There’s been news on Mother Theresa, the “Saint of the Gutters”, and how her secret letters apparently revealed 50 years of doubt, a period of not feeling the presence of God in her life.

Well, I don’t know the whole story and I haven’t read any details, but I did catch this one part from one of her letters to a certain Rev. Michael Van Der Peet:

“Jesus has a very special love for you,” she assured Van der Peet. “[But] as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see,–Listen and do not hear–the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak … I want you to pray for me–that I let Him have [a] free hand.“

I think that’s a perfect example of what I think faith should be like. Or how we should be like regarding many things.

Many times people get caught up in emotions, like things are only real when they feel them. I beg to differ, feelings are highly subjective and situational, not to mention they are very fleeting. If we only love those who are nice or good to us, then that is not real love. If we only have faith when things are going our way, or if we have reason to say we feel God’s presence, then that is not faith. Those are just human reactions, the way I see it.

Like in her letter, she started and ended with how she believed in Jesus and what He can do, despite not feeling any reason for that faith. That is true love, not an emotion but a commitment — that even if she could not feel it, she held on to her certainty of it, she gave it away, she gave it back. That is true faith, the light we find, and the one we make, that shines when it’s darkest.

Technorati tags: mother theresa, faith, God, Jesus, love, emotion, commitment, light, darkness

By now many of you are probably familiar with the Aspartame scare. There are so many sites and books out there about the dangers of the additive (which experts claim is actually an addictive drug), but for all that fuss, it makes you wonder why it’s still in your drink.

Well, I’m not here to talk about the actual side-effects, or preach about why it should be avoided. In case you want to learn more on what they say Aspartame can do to you, you can check out the 92 Side-effects, which surprisingly includes “death”.

So what’s this really about? It’s about the miserable cycle that keeps us in fear of such a sweet taste.

When companies come up with products, with such chemicals (fluoride being among them btw), we buy and get used to using them. Like when I first heard about the supposed dangers of fluoride, I instantly thought — it can’t be that bad. After all everyone I know brushes his or her teeth at least twice a day.  But what about the statistics? That point-something-something percent that in fact, did experience these side-effects? What if I wake up one morning and realize that I fit nicely into those statistics?

So we don’t do anything until it’s too late. And the media doesn’t do anything till it’s too late. Correction, the media is involved, but only to a certain extent. And the companies, despite naggings, will not do anything — perhaps until something major happens. While this isn’t a revolt, I just think it’s pretty strange.

I could sum it up in this make-believe statement from Diet Cola Drinker X, “Yeah, I heard there was something up with this. But it can’t be that bad, can it? If it were, the government would tell me, and anyways I’ll worry about that if something happens.”

To which the government replies, “We’ll worry about that if something happens.”

I think governments should settle it once and for all. We shouldn’t have to pick whatever we want to believe on something like this.

Technorati tags: health, aspartame, side effects, diet cola, toxins, poison