So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12
“One day, we picked up a man off the streeet who looked like a fairly well-to-do person. He was completely drunk. He couldn’t event stand up because he was so drink! We took him to our home. The sisters treated him with love, care, and kindness.
After a fortnight, he told the sisters, “Sisters, my heart is open. Through you I have come to realize that God loves me. I’ve felt His tender love for me. I want to go home.” And we helped him get ready to go home.
After a month, he cane back to our home and gave the sisters his first paycheck. He told the sisters, “Do to others what you have done to me.” And he walked away a different person. Love had brought him back to his family, to his children’s tenderness, to his wife’s understanding love.
Teach us how to love and how to have the courage to share.”
Mother Teresa (1910-1997) in In the Heart of the World, ed. by Becky Benenate (New York: Fine Communications, 1997) 61-62.
Ponder today’s post thinking about the drunk man. He was well off, but not thinking clearly. He could not stand the pressures of life. Know anyone like this?
I ask you to ponder because we may not literally pick up a drunk from the gutter. But we may know someone not thinking clearly and collapsing under the weight of the burdens of life.
It might be a neighbor, a loved one, a relative, or a friend. Now notice what transformed the man in the story. He received a generous dose of love, care, and kindness.
Love: it does not judge or condemn. Care: it supplies exactly what a person needs. Kindness: it does all this as a conduit of God’s grace with joy and a smile.
I did this mental exercise for a reason. Now I want you to think of someone in your life who showed you love, care, and kindness when you did not deserve it or when you were unable to stand.
Now think of charities that exist to serve the underserved, to lift up the poor and broken, to care for the forgotten. Have courage and give your next paycheck to them.
If you were in the gutter or in a bad place, would you want an army deployed to find you and lift you up. If so, do to others as you would have them do to you.