Missing Drop In The Ocean

A friend of Mother Teresa from her early days came by hoping to have a quiet word with her and found, to her pleasant surprise, that there were few visitors that afternoon. She sat down on the old wooden bench in the covered passageway between the nuns' quarters and the chapel.

It had been a long time since they met and there was much to talk about. The friend poured out her frustration that her efforts seemed to make no difference at all to the quality of lives of thousands of poor people. Mother placed her strong work worn-hands on her and said, "We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if the drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of the missing drop."

Challenged by her friend that there must be bigger and better ways of helping the poor, Mother Teresa answered, "I do not agree with a big way of doing things. What matters is the individual. If we wait till we get numbers, then we will be lost in the numbers and we will never be able to show that love and respect for the person."

-- From 'Stories Told by Mother Teresa',
by Edward Le Joly and Jaya Chaliha