This from the Internet Monk. Amen! Read the entire post here.
I often wonder why Christians, in building so much that is for themselves, haven’t stopped and looked at the world as Jesus did. Look at the fields white unto harvest. Look at the sheep without a shepherd. Look at the lost, needing to come home.
We could do so much for them, if we would simply allow them to not believe, but to still be loved. If we could include them, help them, love them…and let them not believe. We could treat them respectfully, like people made in God’s image and loved by Christ Jesus. If we did, they would say “Thank you.”
They are not the enemy, my friends. They are like us in every way. We distort the gospel to exaggerate the differences between ourselves and those that do not confess Christ. We are not God, nor do we sit in God’s place. The cup of cold water is given to the brother or sister in whom Christ dwells, but it is also given to the thirsty.
It is so admirable to hear of someone who lives their faith, whatever it is. Mother Theresa was not an evangelist, but she said her life was based on Jesus’ words, “Whatever you do for the least of these, my brethren, you do for me.” Three of us met with her for about an hour (she came to set up a convent in NY and we collected money for her to assist with the victims in Bangladesh), and I said to her, “What we call poverty in this country must seem silly to you, who works with the really poor.” She said, “No, on the contrary. In India people are materially poor, but they are very rich in loving families and relationships. In this country, people here are spiritually poor, lonely, despairing…which is much worse.”
She was such an example of giving with no judgments.