Mother Teresa told a story of a man in Melbourne she visited who had been, it seemed, forgotten by the world and himself. She asked to clean his room for him because she saw it was in a terrible state. He reluctantly agreed. When she cleaned she found an old, beautiful, unlit lamp covered in dust. She asked him,
Why do you not light the lamp?”
He replied:
For whom? No one comes to me.”
She said:
Will you light the lamp if a Sister comes to see you?”
He agreed, saying:
Yes, if I hear a human voice I will do it.”
Some time later, Mother Teresa received word from the man, who said:
Tell my friend that the light she has lighted in my life is still burning.”
Mother Teresa ended the story with a simple, profound line:
See what a little act can do?”
For the past decade, I’ve been honored to do what I could, with what I had, where I was, to encourage you to light the lamp in your life. As Mother Teresa found, I have never had to put something into someone that was not there before we met. I only had to notice it and encourage you to light your lamp in your life. Thank you to all of you who’ve journeyed with me this past decade. I pray that the lamp in your life is still burning and that you are continuing to drive the changes you want today.
Always, but especially during this season of thanksgiving, I am thankful for all of you, for your sparks and flames of change, and for the beacons you are to others to light that part of their soul that they know is there but may have neglected had they not heard your voice. I pray that you will continue to reach out to them, encourage them, and role model to them all that they can be if they will only shine bright today.
Why not try?
