Tomorrow is Not Today

Stereo Mix (1)
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[00:00:00] You are not Mother Teresa and neither am I. And that's a really good thing. Before you switch off, just stay with me for a minute. Have you ever noticed that social media and society in general often leads us towards comparison, but it's not about comparison, it's about clarity. Last night I watched a movie about Mother Teresa and it stirred something inside of me that I think a lot of us wrestle quietly with, and sometimes we try to avoid the little wrestle.

We look at Mother Teresa as a superhero. We look at Mother Teresa as a superhero. Almost like her name is an adjective. [00:01:00] Now, what a lot of people don't realize is how hard she fought to live in places nobody wanted to live with. The people that nobody wanted to live with, she desperately wanted to be a nun, and there's no way she was gonna stop doing that.

And so she fought the Catholic church to be able to be a nun in these areas because they're dangerous and they wanted to protect her. She fought the local government for permission to set up in these areas. She fought the local hospital for access to their facilities and ambulance services for people that nobody really cared about.

The streets of Calcutta amongst what she called the poorest of the poor. That was her lane, that was her calling. But here's where we often get it wrong. We look at people like Mother Theresa and go, I'm not that. I don't have that [00:02:00] calling. I don't have that kind of impact. Without saying it out loud, we walk away feeling small.

But you are not Mother Theresa and you are not so many other people who impact and help many others in ways. That we don't know about and the names that we will never, ever know and you're not supposed to be. The mistake we make is thinking that passion only counts when it looks extreme, when it's visible or historic.

Mother Teresa was Mother Teresa well before she was ever known. It's who she was. She couldn't escape it even when so many people tried to stop her. But impact doesn't come from magnitude. It drew her, it was a calling inside of her, and this comes from alignment. We've been taught that quite often, [00:03:00] purpose has to be loud, that it has to be public, that it has to be recognized, and if it isn't, we assume maybe we've missed something.

Mother Theresa's recognition and magnitude didn't come because she created an empire. In fact, she tried to escape the empire. It came because she was clear on who she was and lived this passion out every single day of her life. Most meaningful work doesn't announce itself. It shows up simply as a responsibility, long before it ever feels like a purpose.

And that's where most people walk away, not because they don't care. Because it doesn't look the way we thought it would Look, every single one of us has something inside of us that pulls a way we are wired to contribute. For some people, this could be through your [00:04:00] business, it could be through a charity or the way that you lead.

It could be through your creativity in whatever form that takes. Through your parenting, through. Maybe you're a certain type of teacher that just reaches people in a special way, or maybe you're like mentoring. Maybe you care a lot about animals or trafficked kids or trauma victims. There are so many ways we can be called to make the world a better place.

And here's a question that I think a lot of us tend to avoid. Maybe you avoid it because it's, it's a little bit uncomfortable. Often it's an inconvenient question. Maybe because we have responsibilities and so much going on, I, I just don't have the capacity to do anything. Maybe we don't feel worthy, but you are.

Maybe you don't feel [00:05:00] like you have anything to offer. What is it for you? It's not what sounds impressive. It's not what looks good online. It's not what you think you should care about, but what actually pulls you, what is inside of you that's drawing you because there's something worth sitting with here.

If Mother Teresa were alive today, she probably wouldn't be trending on Instagram or TikTok. There wouldn't be an algorithm rewarding her for what she did. There wouldn't be the highlight reels or the viral clips. In fact, she turned down millions of dollars, would've tied up her organization in bureaucracy and admin fees simply because she wanted to allow her organization to do what it started out to do.

Look after the poor, the sick, and the dying, what she gave her [00:06:00] life to wouldn't look impressive online. And that should tell us something important somewhere. Somewhere along the way we started confusing impact with visibility. We started believing that if something isn't seen, if it's not applauded and shared, then doesn't really count.

But purpose has never needed an audience purpose. Just needs commitment. Most meaningful work doesn't come from recognition. First, it shows up quietly as responsibility, long before it ever feels like purpose, and that's the moment a lot of us walk away. Mother Teresa died 27 years ago, and I remember very clearly when it happened.

Ironically, I was in a hotel room in New York watching the news. When I found out, [00:07:00] and even now decades later, she is one of the most respected humans who has ever walked this planet from royalty to presidents to prime minister's business tycoons, and the Hollywood elite. Her legacy didn't come from trying to be somebody else.

It came from going all in on who she already was. So instead of asking, why don't I have a passion like that, maybe a different question could be, where do I feel most alive when I'm being useful and making the world a better place, living for something greater than me? Who do I naturally want to help?

What problem do I keep noticing that maybe other people walk past, but it just comes back to me again and again. You don't need a global stage to [00:08:00] live with purpose. You just need honesty and clarity about what lights you up in a way that makes the world a better place. And if we all live like this, we can leave a legacy that we are proud of.