Interwoven

"Unless the work is interwoven with love, it is useless."

Mother Theresa

               

When I was in the states, I was gifted a book of Mother Theresa quotes (thanks Karen!). I have been reading a passage from the book every day, and for lack of a better word, it is wrecking me. I am captivated by her words and how she wrote about people. She recognized the value in every human life; she saw that poverty of spirit is just as debilitating as any other kind of poverty. Then she did something about it. I so ant to imitate her in that.

 Consequently, I have been thinking about and praying over what it would look like for my daily life to be interwoven with love. I love the picture that comes to my mind when I hear the word interwoven, the idea of love wrapping everything I do. The idea of love shrouding all I do and say, my interactions with people and the words I choose. 

So, what would that look like? I think it looks like warm greetings for the smooth-talking orphan boys who hang out in our yard every day, or always having a moment to chat with the little boys whose father just beat their mother. Maybe it means listening to my elderly patient repeat their aches and pains three or five times in the course of our conversation. I am pretty sure it means choosing words of grace when I am hot and tired and tired of people. It means making opportunities to tell the little girl who needs it that she matters to me and doing everything I can to hear people, instead of anxiously awaiting my chance to talk. It means looking at the people I pass and consciously seeing them as people Christ died for. It's a process.