Article September 21, 2009 Issue

STANDING FOR THE TRUTH

BY SUE HOLZBERLEIN

The Christian Science Monitor recently reported that aggressive debt collection tactics are under review. The demand is for a kindlier, as well as more honest, approach. At the same time, some debts have been forgiven ("Debt collection tactics under scrutiny," csmonitor.com, June 7, 2009). When a bill collection company pursues you about a financial debt that is not yours, the false accusation is hard to take. That happened to someone I know, who decided just to pay up rather than endure the aggressive tactics and take time to straighten it out.

I never thought it could happen to me, but a collection agency did wrongfully accuse me. Ultimately—through much prayer—I found the wisdom, courage, and stamina to stand for the truth. The idea that "progress is the law of God," from Mary Baker Eddy's book Science and Health, helped anchor my prayers. Here's the quotation in its entirety: "Every day makes its demands upon us for higher proofs rather than professions of Christian power. These proofs consist solely in the destruction of sin, sickness, and death by the power of Spirit, as Jesus destroyed them. This is an element of progress, and progress is the law of God, whose law demands of us only what we can certainly fulfil" (p. 233).

In March 2009 I received a letter from a financial collection company saying that I owed a large sum of money for a telephone land-line account opened a number of years ago in my name. When I called the company to follow up, the person I spoke with couldn't tell me exactly where this phone line had been installed.