God's people and the People of God
The other day I was introduced to an image to talk about the intentional living of Christianity. This was shared with me by a church member who attended Perkins School of Theology some years ago and he recalled this was something that was taught to him by a professor he deeply admired.
Everyone is "God's People". Everyone is created in the image of God and has the goodness of God within them. However, not all of God's People live out the life of God. Some are living the life of ego or the life of some other idol or goal or ideal. As such not all of God's people are people of God (some are People of Self, or People of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism or People of Money or People of some Person).
Secondly, each of us has the life of which we were but are no longer "just that" and there is that part of life of which we are not yet. For instance, we are no longer just a student but we are also not yet a master. We live between that which we are no longer and that which we are yet to be.
As People of God, we all have the call in our lives to become that which we are not yet. The Christian life calls the People of God (aka: everyone) to become God's People (aka those who live a life with God at the center).
I know and understand not all people connect with the Call to be People of God as revealed in the Christian tradition. But for those of us called into the not yet life of holiness - how are we doing?
Dear Credit Card companies
Dear Credit Card companies,
I appreciate your ability to help 'build' and 'give' financial credit to people. I am not sure if I could have bought a house without good credit and your little plastic cards help me build up (with regular and on time payments) my credit. Apparently no institution would or could trust me without your seal of approval, so thank you for that.
Just a quick little word that I want to share with you. I have been a faithful account holder for ten years. That little card helped me get gas when my tank was empty driving home on Thanksgiving in college as well as help me with some food when I was all out of cash the other day. I have only been late with one payment and that was when I was getting married and my statement did not forward to me as I forgot to notify the post office, but that late fee and additional interest has taught me to make sure that I get my payments in on time no matter what.
The issue that I have had with you is not that you target people who are highly vulnerable such as high school grads, college students, and those with several other maxed out cards, although I wonder how you feel about that. The issue is not even that you are willing to lower my interest rate when I call up and ask for one but will never keep it at that lower rate. It is not even the fact that I receive loads of paperwork from you telling me of all the advantages I get when I spend more money using your card (why don't you just credit my account with the amount of money you save from sending crap in the mail to me, I am sure I would spend more that way).
No, the issue I have with you is you are the worst at saying goodbye. I mean the absolute worst. No means no. I do not appreciate the fact that I have to say "I would like to close my account" seven times in order to get your "account specialist" to push that red button and shut 'er down. I do not need a lower rate. I do not need cash advances with low one time transaction fees. I do not need you to apologize for putting me on hold for less than one minute then apologize again for "taking so long". I do not need you to tell me of the different advantages I could get if I upgrade my card. I do not need to have a different picture on the front of my card to make it "uniquely" mine. All I need is for you to do is close the account, you don't even have to thank me for my business (or the "relationship" as you insist on calling it). Just close the account.
I know I have been a "faithful customer" with you for ten years (you boldly print that on the card for me to brag to my friends), and so I feel I can say this due to our "long" history, just cancel my account and do not send me flyers how I have been pre-qualifed for a new card.
Jason
I appreciate your ability to help 'build' and 'give' financial credit to people. I am not sure if I could have bought a house without good credit and your little plastic cards help me build up (with regular and on time payments) my credit. Apparently no institution would or could trust me without your seal of approval, so thank you for that.
Just a quick little word that I want to share with you. I have been a faithful account holder for ten years. That little card helped me get gas when my tank was empty driving home on Thanksgiving in college as well as help me with some food when I was all out of cash the other day. I have only been late with one payment and that was when I was getting married and my statement did not forward to me as I forgot to notify the post office, but that late fee and additional interest has taught me to make sure that I get my payments in on time no matter what.
The issue that I have had with you is not that you target people who are highly vulnerable such as high school grads, college students, and those with several other maxed out cards, although I wonder how you feel about that. The issue is not even that you are willing to lower my interest rate when I call up and ask for one but will never keep it at that lower rate. It is not even the fact that I receive loads of paperwork from you telling me of all the advantages I get when I spend more money using your card (why don't you just credit my account with the amount of money you save from sending crap in the mail to me, I am sure I would spend more that way).
No, the issue I have with you is you are the worst at saying goodbye. I mean the absolute worst. No means no. I do not appreciate the fact that I have to say "I would like to close my account" seven times in order to get your "account specialist" to push that red button and shut 'er down. I do not need a lower rate. I do not need cash advances with low one time transaction fees. I do not need you to apologize for putting me on hold for less than one minute then apologize again for "taking so long". I do not need you to tell me of the different advantages I could get if I upgrade my card. I do not need to have a different picture on the front of my card to make it "uniquely" mine. All I need is for you to do is close the account, you don't even have to thank me for my business (or the "relationship" as you insist on calling it). Just close the account.
I know I have been a "faithful customer" with you for ten years (you boldly print that on the card for me to brag to my friends), and so I feel I can say this due to our "long" history, just cancel my account and do not send me flyers how I have been pre-qualifed for a new card.
Jason
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Be the change by Jason Valendy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.