A friend has sent “Mother Teresa’s Anyway Poem” around to his email buddies as a Holy Week/Passover gift. I’d like to share it, here:
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, its between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
In my experience, the Mother Teresa’s of our world are few and far between. There are many more self-centered than truly generous human beings.
Few really feel happy about the successes of others; many more seem to turn loose the automatic reflex to diminish, denigrate, or dismiss accomplishments out of jealousy, envy, or fear that they won’t “look as good” by comparison, reflecting the sadly human traits of self-pride and conceit.
Successful, translate “wealthy,” folks can never be sure who their real friends are, as many profess “friendship” while secretly harboring the hope that some of their “friend’s” money or possessions will eventually fall into their hands–if they stick around long enough.
If you are a spiritually centered, self-contained, serene person, there will always be those who will want to knock you off-balance, call you “anti-social,” or label you “superior,” “smug,” or “aloof.”
And, because we all have the tendency to see things (and others) as we are rather than as they are, authentically honest, frank, and good qualities often go unnoticed, or are vulnerable to having their true intentions thwarted, by the less authentic and “good” among us.
But, as this saintly woman (one miracle away from being canonized a real “saint” in the Catholic church) reminds us, it doesn’t really matter what any human being thinks, says, or feels about you. Though you might suffer temporary pain or anger or sadness as a result of untruths and unkindnesses hurled your way; in the end, the only opinion that really matters is that of your Self. And, the only really important relationship in your life is between that Self and it’s God.
