First of all let me say.....I'm just a person. Not a famous one at that. I am a Wife and a Mom. I stayed at home with my children for 19 years then went to work.....for about 3-nearly 4 years until I became very ill. I have a heath issue which has required for me to stay home and recover and I've come a long way and I am very thankful for that one thing alone!
I love people, I love missions I love music and I love to read and I love write. I have many interests. Many passions. Many that I can't reach or fulfill but I try.
I'm not saying I'm good or an authority on at any of the things I've mentioned.
However, I try, I do try and I am genuine about stating that.
When I compare my life to someone like Mother Teresa. There is none. My life is mere dust on the ground compared to hers. We don't cross paths in many ways other than we BOTH liked Princess Diana, and we both love people. But most importantly........we are both "children of the Most High God."
Now that certain issues have arisen regarding Mother Teresa's life......I think it's time we take a few moments to analyze some things about her.
Let me say this to my Catholic friends and family, I mean no harm in what I am about to say. So forgive me if our opinions differ. I know that this could get my house "petrol bombed" if I lived in No. Ireland. But I don't and I have a wild card up my sleeve....I have a Great Aunt that is a nun you know..... "Sister Louise." Whew! Got that going for me. So you will see, I'm not a "hater"....read on.
Truthfully......this current scandal hitting the press and airwaves about Mother Teresa, "Questioning her faith in God" is a "buffoonery." Don't you love the online thesaurus? So handy in serious times like this.
Not to make light of the situation......it's just plain stupid and this is what we get for making "SAINTS" out of regular people.
Let's get to the point.
Mother Teresa was a very little lady from Albania. She had MASSIVE love for people. Especially the down and out ones of this world. No one can deny what she accomplished while she was on this earth. She was remarkable. Yet now we see.......she was "human".....why wouldn't she be? I guess because we don't see many that do what she did and attempted to do on such a scale as what she did. When you think of Calcutta.......that is a lot to deal with right there this isn't counting the other areas of the world she encountered. She loved the hurting, the sick, the dying. Ones that others would have given up on.
Now that that this new book on her life has exposed her "frailties" which by the way they say she DID NOT want exposed....people are seeing her in a whole new light. Which I say is good.
She struggled with her faith. Tell me WHO HASN'T or WHO DOESN'T. Don't be so pious people. She was a mere human being and thank GOD for that. She wondered "Where God was" at times. Is that so horrible? She wondered "Why she hadn't heard from God"....haven't you??? Maybe we expect way too much from great people or even from ourselves.
I know when I get out in the Baton Rouge traffic at times, I HAVE GOT to pray for God to "give me an opening" into traffic......and I have to say.....He does. He is the God of my every concern isn't He? I know it's nothing to be compared with the "miraculous" things happening out there but sometimes.....it is miraculous just driving and surviving in this city.
What about when you need a parking spot. Do you pray? I mean we can do that even for the simplest of things. IF you can't find one close to the door did you feel that God had neglected you or was off in China helping that country instead? Come on.
Put yourselves in the shoes....or sandals of Mother Teresa. Do you think that if you saw the immense human pain and suffering and starvation that she saw over and over and over on a continual basis that your faith wouldn't get a tad bit "rocked." Oh I'm thinking that it would. Yet I feel she held the course.
Oh does that guy get money for writing that book too? Might be motive #1 right there. I don't know. I haven't seen any interviews as to "Why" he's writing it only that he has and I'm not saying he can't write it.....I'm only saying this......BIG, FAT SO WHAT! The woman did a good work and the possible fact that she had struggles in her faith at times.....well get over it.
WE all have and if we say we don't then we are deceived and we lie.
This is part of the head game that we have to deal with folks.
These scriptures in Hebrews make me think of someone like Mother Teresa and of us all. HARD times will come. You can just count on that.... for every one of us all and we have got to hang on. WE stay the course.....we don't FALL off the course we have to STAY in the race. It's the end that matters. Not what you felt 30 years ago when you were sad and depressed and scribbled some writings out of desperation in your diary that someone publishes to disclaim you once your dead. It's what your "life testimony" says about you, now and in the end.
34For you did sympathize and suffer along with those who were imprisoned, and you bore cheerfully the plundering of your belongings and the confiscation of your property, in the knowledge and consciousness that you yourselves had a better and lasting possession.
35Do not, therefore, fling away your fearless confidence, for it carries a great and glorious compensation of reward.
36For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and [a]carry away [and enjoy to the full] what is promised.
37For still a little while (a very little while), and the Coming One will come and He will not delay.
38But the just shall live by faith [My righteous servant shall live [b]by his conviction respecting man's relationship to God and divine things, and holy fervor born of faith and conjoined with it]; and if he draws back and shrinks in fear, My soul has no delight or pleasure in him.(A)
39But our way is not that of those who draw back to eternal misery (perdition) and are utterly destroyed, but we are of those who believe [who cleave to and trust in and rely on God through Jesus Christ, the Messiah] and by faith preserve the soul.
I receive many, many prayer requests. Sometimes the needs are absolutely overwhelming.
Especially the ones I get from missionaries or people in ministry. These people are working....giving their lives in service for Him and I wonder to myself at times......"oh God how can this happen..or...how can this be allowed"....yet, He is sovereign, and He is divine. I believe that and I don't question Him on what He thinks is best. I don't think God is sitting up there looking down to see who He can squash like a bug. That is "buffoonery." Hey, find a good word, use it all day long. HA!
I may not understand everything in life....but I do know that HE loves and cares for me and for others and HE knows what is best for us all. I have no "God issues" in that way.....but I know many people that do and that's okay. That's how they are wired. Are they any less spiritual. I don't think so. They just are maybe deeper thinkers. I can't explain it all and I don't have to. All I am saying is......we are all on different pages yet......we are in the same book.
Hold on...because we all know the ending and we ARE a part of it!!!
Another great missionary to Calcutta who I have ALWAYS admired said this.....
“don't curse the darkness…light a candle.” - Mark Buntain
That my friends is what he and Mother Teresa and thousands of other willing servants have done through the ages and will continue to do so.
Get your candles out people.
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