God is Still Speaking to Me...

...via His various instruments: Mother Teresa and several online blog comrades. 

I've written, not with pride, about how impatient I am.  After reading Rachel Balducci's recent column I was appalled that my reaction to this homeless person in her article would have been the same reaction I would have used with my children. 

"Be grateful for what you have and eat it," might have been my response and would have been my thought had my child refused the offered donut. 

I believe in teaching my children respect and thoughtfulness and gratitude (and sometimes a parent has to be firm) but, when I have the time to think it over, I doubt I will teach them anything by projecting a sharp voice and a broken donut. 

Rachel Balducci's Column: Poorest of the Poor
Several times in high school and college, I worked with Mother Teresa’s nuns, the Missionaries of Charity...The sisters are known for serving the Poorest of the Poor. They go into the worst parts of the biggest cities and they care for the dying and the destitute – those with nowhere else to turn and with no one else who cares. And they serve these people with a smile.

During my experiences with these sisters, volunteering in their summer camps and soup kitchens and hospice, I was inspired to love. Just being around these sisters made me want to serve others; it seemed so easy.

Until one morning in the Bronx. At the soup kitchen that morning, my job was to serve small powdered donuts to the homeless men coming off the street for a meal. I was handing out the donuts with a smile when one of the men refused the donut I served.

“I don’t want a broken donut,” he said. “I want a good one.”

He wouldn’t take the donut! I was amazed. Here was a man who might not eat again until he came back the next day – refusing food! I turned to the sister in charge and waited for her to bark. (The sisters are full of love but also don’t take flack.)

The sister smiled, took the broken donut and replaced it with a whole one. And the man unceremoniously moved down the line.

That moment, years ago, taught me so much. A split-second decision by this holy woman to replace a perfectly good donut showed me how to love on God’s terms – and not my own. It was a lesson in treating others with kindness – even when I think I have the right not to."

Read the rest of Rachel Balucci's column here.

After reading Balucci's column, I'm asking myself:

• do I serve my family with a smile?
• do I give without counting the cost?
• do I treat my family as lovingly and kindly as I would a stranger on the street?
• do I get irritated at petty requests and complaints when I am filled with the same petty requests and complaints as they?
• do I see Christ in their face when I look at them?
• do I show my family the walking, talking, smiling, breathing reflection of Christ?
• do I replace broken donuts with whole good ones?
• do I eat the broken donuts instead?

Lord, help me to serve donuts with a kind and gentle spirit.  Let me replace broken donuts with a smile and eat the broken pieces with gratitude.

Comments

[Lisa]

Wow, that was so thought provoking....and hit a little too close to home. Great food for thought, Cay.

[Heather - Doodle Acres]

Wow! That is convicting! Thanks for the wake up call!!!

[molly mcgovern]

Thanks for a new advent meditation for me. Very convicting.

[Willa]

Dear Cay, I really enjoyed the post you linked to and your reflections on it.

[Ruth]

Wow! Pretty amazing story.