Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be – and becoming that person.- St. Therese of Lisieux
From the start, I have always been a very complicated person who likes to complicate everything especially when it comes to emotions. What could have been simple becomes very complicated in my hands and in my mind.
Sometimes, I find dealing with myself quite hard. I even managed to think of this difficult person as someone separate from myself but is still a part of me. However, I want to believe that I am just a simple person. I like pretending I am one.
But then, when I think about the kind of God we have, I am bound to believe that as His creation, I am not simple at all. So, maybe I should stop pretending that I am one. He has designed and executed an intricate and complex plan for creation after all.
However, if I try to add the needs and wants filling every nook and cranny of my very person, it would be too much, indeed. Although complex in its execution, intricate in its blue print, all our needs and wants can be met with something terribly simple. It’s too simple in fact that we often fail to grasp it in its simplicity.
As we live, every day, we ask ourselves, Who am I? What am I here for? And we come up with a lot of complex and complicated answers to these ones. We think in terms of the roles we play when we consider our responses to the first question. For the second question, we consider our first responses too.
My responses to the first question were:
1. I am a Mobile Teacher
2. I am a daughter
3. I am the eldest sister
Thus, I come up with these responses to the second question:
1. I am here to teach out-of-school children, youth and adults;
2. I am here to obey my mother and father and show them my love and affection (actually, I meant to write – to please my mother)
3. I am here to serve as a model for my younger siblings (in thought, word, and deed).
However, a time would usually come when my roles and purposes would overwhelm me, oppress me, and limit me too. And, at some point, I come at a stand still, because I would realize how transient these roles are, how ineffectual and how unimportant at times and how lonely I would become too.
But today, it came upon me that I have one identity and my purpose is connected with it too.
I am the daughter of a King. I am here to get to know my Father, to love my Father, and to love all His children as well. All other things would serve only to distract me form this one purpose.
Now, how does that connect with me and my life? Well, that is what this journey is all about.
