no idea what it was about the numbers I gave her that made her say that, but I chuckled and said, “Well, I may be needing a part-time job in the near future.” She laughed and told me they were hiring and that I would probably be good at it.

I give all that detail just to show how the conversation went. It was a nice, pleasant time on the phone over a mundane bit of church business. It had taken a little bit of time for her to sort out the scheduling confusion, and she had had to put me on hold at one point. But we just progressed, showing common courtesy and friendliness toward each other. Which leads to how the call ended.

As we were ready to say goodbye, she said to me, “Before I go, I just want to thank you for being so kind and patient and polite as I was straightening this all out. Not everyone is.” I replied, “Well, I think that’s how Jesus would have me be.” She said, “You would think so, but it’s not always the case.” She noted that she, too, was a Christian and that some of the rudest people she deals with are those who call from churches. That broke my heart. I think it says something about why people view Jesus and the Church the way they do. As I think about it now, it bothers me that, though I try not to be, I may have been that rude Christian on the other end of the phone at sometime. I hope not.

I’m struck by the power of common courtesy to make a good impression for Jesus. This goes along with what we read in Titus 3:2. Paul instructs Titus there to remind his congregation “to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.”If we are not able to do these things, perhaps we have become too full of ourselves and need to spend some time meditating on Philippians 2. Perhaps some humility is in order. If I think I am better than someone, I may tend not to show courtesy to that person. But the fact is, I am not better than anyone else.None of us are. We all stand before God as condemned sinners apart from having had our sins washed in the blood through faith in Jesus.

As ambassadors for Christ, we Christians need to take note of this, especially given the reputation we have with at least one customer service rep.How we treat people matters. It matters to the Lord who suffered and died for them. It even matters for how people may ultimately view Jesus. This is not earth-shattering spiritual truth here. It’s just a matter of being nice, polite, friendly, and things like that. It’s just common courtesy.