Angelina Jolie is an actress, filmmaker and humanitarian. For over 20 years she has been deeply involved with the poorest of the poor. In a recent TIME Magazine article, October 28, 2024, she wrote a few sentences that caught my attention:

“More than half of Sudan’s population of 46 million is experiencing acute hunger, and three-quarters of a million people face starvation. Sudan is the worst humanitarian situation in the world…..

“Behind the question of money is another question, of respect. I have lived a privileged life, walked in many worlds. The people I have been most humbled by, the people I have learned the most from, were displaced families fleeing war and persecution. 

“No one knows better, or has more grace, than the person who has survived the loss of family and country. They are who I hold in highest regard. 

“On the border of Sudan, where 200 people cross every day, I found myself standing face-to-face with a mother who had just walked two weeks with a baby on her back and three young children at her feet. Their father had been murdered in their home, which was then looted and burned to the ground. 

“That mother was still smiling at her child. To give him some light in the dark. She will live every moment trying to ease her children’s suffering and yet offered to pray for my children to have health – and she meant it. 

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat in a tent and been offered part of that very small ration a family was storing. It’s not about the food, it’s their common decency. Prayers for the health of a person’s family are among the sincerest gifts we can give one another. “

In Celebrity PARADE in July 9, 2010 Angelia Jolie said:

“My mother had a beautiful faith. She loved Jesus. She was Catholic and I have a warm memory of growing up in her faith. She loved to go to church. She also knew that there were certain things in the Church that were too extreme for modern life. She didn’t approve of everything the Church was preaching but, instead of going against the Church, she just went with Jesus.

“I saw her spirituality as beautiful. If we didn’t go to church on Sunday, she’d say, ‘God would want me to spend time with my children, and laugh with my children. That’s what I believe God would want.’ Mother was right and we’d have a wonderful, fun day.”

“I respect all religions. What I don’t respect is when people use religion to attack others. I’ve met people across the world, in the middle of nowhere, who are just trying to survive and all they have is religion. In some way it helps them, and I wouldn’t take it away from them. There are also people who use it to hate and kill. I don’t consider them religious people.”

What does YOUR faith mean to YOU in concrete and practical terms. How do YOU see the world differently and live YOUR life differently because of YOUR faith? Can YOU at all identify with that mother of four children in Sudan who could still smile at her child and offered her prayers for the health of Angelina’s children? 

SOMETIMES GOD PUTS YOU IN PLACES ALONE BECAUSE GOD WANTS YOU TO REALIZE YOU DO NOT NEED ANYBODY BUT HIM!

Please share and discuss today’s Message and Podcast, especially with those under 30 years of age.