A lot of time in ministry it is easy to get caught up in numbers. Mother Teresa’s ministry strived to not get caught in this strive, but were all about person by person. The world is too big to get caught up in numbers. “Welfare is for a purpose- an admirable one- whereas Christian love is for a person.” A lot of times ministry is like a teaspoon out of the ocean and you just have to do what God calls you to do without getting discouraged or overwhelmed by the plentiful harvest. Her mindset was the opposite of Darwinism and would go and help the ones everybody else looked over as a hopeless cause. “God did not create poverty; it is created by you and I because we do not share.” A lot of times she was criticized for not “teaching a man to fish” but she just gave people fish, but I really think she was just doing what God called her to do with the greatest love from Christ that anointed her work with a very bright light. We just have to take hold of the little things in front of us. “One, one, one…” Sometimes starting out with passion to change the world can be a quick route of discouragement.
Mother’s identity was in Christ and she did not get distracted one bit by criticisms and complements a like. She called her work “little nothingness.” She counted everything as rubbish as Paul does in Philippians 3! Being discouraged is a sign of pride because it means that we are trying to do something on our own. In Christ there is no discouragement. God works in his own ways and we just have to trust in him for everything. Be encouraged by the small things in life and ministry. “Just a drop in the ocean, but if that drop were not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less.” I could quote Mother all day- she was so wise!
On thing in thing in this book that really challenged me was how Mother and the missionaries would try to bring Christ to the people and the people to Christ- in every little way possible. In maybe just a smile or their actions or prayer. They would clean and pick up trash as they went and just leave the fragrance of Christ behind. I just learned about the “tragedy of the commons” and I really want to strive to do little things that nobody else or would even notice, but anything that would shine Christ brighter in this world!
I could never possibly blog all of the things I have gotten out of Finding Calcutta on this paper, but I do have a main thing I have pulled out of it is that my view of Catholicism has changed. I honestly formerly believed there were no true Christians in that denominations, but now I see differently. “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” Colossian 3:11 I have always though of the body of Christ simply in terms of spiritual gifts, but now I see it could also be the different denominations of the church. Trough them, we can see the wholeness and beauty of the body of Christ as each has their own strengths. Denominations in my opinion are a heartbreaking thing to God that is simply humanities attempt at finding a balance in Spirit and truth. Then a lot of times especially Westerns flee from the Spirit of God that simply does not make sense, but will cling to the truths of Christ. In these truths we start to form opinions and doctrines that we then debate each other on then a denominations is born. But also getting caught up in the Spirit with emotions and healing and manifestations of the Spirit can be dangerous too. We all need to unite and help other find the truth and just run after God- we need each other. None of us are the head- Christ is the head of the church.
No comments:
Post a Comment