Yesterday… remembering an old road safety slogan that said, ‘Use care and skill, not scare and kill’… thinking that could apply to my Men’s Shed friends in the workshop…
Some quote the mantra, ‘Measure twice, cut once’. Regardless of their skill level, they’re careful, methodical and patient. Others want to get finished yesterday and create something that’s adequate… Measure once… cut once… cut twice… get a new bit of wood!
‘Care and skill’? It’s just too inconvenient.
Yesterday… reading Christina Baxter’s ‘The Wounds of Jesus’ …about Jesus carrying his cross:
‘…struggling to carry the crossbeam on his back already bleeding and covered in sores from the flogging we hear again his call to carry our cross…’
‘…The Japanese theologian Kosuke Koyama, in a book called ‘No Handle on the Cross’ writes, “A man does not carry a cross as he carries a briefcase.” …pointing out to us that there is no convenient way to be a Christian or to belong to a Christian community.’
This morning… reading the old story of Esther …Haman has plans, approved by King Xerxes, to massacre the Jews. Esther joins Xerxes’ hareem and becomes queen. Her Jewish nationality is kept secret.
Esther’s convenient way would be silence and self-preservation. Esther’s uncle, Mordecai, says, ‘Perhaps you have come to royal position for such a time as this.’
She chose the inconvenient, dangerous way that could result in her death… going to the king, pleading for and saving her nation.
Sunday… Minister-Lou talking about Mother Teresa’s spiritual depression …Mother Terresa: ‘My smile is a great cloak that hides a multitude of pains… I feel that God does not want me, that God is not God, and that God does not exist.’
Mother Teresa also said, ‘Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.’
It would be more convenient if Mother Teresa was consistently positive, always speaking of love, acceptance, peace, understanding and forgiveness. Her honesty and vulnerability may seem inconvenient… I find them inspirational.
malcolmsmusings.org 
Re mother Teresa:
Yeah.
Inspirational
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Her selected positive quotes are always helpful, and full of good thing, I think, Graham. Put in the context of her fears, uncertainties and doubts they somehow become more real – and I can Identify with her more
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I needed to hear that Mother Teresa said these same things that sometimes burden my own soul. Thank you for writing them here, Malcolm. I know that I will come to Jesus one day with nothing more to show for my life then this desperate prayer, “Remember me, Lord, when You come in Your Kingdom.” And I trust that I will hear from Jesus the same words that He once spoke to the one who first prayed this prayer to Him.
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There sometimes seems a fine line, Mark, between true repentance, beating ourselves up for being human, and living in joy and gratitude. Perhaps Mother Teresa’s integrity and wisdom comes from knowing something of that balance.
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Thank you, Malcolm. Karen, my bride of almost forty-five years lives that “balance,” and Jesus Christ will one day likely shake His Head at me and say with a knowing smile, “I gave her to you, Mark, to show you how to live, but you preferred to play the part of the tragic hero with his guilty conscience, didn’t you? I took care of your guilty conscience, didn’t I? Well, how does it feel now to not even know what a guilty conscience is?” And I will just embrace and worship our Lord who says this to me.
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Mother Teresa was not afraid to show her humanity, and in so doing is inspiring.
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She certainly was – and is – Dana
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