find your own calcutta.

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Saturday, September 27th, 2008

find your own calcutta.

recently, tony campolo, on his weekly radio show across the pond (itunes link), sat down with shane claiborne, author of jesus for president and irresistible revolution, for a total of three full episodes. they were so good, i have considered posting them here on the blog. (rather than doing that, though, i would recommend subscribing to the podcast via itunes or via his rss feed.)

they discuss quite a few things, but one of the things that stood out to me was shane’s discussion about his time with mother teresa. after graduating from eastern university, claiborne went and lived and served along mother teresa in calcutta, india. he told several stories about mother teresa, but the one that was most impactful to me was about a friend (i think…) who contacted mother teresa.
desiring to go to calcutta to serve alongside mother teresa, this friend tried over and over to reach mother teresa. after months of unsuccessful written correspondence and unreturned phone calls, his friend finally heard back. she actually received a letter in the mail that was personally mailed from mother teresa. excitedly, she opened it to see if mother teresa accepted her request. the letter contained only one short sentence.
find your own calcutta.
                        —mother teresa
simple, yet powerful.
my prayer is that each one of us find our own calcutta in our own backyard.
amen.