Call Center Purgatory <$BlogRSDURL$>
Call Center Purgatory
Thursday, March 31, 2005
  Hatred-Part III


"Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good."-Romans 12:9
When I think how I can deal with the hatred in my heart that my job brings me face to face with, I feel like the Christian ideal of walking in love is extremely hard to attain. How can I love people that are evil? How can I love management that does not care about me? Who sees me as some bothersome flesh-covered answering machine?

Well, one way I can walk in love with someone like that is to realize that walking in love does not mean I have to like them. We always think of love as trying to produce some sort of sticky emotional state that makes us see the one we love as worthy of love, but its not that way. Actually, its quite the opposite.
Here's a quote from C.S. Lewis that really helped me:
“Try to understand exactly what loving your neighbour as yourself means. I have to love him as I love myself. Well how exactly do I love myself? Now that I come to think of it, I have not exactly got a feeling of fondness or affection for myself, and I do not always enjoy my own society. So apparently “Love your neighbour” does not mean “feel fond of him” or “find him attractive”. I ought to have seen that before, because, of course, you cannot feel fond of a person by trying. Do I think well of myself, think myself a nice chap? Well, I am afraid I sometimes do…but that is not why I love myself. So loving my enemies does not apparently mean thinking them nice either. That is an enormous relief. For a good many people imagine that forgiving your enemies means making out that they are really not such bad fellows after all, when it is quite plain they are. Go a step further. In my most clearsighted moments not only do I not think myself a nice man, but I know that I am a very nasty one. I can look at some of the things I have done with horror and loathing. So apparently I am allowed to loathe and hate some of the things my enemies do. Now that I come to think of it, I remember Christian teachers telling me long ago that I must hate a bad man’s actions, but not hate the bad man: or as they would say, hate the sin, not the sinner.” – C.S. Lewis, March 21st: Loving and Liking, Readings for the Year
This is a relief to know I don't have to go against all logic to live what I believe. This is where C.S. Lewis is so incredible in his writings. He makes these complex ideas logical, and not some sloppy mumbo-jumbo. The people that run my call center are not nice people. I don't have to make myself be their best buddy. I don't have to pretend. What I do have to do is attempt to see them the way Christ did when he died on the cross. They are weak and evil, and not deserving of any love of grace, just like I was, and still am.

Thats the first step to moving beyond hatred, seeing them through God's eyes...

Thanks for reading,

AC
 
Comments:
Thanks !
 
I work in a call center for a health care company...know what you mean.....God Bless you!
 
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Exploring the mind numbing insanity and childish corporate culture of an unknown call center employee.
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Purgatory: A place of suffering and torment with an unknown duration. In Roman Catholic Theology-the place where the dead are purified from their sins.
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