Three Pennies...and God

Our pastor told a story this week about Mother Teresa.  In the story, her younger self had a dream about starting an orphanage with three pennies.  Upon waking, she was so moved by the dream that she went to her Mother Superior and told her that she wanted to start an orphanage with three pennies.

The Mother Superior was incredulous. "You can't start an orphanage with three pennies. You can't do anything with three pennies."

Mother Teresa is supposed to have responded, "Oh, I know I can't, but with three pennies and God I can do anything."

It has been happening for so many years that I am not sure why I continue to be surprised when similar messages come to me from several directions at the same time--the same spiritual lesson that I am supposed to learn at that point in time.  The Mother Teresa story was on the heels of some reading I was doing just before I went to bed the night before.

A couple months ago I wrote about my quest to complete my reading of several books on my nightstand before starting any new ones.  With the fast approach of summer-reading season, the pressure is on.  I finished two last week, and I am nearing the end of Marianne Williamson's A Return to Love.  The book has probably been on my night stand longer than any others, perhaps two to three years.  I am not sure why I struggle with it.  Perhaps it is the writing style because I resonate with the messages, and every time I pick it up what I read is a meaningful reminder. Maybe I just need to pick it up periodically for a message.

In last night's reading, Williamson quoted A Course on Miracles, "If you are trusting in your own strength, you have every reason to be apprehensive, anxious, and fearful."  Then, she writes, "...none of us have the capacity to work miracles, with the power that is in us but not of us, however, there is nothing we cannot do." (P.188) Hmm!  Remarkably like starting an orphanage on three pennies and God.

Clearly, there is a miracle that I should be thinking about delivering with God's help.  However, since my business crumbled so painfully in the dot.com Bust, bringing my personal life down with it, I have not allowed myself to dream of making miracles happen.  I haven't made a conscious decision not to dream.  The ideas that used to flow almost continuously just haven't been coming.  My hope-generator seems to be semi-permanently stuck on "off."  Quite frankly, I don't know how to flip its switches back to "on."  What comes to me is that is the miracle for which I should be enlisting God's help.