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robGCJAX



Joined: 01 Jul 2012
Posts: 10
Location: St. Simons Island

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 2:38 pm    Post subject: Caring for Others Reply with quote

I do not know much about Mother Teresa. I read one little book about her life. From what I read she seemed to have a good balance of the mystical and the practical. She got a hold on a few verses of Scripture and went with them. She understood what Jesus meant when He said,

“For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.” Then the righteous will answer Him, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?” The King will answer and say to them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” (Matthew 25:35-39)

Did she understand the whole Bible? I don’t know. But she understood this part and acted on it.

Was Mother Teresa completely practical and outwardly focused? No. She served others by looking for Jesus in disguise in each of the people that she served. That definitely is a mystical perspective. Mother Teresa was empowered to do her service through her mystical search for and service to Christ. That is how this all works. Jesus prays all night so He can go and do. After going and doing, Jesus looks for a mountain where He can be alone with God. The mystical and outward service are not opposites in conflict; they are complements, part of the same whole.
There is this catch phase going around the Seeker churches that the Christian life is to be lived in, up, and out. It is lived in, meaning inwardly. It is lived up in worship and in relationship to God. It is lived out in service to others. This is not a bad little slogan. Mystics do search for God quietly and inwardly. But this does not mean that they do not share outwardly what they have received inwardly. To give someone something, you have to have something to give. Mystics get that something in stillness. Then they can go and give to others what has been given to them. Try giving solely out of yourself, and you will be utterly empty before you know it. If you are receiving from God but not giving what you have received you are missing a step.

God does not interact with us just so we can go and do a good deed. God interacts with us in love. When we interact with His love, we want to invite others into that love. The motivation is not transactional; the motivation is love. Love gives, love invites in, love shares, and love grows as it is given away.

So can you give someone a cup of cold water without being a mystic? Sure. But why are you giving the water? Is it so that you can feel good about yourself? Are you giving it because you must? Are you giving because everyone else is? Serving works best when it is done in Jesus’ name. It works best when we are serving Him and not them. It works best when we are serving in His strength and power. Serving works best when we are not serving them to get something for ourselves. Serving works best when we come before God in stillness, to receive Him, so that we can give Him to them.

Should we wait to serve until we have a pure heart? No. You would be waiting forever. But we must be wary of our motives. We are much more driven by selfishness and fear than we like to admit. We often confuse codependency with Christianity.

Like Mother Teresa we can encounter God as we serve others. We serve Him by serving them. We receive our reward from Him and not from them. The reward may be the ability to love the unlovely. Or to be able to let go of things we are clutching. Or the reward may be to die a little more to our own stubborn pride. Maybe the jerk who was not grateful for our service was really Christ helping us to serve without people’s approval. A favorite poem of Mother Teresa is called “Anyway.” One of the lines I added to that poem is “People are jerks, but serve them anyway.” Really I often substitute more colorful words for the word “jerks.” The last line of the real poem is “You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God; It was never between you and them anyway.” That is a good ending to this story.
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