Mean people, Our Father, and Mother Teresa...

Why are some people a lot nicer and kinder when they are sick or vulnerable?

Why are some people a lot nicer and kinder when they are in the middle of trouble or poverty; everything is stripped away and they are vulnerable.  They have to give up at least a bit of the control and pride they so tightly cling to. "I don't need anyone" or "Don't tell me what to do."

Why does it take near death or other things to change people?

Why do some people forget all the things they had experienced which brought them to be the beautiful people they had blossomed into and go back to their old self?

Pride, selfishness and control are no way to live as don't we have to "take out the log in our own eye before we can see to help someone take out the speck of dirt in their eye?"  I often think that it is easy to blame others for all our problems without taking a long hard look at ourselves and how we are acting.
 
In the Our Father we ask God to "forgive us our sins just like we forgive those who sin against us."  Actually that could be pretty scary.  How can I just snap my fingers and expect God to forgive me when I can't even forgive someone else for what they have done to me?  Sitting in church and saying the prayer how many trillion times, my mind wanders and I go over the hurts and the wrongs instead.  It is harder said than done, especially if the people in question are there also.

But, God is only a prayer away.  Not far away in the clouds and not just a good idea in a dusty old book.  I had a cute image when I was young in seeing God as a nice old man with a long beard sitting up in a tree.  Yes, it sounds funny, but with my childlike faith for some reason I could totally see him and talk to him.  I am trying to get that simplicity back.

Here are some good Mother Teresa quotes:

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

Spread love everywhere you go.  Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.

I am a little  pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world. 

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness.  God is the friend of silence.  See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...We need silence to be able to touch souls.