Did you know that Mother Teresa defined America’s poverty as loneliness? She said people have a “hunger for love and a hunger for God.” I think she was on to something. We all know what it’s like to be lonely and ache for a place to belong and be loved.
As Christians we have a unique call and opportunity to alleviate this poverty. Our greatest commandment is to love. God designed the church to be a body where each part belongs, has purpose and is indispensable. Our relationships in the church should be so tight that “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it, if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” (1 Corinthians 12:26) That’s pretty intense. No one should be lonely if they are connected to a body like this. Is this the case for us? Do we have this kind of connection in our church?
Let’s make this our quest. Join me in braving the wilds of authentic community and let us do our part to fight this spiritual and emotional hunger.
“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty — it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”
―Mother Teresa, A Simple Path: Mother Teresa
