By Sr Lini Sheeja, MSC –
Engage yourself in loving God, loving others, loving all that the good Lord has created and loving your life that you have no time to regret, to be miserable, to feel lonely, to fear or to worry; for life is love and love is God. God wrote my life as a gift-story when He formed me in my mother’s womb; He wrote life as a consecration-story when He called me to serve in His vineyard; He wrote life as a passionate adventure-story when He called me to be a Social Worker in reaching out to the unreached, in serving the vulnerable and the marginalized and He wrote life as a love-story through His faithfulness and accompaniment as He takes care of me every second of my journey. Now, it’s my turn to write the love story of my God the Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier for His being and doing in my life.
God Experience
In 2014, I was doing a spirituality course at AVP, Bangalore, as preparation for my final commitment. One day a professor asked us in the class whether any of us has had a ‘God-Experience’. As I was seated on the first bench I raised my hand and said, ‘Yes, I have’. The priest asked me to share that. So with conviction I got up and said, “This morning I’m alive and that’s my God-Experience”. When you walk in the light of the Lord, when you move with the awareness of God every second of your life becomes a ‘God-Experience’. We do not need great miracles to take place to know our God, for we have been created by the God who sent His only Son to become one like us and we have been redeemed by the God who went up to Calvary and stretched out His hands on the Cross saying, “I love you this much”.
Personal Relationship
What does it mean to have a personal relationship with God? It just means loving Him, nothing else. St Augustine says, “Love God and do whatever you please”. When you are filled with His love, you will do only good; for He who loves you is all good. My personal relationship with God is the conviction I have of His love and His presence which enables me to say to myself, “God knows best”. Personal relationship with God is to kneel humbly before Him saying ‘Yes’ to all His plans in our lives. We follow a God who is ever faithful to us; He is not a God who watches over us from above, but He is a God who is involved in our being and every one of our doings. He walks with us in our joys and carries us in our lonely and desperate moments as presented in the Story of the Footprints on the seashore. This beautiful story tells us that ‘life is love and love is God’.
The story goes like this: ‘One night I had a dream. As I was walking along the beach with my Lord, across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life. For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one belonging to me and the other to my Lord. After the last scene of my life flashed before me, I looked back at the footprints in the sand. I noticed that many times along the path of my life, especially at the very lowest and saddest times, there was only one set of footprints. This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it. “Lord, you said once I decided to follow you, you’d walk with me all the way. But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life, there was only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why, when I needed You the most, You left me alone.” He whispered, “My precious child, I love you and will never leave you,
never, ever, during your trials and testing. When you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”’
Fire for God
I wish to put down in writing an experience of mine for abandoned women that was part of the services rendered by us. In 2007, in the course of our novitiate, we were sent for 15 days of exposure program to BOSCO Mane, Chamrajpet, Bengaluru (A Non Governmental Organization working with the Young at Risk). One evening after our supper we received a call from someone from the locality about an abandoned lady lying on the street. We immediately went to rescue the lady, hoping to place her at Mother Teresa Sisters’ Old Age Home at Yelahanka, Bengaluru for shelter and further care. I left with one more novice and the driver, reached the spot at K R Market and found the lady who was looking around for helping hands to save her. She was stinking and no one wanted to approach her. Gazing into her eyes I was heartbroken and speechless.
I held her hands as I was moved with tears. I could understand her unshared feelings though her tears. We were told by the people around that she was a beggar who had nobody and her life was spent on the streets. We three of us carried her with gentle love, placed her in our vehicle and turned the vehicle to the police station. The kind-hearted police attended to us immediately and did all the procedures. It was 11 pm when we reached Mother Teresa old age home, carried the lady inside, gave her a shower, food, thanked the sisters and left the place. On the way back to BOSCO I was disturbed and spent a sleepless night thinking of the plight of the woman.
Encounter God in the Poor and Needy
That sleepless night led me to walk through slums to see the face of God in their sufferings. The same sleepless night led me to pick up vulnerable children from slums – orphans and needy children – and educate them in good English Medium Schools. The same sleepless night led me to carry the light of hope to the dark cells of prisons. You need not have bank balance to encounter God in the poor and do something for them. All that you require is total faith in God and fire for Him in your heart. He will make a way for you. Dear readers of this article, dear youth of today, we have no time to grieve over anything. This pandemic has taught us to be prepared to depart from this world. Be a servant, be humble, know God’s will for you and let your hands be generous to the needy! Be a blessing! Let your inner fire burn strongly!
Sr Lini Sheeja MSC, belongs to the Missionary Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and has served as BOSCO Childline Team Member in rescuing hundreds of children from Bangalore streets, railway stations and bus stations.