Find your own Calcutta.

This true story that Tony Campolo tells is too good not to share…

A woman who had been deserted by her husband visited a pastor friend of mine one day.  Her husband had run off with a younger woman, leaving her bereft, troubled, and broken.

My friend suggested that she put some time in missionary work, thinking that doing something for others might help her forget herself for alittle while and alleviate her pain.

Taking his advice, the dejected wife wrote to Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India.

(It was very easy to write to Mother Teresa.  All you had to do was write, “Mother Teresa, Calcutta, India,” and it would get to her.)

The woman waited and waited for a reply, but nothing came to her, not for a week, not for a month, not for two months.  The one day, a brown envelope arrived.  She opened it and the note contained inside simply read:

Dear Joanna,

Find your own Calcutta.

Love,
Mother Teresa