megan's blog

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Debt forgiveness

Ok so I think it is always appropriate to share good stories, so here is mine for today. I got a phone call this morning from a Collections Agency. The lady said she was calling on behalf of an online listing company that I had agreed to work with and then we never paid them. The background on this for me is that I know I have had many confusing phone calls from this company and I am always like, "sorry this is not my job to discuss advertising or marketing" and I have them speak with the correct people. The lady told me she had a recorded conversation of me agreeing to pay this very large amount of money. I asked her if I could please listen to the recording. She agreed. So as I began to hear this conversation, I could not believe my ears as this lady slyly verified my listing information (for work), then she said "can I send an invoice to you or a PO?" I sounded a bit confused and I said she could send an invoice. Then she said, "ok I will send an invoice for $499.95 to you." I said (very confused) "Wait, what" and she repeated the part about sending me an invoice only this time did not even say the price.
As I am listening to my own stupid self, I start BAWLING. Not like sweet little tears running down my little cheeks, but like ugly cry, red eyes, blotchy face sobbing. I am sitting there thinking, how could I have done this. Mercy and Truth can't afford me making a mistake like this....what was I thinking! I mean I was very upset. So anyway, the debt collector is back on the phone and she realizes I am crying (mostly because you would have to be deaf to not realize it at this point) so she starts saying, "megan...are you crying?...PLease stop crying...Megan, I do not understand what has made you this upset." for a few minutes she tries to understand me through sobs. Then she asked me to hold for a minute. When she got back on she said, "ok megan you HAVE to stop crying so I can tell you the good news." I did not really stop crying because at this point you cannot really stop the cascade of emotions that have over taken me, but I did my best. Then she said, ok it sounds like you made a mistake. I talked to my supervisor and he said I could cancel this debt for you.
At this point the last thing you should do is give me a new reason to cry (happy tears this time), but I did my best to hold them back. I kept thanking her and apologizing for my outburst. Then we talked for min about my pregnancy and Mercy and Truth. She asked me to promise I would never talk to online advertisers again and I did. Then she said she would pray for me and my new little family. :o
I have never had much of a "testimony." Although I truly believe we are all sinners and have much to be saved from, I have never really been able to identify with stories in the Bible that talk about the weight that forgiveness can take off of a person. I really felt like I had done something bad. Something that was definitely my fault, no matter how innocent of a mistake it was and for a moment I knew that I was guilty of something I could not make better. When she literally canceled my debt, she had done something for me that I never could have done for myself/mercy and truth. Anyway, the parable parallels are fairly obvious so i will stop, but I had to share my debt forgiveness realization. And I promise to try to be equally as gracious. I will not be the guy in the Bible that got forgiveness and turned around and demanded what was owed to him. And I promise not to talk to anyone on the phone again....EVER.