During recent visits to a Target store near my home I have noticed the same petite, elderly nun shuffling the aisles, the dull gray dress and habit lined with white giving her away. I watched her ahead of me in line one day making her purchases and the thought that immediately came to mind was "How simple her life must be". Her sole purpose in life is laid out clearly before her. Every morning no doubt begins with solitude and silence and probably ends the same way. The days routinely are divided into times of service, prayer, and apparently shopping at Target. (I should point out that I'm purely guessing at all this as everything I know about nuns I learned from the Sound of Music.) I think of how I race through my days and how much I've been grappling lately with how and where my time needs to be spent, a steady stream of guilt-ridden thoughts about where I should/shouldn't be plaguing me, the clutter and detritus of life strewn around me. How I would love to rise in the morning with no one needing me except my Savior. And to face the day without having to think about what to wear (and making this same decision for three others), what to eat, where to go.
Not long after these ponderings took place, I was driving along a four-lane road and was passed on the left by a red mini-van whose passengers were (take a guess)...nuns. This went so against my nun stereotypes (ie: Sound of Music) that I laughed out loud. And immediately realized that my perceptions of how simple the life of a nun is and how complicated my life is, is all a matter of perspective. Do nuns really have the potential to be more fulfilled than me? Would my life really be that much simpler? Clearly they still have decisions to make like which mini van to drive and what to buy at Target. I guess another glaring question here is was I really pondering life as a nun as one of the life choice paths I didn't take?
I do struggle lately with the idea of simplifying, as I always feel rushed/overwhelmed/burdened. But it is in the midst of all this that Christ calls me to come to him and find rest. Just because I don't live in a convent (is that what they call those anymore?) doesn't mean that my day can't begin and end in solitude or be filled with acts of service. I still have to decide what to wear, I guess, and I still awaken with the needs of my family immediately at hand. But even in this, hasn't God commanded me not to worry about what I will eat, drink, and wear? He has called me to be IN the world, not of it. And in the world there are decisions and distractions and people and activities vying for my time. But there is also relationship, beauty, joy, fulfillment. There is peace in the midst of chaos and contentment and wisdom if I will simply seek those things in the middle of it all. Which reminds me of this verse:
Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. Psalm 34:12-14Maybe it really is simple. Though not easy.
Just some things a couple of nuns showed me.
