Every Dollar

One of my favorite scenes in the movie "Mother Teresa" depicts the aging nun in a board room surrounded my members of an association that was formed to further the cause of her "Missionaries of Charity." In front of each person sits a bottle of Perrier, and as an attendant walks by, she asks, "How much does a bottle of water like this cost?" "Three dollars," he replies. "For three dollars I could feed a child in my mission for a year," Mother Teresa mutters to herself. As the director of the association calls for a decision on a crucial issue that faces them, the Mother of the "poorest of the poor" stands to her feet and declares that a decision does not need to be made because "This association no longer exists!" Something inside me shouted for joy when she made that move to dissolve what had become a bureaucracy, and I resolved again in my own heart to be mindful of the money the Lord has entrusted to us. For ten dollars I could buy another toy that my child doesn't really need or another book to sit on a shelf with the others that I haven't yet had time to read. But what could ten dollars do for the poorest of the poor? Help me, Lord, to remember the least of these.