Mother Teresa, one of my sheros

One of my “sheroes” of life and faith would have turned 100 years old last week (August 26) … Mother Teresa. I admired her for a long time, but when I received a Christmas gift one year of excerpts from her spiritual journal she was moved into the sheroe category ... at least in my mind.

The stories that surrounded her caring ministry to the “least of these” are moving in their own right. The one that still lingers in my soul is the story of a visiting American journalist who was granted permission to “shadow” Mother Teresa one day as she worked in the leprosy ward at one of the charity hospitals in Calcutta. He writes about the ward being filled with hundreds of beds of people in various stages of this horrible disease. The stench of decaying flesh and bodily fluids was over powering. It was all he could do to keep his food down, but Mother Teresa moved from bed to bed, bathing the soars, changing bandages, changing the sheets, mopping up the mess from around the beds and then moving on to the next patient. When she got to the end of the ward she would then go back to the first patient and start all over again. Finally, the journalist said, “I couldn’t do what you are doing.” To which she replied, “Neither could I, but the Jesus in me can.”

Her faithful witness and sacrificial love expressed to the sick and dying is but one example of her spirit, but the real sheroe status came from reading her journal entries. Entry after entry spoke about her struggle with her faith … her doubts … the deafening silence from God to her prayers … her frustrations concerning a lack of biblical understanding … her anxiety concerning her effectiveness. In reading one entry after entry the struggling spirit of this saintly woman began to emerge. Here was someone that could understand my struggle!

Here I was thinking all the time that Mother Teresa had all the answers, had a special relationship with God, had her spiritual act together – so to speak - but what I found, in her journal, was an individual who, in spit of her doubts, questions and frustrations, was able to move forward on her spiritual journey and ministry. I found somebody that I could relate to in that she wasn’t afraid of admitting her human failings in that spiritual journey, but knew – and here is the hope for all of us in our quest – that answers would eventually come not because we stop and wait, but when we face our questions and doubts and continue to move forward anyway. Truly, she was one of my sheroes!

When I am faced with life’s little problems, when my spirit grows weary, when my mind cannot seem to wrap itself around the ever present questions, doubts and frustrations, when I come away from reading scripture with more questions than answers … I follow Mother Teresa’s example of admitting where I am spiritually, mentally and emotionally and move on. Some would choose to compromise their faith so that it can “fit” into their “reasonable” thinking and life’s experiences and by doing so, they could be missing out on some significant spiritual growth and insight. After all just look at Mother Teresa who never sought to bring scripture and faith down to her level, but always sought to elevate herself to the Almighty’s level.

Quote for today: God doesn't require us to succeed; he only requires that you try. Mother Teresa