My new stamps feature a portrait of Mother Teresa, the nun who lived in poverty to care for masses of needy people in Calcutta, India. Their needs were complicated: HIV/AIDS, leprosy, tuberculosis, hunger, children wandering the streets without families, love or schools. Their numbers were overwhelming. How did this simple nun face her life each day without crumbling? Here are some of her answers:
"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies."
"If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one."
"Intense love does not measure, it just gives."
"Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home."
God's Power speaks for itself through the life and work of this woman who yielded herself to Him, one step, one need, one person at a time. Sometimes we don't have to look into the faces of a needy world to feel helpless and weak; we just look in the mirror and we're overwhelmed with our own spiritual and emotional neediness. We wonder why God bothers with us when He's already invested Himself, His Son and His Spirit into transforming us and we still aren't strong or mature. And besides, there are all those "real" needs in Calcutta, among other places. . .
Let's remember God calls us to depend totally on Him, not ourselves:
"The LORD protects the simplehearted; when I was in great need, He saved me." Psalm 116:6
Let's thank Him when we're feeling needy and weak, knowing His Power plugs in perfectly to our weakness:
". . .always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Ephesians 5:20
Let's repent when we need to repent (turn back from fear and helplessness to follow and trust Him):
"This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: 'In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.'" Isaiah 30:15
Keeping it simple means resting in Him in quietness and trust, loving those closest to us, being faithful in the small things, feeding the one(s) God puts in front of us, and refusing to keep count of who we're loving and how many ways we're loving them.
'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When the true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed.
To turn, turn will be our delight,
'Til by turning, turning we come 'round right.
'Tis the gift to be loved and that love to return,
'Tis the gift to be taught and a richer gift to learn,
And when we expect of others what we try to live each day,
Then we'll all live together and we'll all learn to say:
To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed.
To turn, turn will be our delight,
'Til by turning, turning we come 'round right.
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