"Tell me, Father, why is there so much pain and darkness in my soul?"
- Mother Teresa to the Rev. Lawrence Picachy, August 1959
When I read Phillip Yancey's "Soul Survivor" I found it both encouraging and disturbing. It was encouraging to hear some of the accomplishments and faith of Christianity's greatest figures. I was also disturbed because Yancey also writes about their weakness and sinfulness. This intellectual and emotional reactions are similar to what I'm going through now after reading this article about Mother Teresa's disconnect with God during her most fruitful years of ministry.
What's your reaction?
May Light increase!
Testing
2 weeks ago
3 comments:
I really liked the chapter on Gahndi. I know Yancey got a lot of flack for it, but I learned a lot about the concept of living like Christ lived. What a challenge this is to Christians, Gahndi, who admired Christ's teaching, sought to live out Christ's teachings, even though he did not believe Jesus Christ alone was the Son of God. And his biggest issue with converting to Christianity was how the those who said they were followers of Christ looked nothing like Him. Does anyone else take this as a dare? I do!
Jacquie
Hey Jacquie, I too liked the chapter on Gahndi. It was the one on Martin Luther King that killed me - how could such an awesome man who inspired so many also be an adulterer? I was reading Romans today and was struck again how we have both a new spiritual nature and yet the old one, the flesh, remains. In regards to Mother Teresa though, it makes me sad that she was unable to feel God's presence for so much of her life. How that must have haunted her...
I especially found it interesting that they were the years when she started her ministry and thereafter. Wow, I am even more impressed with all she did with her life. I was saddened for her as well, though a part of me is thankful that such a great woman of faith and servanthood experienced a spiritual desert as well as the rest of people (potentially the rest, I know I have.)
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