Article August 30, 1999 Issue

THE DAY THE CRANK CALLS ENDED

Don Soule

There's not much you can do these days without a password, whether it's used to gain access to an automated bank teller, a voice-mail system, or e-mail. A while back, however, I had a chance to validate a stranger's identity in an entirely different way.

I was getting crank telephone calls. The caller would say horrid, untrue things about me. I would become very upset, yell back, and then slam the receiver down. This went on for some time with no letup. One night when I was praying about the calls, I realized that I wasn't identifying either myself or the caller the way God was. I had a decidedly ungodlike view of the whole situation. So I turned to the Bible and Science and Health for help. According to these books, man is made in God's image and likeness—perfect, whole, complete, unimpaired and unencumbered. I decided that if the person called again, I would confront him with the truth of his—and my—being.

Two days later he called. Immediately I said to him the truths I had read about man as God's image and likeness, blotting out his harsh words. I kept this up for a few moments until I suddenly realized that I was talking to myself. He had hung up. And he never called again. More important, the resentment and annoyance that I had felt for him had disappeared.

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