Sent in a Letter
by Lisa Coleman
Letter writing is sadly a thing of our past for the most part. Before telephones there were handwritten letters. The hand of one shared heart and mind with another. Handwriting is somewhat like fingerprints. It is unique to each individual and thus deeply personal.
In Something Beautiful for God, longtime British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge tells how he met Mother Teresa while filming a BBC documentary about her work. He was completely captivated by her deep compassion for the poorest of the poor in Calcutta’s slums. But he, an unbeliever, could not accept her faith. What especially kept him back was that he could not join the church, such an imperfect and flawed institution.
Once, while Mother Teresa visited London, she and Muggeridge took a walk, and Muggeridge reports, “I took up my well-prepared defensive position about the church, whose deficiencies, crumbling barricades, and woeful future prospects, I expatiated upon, with little effect.”
After she left London, she wrote Muggeridge a letter and enclosed a small devotional book. Here are excerpts from her letter, which are a model of how to share your faith lovingly:
“I think I understand you better now. I don’t know why, but you to me are like Nicodemus, and I’m sure the answer is the same: ‘Unless you become a little child.’ I’m sure you will understand beautifully everything if you would only become a little child in God’s hands. Your longing for God is so deep, and yet he keeps himself away from you. He must be forcing himself to do so, because he loves you so much, as to give Jesus to die for you and for me. Christ is longing to be your food. Surrounded with fullness of living food, you allow yourself to starve. The personal love Christ has for you is infinite. The small difficulty you have regarding his church is finite. Overcome the finite with the infinite. Christ has created you because he wanted you. I know what you feel, terrible longing with dark emptiness, and yet he is the one in love with you.”
Apparently, Mother Teresa’s love kept working on Muggeridge. Just 8 years before he died (in 1990), he finally overcame his objections and publicly joined the Christian church.
Mother Teresa, longing for Malcolm Muggeridge to know Jesus, sent a written letter explaining Christ and His love for Malcolm. She was living her faith and sharing it with others. Similarly, Rome received a personal letter from Paul. It too is filled with great love for them and a longing for them to know Christ. And so, we begin our journey through this letter to the Romans also known as the book of Romans. Our theme this week is ‘Living by Faith’. Come join us for the study!
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You can download the Bible study materials for this session for your personal use and watch the Zoom video of the in-class session by following the links below:
PowerPoint Slides
PDF File
Video
Follow this link to find other studies in this series: TRANSFORMED: Knowing & Doing God’s Will.
