My Refuge & Strength

I’m sure this is the case for every receptionist, but for the church that I work for, we sure do get a lot of strange calls.

Two weeks ago, I had a twenty-minute conversation (well, I didn’t really speak that much) with a well-off, non-religious - but very spiritual - woman who’s been dealing with an ugly divorce and living off of little to no money. She claimed that she’s lived all over the world, had money all her life, and when her split with her husband turned sour, he devoted his life to ruining hers. All that aside, she was remarkably sweet and understanding, which most people who call with problems typically aren’t. I did everything that I could for her (which was not very much) and she truly appreciated my efforts. Since then I hadn’t heard from her.

Last Monday, the first call I answered was from a man who’s been an issue in the past wanting to know how he could get to the beach, where our church was having a summer get-together thing. I told him I didn’t know - I’m just the receptionist after all - and he did not take very kindly to that. I asked if he wanted to leave a message with the pastor in charge of the event, but he didn’t want to do that, so instead he ripped on me for not being able to help him and hung up on me. I’ve dealt with this person in the past, and I know how he can be, but for some reason, I was really hurt by his words.

So after that, I was sort of afraid to answer the phone again, in case he called back. But when I picked up the phone next, the woman from the week earlier was on the other line. And although she was still struggling, she was so kind. Just because I was able to listen to her and offer her some sort of help, she called me her angel. After having been hurt only moments before, her sweet spirit managed to bless me in ways not even I can understand.