Taking Jesus Seriously and Ourselves Less Seriously

Summary

One day, years ago, the phone rang, and the caller said, “Mrs. Froese?”, when I answered. Now, whenever I hear someone call me Mrs. Froese, or in some way mispronounce or stumble over my name, I assume that this is a marketing call, I don’t know them, more importantly, they don’t know me, and I can be short with them, ie. Rude. So, I can’t remember if I replied that Mrs. Froese didn’t live there, which I sometimes did, or if I said, “Actually, my last name is Rudy-Froese”, but not in the tone of voice that exuded patience, tolerance or love. I was about to hang up when she apologized for not getting my name correct, and then said, “This is Mrs. Schumacher, Ben’s junior kindergarten teacher.” Yep, it was a humbling moment.

I remember wondering why it was that because I didn’t know someone, I thought it was OK to be rude. I have thought about this phone call at various times and in various ways. I can’t say I’ve successfully lived up to that realization, but it was an important one.