ah, yeah, but first you gotta even BELIEVE in God.

i heard a story yesterday that i don't know for sure if it's true or not but the person i heard it from is pretty reliable and i trust her and besides, even if the story isn't true - it can be true. if folks would just decide to make it true.

the story is simple. it's one sentence:


a group of sisters from mother teresa's "missionaries of charity" decided never to ask for what they needed.



period.



(but, period aside, and seeing as how this is a blog and i am supposed to elaborate on stuff, here goes:)

first of all, imagine that. not to ask for what you want (they didn't do that, either) is hard enough. but never to ask for what you need?????? but.......they didn't.

if they needed food, they didn't tell anybody (on earth). they told God.

if they were thirsty and out of water, they told God.

tired and no place to lie down? God.

needed someone to rub their back? go tell it on the mountain.



they didn't even tell when they were asked. if someone came up to them and said, hey sisters, you guys need anything? like blankets or clothes or maybe a portable heater or somethin'? if somebody came up to them and said that, the sisters smiled and were silent. and they prayed. they prayed for what they needed.

as the story goes, they took their inspiration from matthew 6:26 - "look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. are you not of more value than they?"


i think the nuns were real spiritual and Christian and stuff like that but i also think that that they had it figured out that nobody really wants to hear anybody else yammering about what they need. or want. what most people want to do is to do the yammering themselves.....but not to hear anybody else doing it.

they're right, you know.


but more than that, the nuns had it figured out that what Christ said in matthew 6:26 was, um, true. that God would supply their needs. and once they figured it out, they decided to run with it.

and, per the story, it worked. they never once went hungry, even when they had gone to bed the night before with the cupboards emptied.

they never didn't have a place to sleep. maybe not the hilton, but a decent place to sleep.

sure, they got thirsty. and when they did, they found water.

according to the story (and i believe it), none of the sisters who died did so because their needs weren't met. (on the contrary......on the day they died, i think God was probably meeting their needs in spades.)



i'm not saying i plan to keep my mouth shut - (sorry, rudy). i'm not saying i'll never again tell anyone what i need, much less what i want. i'm not saying i'm just gonna go through life praying every time something comes up.

but i am saying the world would be a better place if i did.

if we all did. the world would be better if we lived as though we believed the Gospel.

baltimore sure would look different. baltimore would look better.

because baltimore would have its needs met.



but the world isn't anything like those sisters. the world is the opposite. the world says it is not only right, it is glorious to demand what you need. the world thinks it's glorious to demand what you want, too. i am a member of a profession whose cornerstone has become the longings of the self. and whose job is to teach others how to demand that others give it to 'em.


but the birds don't do that.



and look at them.

grown up s'mores

walking today and it

smelled like

camp. it smelled like

pine.


it smelled like 4-H

and girl scout

and church

and private girls'

camp.


(though private girls'

camp

also smells like

chanel

number

five.)


the sun was

out. you almost expected the

dinner bell

to

ring.


the water

shone.

in your mind

you saw tom,

the canoe teacher,

and the diary you

wrote about him

in.


you saw your

cabin

and the lumpy

mattress. the

wooden floor that

you tripped over

five

times. the graffiti

(hearts and

flowers) on the

walls. who loves

whom and arrows

punctuating

it.


you hear camp

songs. kumbaya before

kumbaya was a

joke.


before the dreams you thought

you wanted

turned into

the life

you know

you

do.