“Sow for yourselves justice, reap the fruit of piety; break up for yourselves a new field, for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain down justice upon you.” (Hosea 10:12)

Every now and then when I’m on the phone arguing with a billing or service representative, I’ll hear a stranger’s voice emphatically saying “that makes no sense” or “why can’t you do anything about this?”

Alas! That voice is mine, violating  my standards for how to treat people. After calming down, I am mortified that I was so hard on a  powerless person who was just doing her job as instructed. Then today’s reading from Hosea made me realize that justice is Involved in how we handle such encounters, even when we’re right. 

In trying to better understand Hosea’s admonition to “sow for yourselves justice” I looked up a definition of justice and found that it means “people are to be treated impartially, fairly, properly, and reasonably.” We are required to treat everyone with civility and respect even if they messed up or their employer wronged us. As an advocate who has helped a lot of people solve such problems, I know how common this is. However the issue is how we treat people, not incompetence. We can be civil while seeking redress of wrongs. 

I’ve noticed how easy it is to be especially hard on front line service people like airline employees in other cities because we will never see them again. There are no social consequences for being unpleasant to someone halfway across the country who can’t get you on a flight after yours is cancelled. 

On the other hand, we’re all more likely to bite our tongues when the barista at our coffee shop messes up our order, making us a few minutes late to work because we don’t want to become persona non grata at our morning caffeine supplier!

The key to improving our behavior with powerless strangers might be to equate justice with respect if we treat the people we customarily see face to face with civility and respect. I try to remind myself that the hapless person reading the script that tells me there’s no solution to my problem is a fellow child of God, not a tape recording.  I try to envision a young person much like one of my former students and treat her like I would them.

I’ve learned (but don’t always remember) that respectfully asking for help is a good way to begin, also saying something pleasant about previous encounters with their employer if possible. . Not only is this the “reasonable” treatment that justice demands, it’s more likely to produce results. It’s amazing how quickly you can form a problem solving relationship with a total stranger if you show the respect that justice demands because many of them seldom get this. I know because when I’m handling such an interaction well, they thank me. 

This is all a work in progress but realizing that I want the Lord to “rain down justice” upon me gives me added incentive to combat a weakness. And it can make life for people who do dreadful jobs trying to help us just a little easier.