A Rich Life

Sitting contentedly on the floor playing with Wee 1 this morning, I was struck by the memory of something once said to me.

Several years ago I met a young woman in the midst of a doctoral program and on her way into professional ministry. She was a brilliant and gifted woman on a track to do very much what I wanted to do. Immediately I liked this newly transplanted to Memphis person. We met several times for lunch or coffee, and even though she was several years younger than I, we made fast friends. Chatting was easy and relaxed.

Then one day, at a coffee shop in Midtown, she asked me a number of questions about my life. Of course, she knew the basics, but she was probing deeper. Over the course of an hour I shared with her the many facets of my life.

It's always a bit of a challenge to explain what I "do." I don't really have a profession. The part-time job I have is only peripherally in the area of my advanced degree. I usually have one or two other consultant type jobs going as well. I do a lot of ministry, but I am not a minister with a capital "M." I continue to take graduate classes, but it will take so long to achieve the degree I am ostensibly working on that I cannot really say I am doing more than dabbling.

This piecemeal lifestyle is the result of my successful attempts to be home with the boys before and after school every day. I work hard to keep my boys and husband my primary priority after worshiping God.

After I described all of this to my young friend, she said something that stuck me at the time and has remained with me ever since:

"Your life, Christine, is so rich."

In that moment I realized how right she was. I don't have the status of a career (not even of the status of a full-time stay-at-home mom). I am not able to pursue professionally what I feel called to by God. Yet my life is richer and fuller than I could ever have imagined.

And as I played with Wee 1 this morning, that simply profound sentence returned to me. And again I knew how true it was.