It takes a lifetime

When does life get less complicated? Just when I think I have made peace with the fact that life never does, I sense the urging to go in search again.  It seems to me that each phase of life, each job, each season has its own unique complications but we are never free from them.  It takes a lifetime.

I am sometimes tempted with a mature eye to look at my children and think their lives are not as complex as mine, but it is not true. School and college days are filled not only with academic pressures but all the social/personal dynamics of young hearts, minds, and bodies.  Retirement would seem to be a dream but they, too, are some of the busiest people I know.  There are many decisions, with a lifetime of influences to take in to consideration, in the later transitional stages of life.  Somewhere, somehow, in between we juggle work, home, family and personal life with varying degrees of time and additional factors.  It is tempting at times to seek a new venue, thinking that it will ease the complications, but it is usually only temporary.  

And so when do we arrive at that time when life is less complicated?  As long as we keep looking at the externals, I’m not sure that we ever will.  For all my searching, I really believe leading a less complex life is not about what we do but more about who we are in the midst of it.  It is the unrest within that is more wearing than the actual activities.   Jesus says “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) Rather than focusing on the exchange of one“yoke” for a better "yoke,"  or deciding the different weights of each burden, I am more impressed by what we are to learn from Jesus - “for I am gentle and humble in heart.”  To be gentle and humble in the midst of whatever phase, job, or season we find ourselves in seems to be the key for a restful soul in spite of life’s complications.  

I went to the funeral of my mother’s best friend last week.   She epitomized gentle and humble in heart throughout her life.  She also served in World War II, was a full time nurse ‘til past retirement age, raised 9 children, struggled financially, a widow for 30 years, lost 2 children and a grandson, had countless surgeries, and lived with chronic pain.   Tell me her life wasn’t complicated!  Yet, knowing the externals, I never once got that sense from her.  

Learning to face complexities with a gentle, humble heart - it takes a lifetime.