Good grief…
Mother Teresa continues to rock my comfortable little world.
She writes,
“We know what poverty means, first of all, to be hungry for bread, to need clothing, and to
not have a home.”
“But there is a far greater kind of poverty. It means being unwanted, unloved, and neglected. It means having no one to call your own.”
“Do we know our poor people? Do we know the poor in our house, in our family? Perhaps they are not hungry for a piece of bread. Perhaps our children, husband, wife, are not hungry, or naked, or dispossessed, but are you sure there is no one there who feels unwanted, deprived of affection? Where is your elderly father or mother?”
“Abandonment is an awful poverty.”
Gosh, think about it… the elderly and senile in nursing homes; the prisoners in jail; the lonely teenager in high school; and the list goes on…. There are all kinds of people living in poverty, emotionally abandoned, and void of love and affirmation, and we bump into them every day.
While we don’t see breadless poverty a lot… we do see friendless poverty most every day.
God help us to serve those without love in this world.
Help us to share the love of God in tangible, life-changing ways.
Help us to breathe the love of God into breathless lives… just like you have done for us.
(If you’re interested in reading this book you can buy it here.)
paulpetersonlive.com 
Paul,
There is a reason why no one will engage in this thread. It challenges the core of who we are and what we are doing in this stuff called life.
There are some who are aggressively challenging the world of financial poverty, that would claim that the eradication of these ills (poverty, hunger, homelessness, etc) is the gospel. It is not.
>>“But there is a far greater kind of poverty. It means being unwanted, unloved, and neglected. It means having no one to call your own.”<<
That kind of gospel is eradicated when the poor in spirit are brought into the kingdom family. That kind of gospel I can get behind.
Mike
Paul,
I have been so touched by your readings from Mother Teresa—I want to be a better servant and I pray it is brought to my attention the person that is hurting and so needing a friend. You are right, the person who has not felt loved or a part of a group feels so lonely and unneeded. Everyone expects them to step out of their “comfort” zone to join in and this is sometimes not possible for a real hurting person, so they never truly feel they have anyone to turn to or call their friend–it is a very lonely spot to be in…I know, one of my family members feels like this. I pray for them to find a comfortable place or for someone to see the hurt inside of them and the longing they have to really feel loved and needed. Someone else will have to come out of their “comfort” zone to help them and it will be a lot of work…Sometimes we as Christians need to come out of our “comfort” zone to help the hurting and unloved it is not going to always be easy.Thanks for you great insight ..We love you guys and miss you…