Three Things

1) The article about Mother Teresa. Click here to check it out.
2) My recovery from Ale Fest 2007 Dayton. I am upright and speaking clearly.
3) Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. Read it.

While I have long been enamored with Mother Teresa, I now know why. We are of the same cloth—the human cloth. Though I am by no means a saint, I mean we both have this difficulty hearing God. We share the problem of knowing God is there, and in her case knowing that she is doing the right thing, but being unable to sense the presence of God—unable to feel God’s touch. I cannot imagine being the woman she was with fifty years of darkness, fifty years of being estranged of her groom, fifty years of disengagement from the source of her salvation, fifty years of isolation from the source of grace. Her faith was amazing.

Doubt is a substantial portion of faith, but to wander in the desert for fifty years, well, ask Moses how it feels to wander for forty. Ask anyone around you who has wandered and wondered in her/his faith, how it feels to be estranged but seeking God with no sign that [They] are listening. What amazes me about Mother Teresa is her ability to function everyday as a beautiful example of God’s love while she struggled to hear God’s voice. Everyday we see people claiming to do whatever it is that God is “telling” them to do, and the fruit of their labor isn’t love, forgiveness, mercy, or compassion, but hate. If you open the page of any Christian publication, I can almost guarantee that you will find an article about a person hearing from God and acting in a way that is antithetical to the living presence of Jesus. I applaud Mother Teresa for living her life until her death as a human, living in grace, helping others to experience that same grace.

While I am sure that my mother will not appreciate my appreciation for beer, I am still going to say that we are all thankful that I am standing today. I am never eating olives again. And I really love IPA’s and Porters. Mmmm. Everything in moderation.

Finally, I have always liked Charles Dickens and now I remember why. He had this amazing ability to weave the cloth of a tale so tightly that I miss the threads laid bare at the ends. There are all of these strangely loose threads, but there are so many, so tightly wrapped, that I lose interest in the ones that aren’t sewn up. I am infatuated with David Copperfield, and I can honestly say that I want to know what happens next. I am interested in the theological ideas and concepts that are being worked out and also the gender issues and stereotypes that are being utilized. I just keep reading. It’s amazing.