The Simple Life OR Nun Sightings

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 34:12-14
Maybe it really is simple. Though not easy.
Just some things a couple of nuns showed me.

The Truth

I have been troubled lately by a startling lack of truth in our world today. Maybe it's more appropriate for me to say I am troubled by the startling ABUNDANCE of truth(s). The conversations around me are saturated with words like "tolerance" and "relative" and "what works for you". I find it disconcerting and confusing, to say the least. What I hear these days leads me to believe that we kind of just want to do our own thing.
Well, duh.
We're looking for freedom. Freedom from limitations, restrictions, consequences, anything at all that would dare infringe on our inherent right to happiness. So be careful if you carry with you a message that even remotely reeks of intolerance. As I do.
You see, I'm a Christian. The most heinous abuser of tolerance there is, according to general society today. It's like a punch in the face when I witness how outraged some people automatically become the second you slap that label on yourself. The offensive message I carry is that I know, personally, a loving God who desires to have a close relationship with me. And I want you to know and love Him too. But that's not what people hear in my message. What they hear is that I am intolerant. I hate homosexuals, Buddhists, abortionists, and anyone else who doesn't think the way I do. (I don't, for the record.) Because I take it literally when Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6), I am ignorant and unaccepting.
It makes me sad. Not just because I REALLY really don't like it when people don't like me. I have a pride issue, I know. But it makes me sad that people have totally misunderstood Jesus' message. Yes, he IS intolerant. (what???) He is intolerant of our sin. Because he wants BETTER for us. He was mocked, abused, unpopular, downright hated, killed...to bring us better. And when he says "I am the way", he doesn't say it to be restrictive and take away our freedom, he says it to GIVE us freedom. To give us life "to the full" (John 10:10). God didn't come as a man to win any popularity contests, people. He came to give life and save us from ourselves. Yes, he asks that we give up our lying, thieving, covetous, materialistic, promiscuous, drunken lifestyles. But in exchange he wants to give us ABUNDANT LIFE.
I guess I am just saddened by the fact that rather than speaking the truth in love, there are a wealth of people who are trying to speak a message of love while abandoning the truth. But their message is one of emptiness when it doesn't include Jesus and what he did for us. And I guess I'm just frustrated because I don't really know how to convincingly get across my message in a postmodern world that will respond with "Whatever works for you".
Well, I'll tell you what works for me. God's absolute truth. Am I perfectly submitted to it yet? No. I still wage war with the world on this point. But I have found Jesus' words to hold truer than anything the world has shown me yet.
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid...I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 14:27, 16:33)

Back to Basics

It all seems to come back to this:
1)Read the Word
2) DO it
3) Pray and Listen
4) Live by faith

Simple, right?
?????