He told me to tell you that
Eileen Egan worked with Mother Teresa for 30 years, one day she was complaining about how many problems she had and Mother Teresa told her, she said, “Everything is a problem. Why not substitute the word gift for the word problem?”
Right after this conversation, these two women were flying from Vancouver to New York City, there were delays and Eileen Egan went to tell Mother Teresa about the problems and she said, “Mother, I have to tell you about a gift.”
Starting that day she always used the word “gift” when she talked about disappointments or difficulties, she would say, “We have a small gift here,” or, “Today, we have an especially big gift.”
What’s our perspective and our attitude towards the problems of life? It could be poor physical health, job related, family, depression or anxiety—what do we do when life gives us a gift?
A minister, a cowboy and an artist all visited the Grand Canyon and as they stood on the edge of the canyon, the artist said, “What a beautiful scene this would be to paint!”
The minister said, “Look at what God has created!” The cowboy looked down into the canyon and said, “What a terrible place to lose a cow.”
It’s all about perspective isn’t it?
James tells us to, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)
We rejoice because we see the opportunities problems give us to activate our faith and be who we say we are. If we submit to God through the problem we will mature and become more like Christ —and isn’t that the goal?
Jesus said trouble is normal (John 16:33). Peter said we should not be surprised when trouble invades our life (1st Peter 4:12) and James says, rejoice because we are about to experience growing pains (who doesn’t want to grow up?).
Is it a problem or a gift? He asked me to ask you that.
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