Legacy Youth Ministry Resources

Illustration texts

Curious Tombstone Inscription

On a tombstone in England was found this curious inscription, ?What I spent, I had; What I kept, I lost; What I gave, I have.? Jesus taught...you gain by losing; you reap by sowing; you live by dying. (From the Collection of Barry St. Clair)

Assisi on What Lives After Death

?Remember that when we leave this earth, you can take with you nothing you have received, fading symbols of honor, trappings of power, but only what you have given; a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice, and courage.? Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) (From the collection of Barry St. Clair)

Mother Teresa's Motivation

?We are a contemplative order,? Mother Teresa told a rich American visitor who could not comprehend her fierce commitment to the dregs of Calcutta. ?First we meditate on Jesus, and then we go out and look for him in disguise.?

Loss of Empathy and Compassion

Former National Endowment for the Humanities Chairman Lynne V. Cheney tells of an incident that occurred in 1994 that provides ?a chilling vision of life? without empathy: ?That summer Mohammed Jaberipour, 49, was working a route in south Philadelphia in a Mister Softee ice cream truck when a 16 year old tried to extort money. Jaberipour refused, and the youth shot him. As the father of three lay dying, neighborhood teenagers laughed and mocked his agony in a rap song they composed on the spot: ?They killed Mr. Softee.? ?It wasn?t human,? another ice cream truck driver, a friend of Jaberipour who came on the scene shortly after the shooting, told the Philadelphia Daily News. ?People were laughing and asking me for ice cream. I was crying...They were acting as though a cat had died, not a human being.? (From IMPRIMIS March 1996, Volume 25, Number 3)

What Motivated Mother Teresa?

Seeing people from a biblical world view, as created in God's image and thus worthy of our compassion, can radically change our attitudes and actions, motivating us to service. Let me introduce you to a woman who clearly saw the image of God in people. Because of this insight, she treated people very differently from others. Her name is Mother Teresa. She's known worldwide for spending her life helping the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta, India. She took the terminally ill off the streets and loved them so that they died with dignity. She bandaged stinking wounds and gave her food to the starving. Inspired by her life of sacrifice for the poor, similar ministries have been established in over 100 countries. She was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize. What do you think motivated her to spend her life, not worrying about how people treated her, but serving the less fortunate? (Get their input.) In her own words, "Jesus said, whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do to me. If you give a glass of water in my name, you give it to me. If you receive a little child in my name, you receive me. That is why I want to receive all these unborn children. God's own image is in every single child, no matter what that child is, disabled or beautiful or ugly - it's God's beautiful image created for greater things - to love and be loved." (Mother Teresa, by Navin Chawla, Element Books, Massachusetts, 1992, p. 208) Another time, she told an acquaintance, "If we did not believe that this was the body of Christ, we would never be able to do this work. No amount of money could make us do it. In our wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor, it is Christ we touch in the broken bodies of the starving and destitute. He said, "What you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me." Then she took the interviewer's hand and pressed his thumb and each finger while saying "You - did - it - to - me." (Mother Teresa, by Navin Chawla, Element Books, Massachusetts, 1992, p. 61) How do you think that seeing people as made in God's image motivated Mother Teresa to love the poorest of the poor? How can understanding this truth change our lives?

Treating Those Who Can't Fight Back

The best index to a person's character is how he treats people who can't do him any good, and how he treats people who can't fight back. --Abigail Van Buren

You've Obviously Mistaken Me...

You've obviously mistaken me for someone who cares - Bumper Sticker

Who Cares About Men's Feelings

Men have feelings too, but who really cares? - Bumper Sticker

Stupid People Stand Up

A new teacher was trying to make use of her psychology courses. She started her class by saying, "Everyone who thinks they're stupid, stand up!" After a few seconds, little Johnny stood up. The teacher was surprised, but realized this was an opportune moment to help a child. "Do you think you're stupid, Johnny?" she asked. "No, ma'am," Johnny replied, "but I hated to see you standing there all by yourself!"

Seeing Jesus in the Poor

Thirsting After God: Mother Teresa of India Seeing people from God's perspective radically changed a young girl growing up in Albania. She desperately desired to love God and His people more as a teenager. So, she became a novice at a convent in Dublin. However, she was described as such a clumsy girl she was not even trusted with lighting the candles. But at age 18, Agnes Bojaxhiu changed her name to Teresa and left Dublin to begin her "Missionaries of Charity" ministry to the streets of Calcutta. Searching for a way to serve God in Calcutta, Mother Teresa learned to recognize God in one of His most distressing disguises -- the dying poor of India. Mother Teresa never thought that anything she did was exceptional. She considered her contribution to relieving human suffering as "A drop of deliverance in an ocean of suffering." Scooping up the terminally ill off the streets, she learned to love them as God did and gave them a death with dignity. Giving up her poor rations of food to the starving, while bandaging stinking wounds were nothing out of the ordinary to this small woman who pursued God with all her heart. She told an acquaintance, ''If we did not believe that this was the body of Christ, we would never be able to do this work. No amount of money could make us do it. In our wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor, it is Christ we touch in the broken bodies of the starving and destitute. He said, ''What you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me.'' Her simple pursuit of Christ through loving the poor challenged the world so greatly that at her death the Missionaries of Charity had 2,500 nuns serving across the world, backed up by 400 brothers and thousands of lay volunteers who run the 380 hospices and leper colonies and over 160 orphanages in India. Because of her work, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Explaining her work, Mother Teresa told Time Magazine, "I have the opportunity to be hours a day with Jesus?The poor are Jesus for me?I find the rich much poorer. Sometimes they are more lonely inside. They are never satisfied. They always need something more?I find that poverty hard to remove. The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.'' Speaking to an increasingly materialistic world, Mother Teresa once said, "I have come to realize more and more that the greatest disease and the greatest suffering is to be unwanted, unloved, uncared for, to be shunned by everybody -- to be just nobody to no one." It would be hard to picture Mother Teresa lusting after material possessions. When the Pope gave her a Rolls Royce, Mother Teresa auctioned it off for four times its value and gave the money to the poor. Why would she do this? Her God had already supplied her with everything that she would ever need. (Written by Cherie Miller, Copyright February 1, 2003)

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