In 1969 Malcolm Muggeridge, a British journalist and the editor of Punch, a satirical magazine, went to Calcutta to make a documentary movie about Mother Teresa for the BBC. She didn't want to do it, but church leaders finally persuaded her. When she finally agreed, she said, "Let us do something beautiful for God."

When they began filming, a strange thing happened. Even though there was not enough light in the hospice for filming, the finished film was bathed in a particularly beautiful soft light. Muggeridge figured it was the halo of love he sensed there. Later, he wrote a book about Mother Teresa and used that phrase, something beautiful for God, as the title. He eventually became a Christian as a result of that relationship.

In a similar way, in the story "Babette's Feast," about a world-class chef laboring anonymously in the service of two elderly sisters in a remote Danish village, Isaak Dinesen wrote, "From the ends of the earth one long cry goes up from the heart of the artist: Give me a chance to do my very best!"

Those two statements stir everyone made in the image of God: "Let us do something beautiful for God," and "Give me a chance to do my very best." It is the privilege of every Christian to step into those two great heart-desires in the service of God.