Moncton Beats Toronto

Scripture

We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first. If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both. (1 John 4:19-21 MSG)

Moncton Beats Toronto

My annual renegotiation with Rogers of rates for home internet and television is like spinning a wheel at a casino. The wheel spins and my call can be answered almost anywhere in Canada. Last week my first spin answered in Toronto - no particular help offered so I thought I’d spin again in a couple of days.  With that next spin I heard “This is Sarah in Moncton, how can I help you?”.

Four years in a row every time a Moncton person goes to work on the file the price reduces. I’m shallow enough that I prefer that to no change or an increase which habitually is the Toronto offering. The only difference I can discover is that the woman in Moncton listened carefully and seemed motivated to find a beneficial result for me.

For many people who encounter us it can be a similar casino spin. Do we listen deeply and have their best interests and concerns as our focus? Or too often do we go through the motions and offer little of benefit in our mutual encounters.

We have lots of reasons to be self-focussed but ultimately that isn’t fruitful or healthy for us or those we encounter. We trust our encounters with the God we can’t see when we have experienced some of that patience and kindness in human form. Our love for God is demonstrated in our love for others and God’s love is expressed in our encounters with one another in visible and tangible form.

A Prayer for Today

O God of patient and infinite kindness help us to see you in our daily interactions with people. There are those we can miss when they are right there all the time. Others are providing service in stores or on the phone, and their intrinsic God-created humanity is easy to miss – we just want something from them. Give us eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts that desire to give …. For Jesus’ sake