Daily Devotion - Tuesday, February 15

The Day after Valentine’s Day

“Everyone has forgotten me, as though I were dead;
I am like something thrown away.”
--An observation by Job (31:12)

One of the books in my library is a book by Malcolm Muggeridge, probably known best for his broadcasts for the British Broadcasting Company. The book is about Mother Teresa, titled Something Beautiful For God. One chapter of the book is a dialog between them as Muggeridge tries to understand what motivated Mother Teresa and the sisters to compassionately reach out to people who felt a lot like Job felt (see the above quote). Here is what she shared about her work among the poor in Calcutta:

“In these twenty years of work amongst the people,
I have come more and more to realize that it is being unwanted
that is the worst disease that any human being can ever experience.
Nowadays we have found medicine for lepers and lepers can be cured.
There’s medicine for TB and consumptives can be cured.
For all kinds of diseases there are medicines and cures.
But for being unwanted, except there are willing hands to serve
and there’s a loving heart to love,
I don’t think this terrible disease of unwantedness can ever be cured.”

Just thought you might want to ponder this quote as you go about how you live on the day after Valentine’s Day.

--Ben Keckler
02.15.11