Dr. Ward spoke this to our Deuteronomy and Ethics class this past week in his morning devotion. Since I wasn’t in class due to being sick, my roommate thought it was especially pertinent since she and I have finally chosen which graduate school we will attend in the Fall….

It’s Not What or Where, but How

“Today, I realized that the questions of where to live and what to do is really insignificant compared to the question of how to keep the eyes of my heart focused on the LORD. I can be teaching at Yale, working in the bakery at the Genesee Abbey, or walking around with poor children in Peru and feel totally useless, miserable, and depressed in all these situations. I am sure of it, because it has happened. There is not such thing as the right place or the right job. I can be happy and unhappy in situations of abundance as well as poverty, in situations of popularity as well as anonymity, in situations of success as well as failure. The difference was never based on th situation itself, but always on the state of my mind and my heart. When I knew I was walking with the LORD, I always felt happy and at peace. When I was entangled with my own complaints and emotional needs, I always felt restless and divided.

            It is a common truth that comes to me in a time when I have to decide about my future. Coming to Lima for five, ten, or twenty years is not a great decision. Turning fully, unconditionally, and without fear to the LORD is.” -Henri Nouwen when trying to decide whether he should go to Lima, Peru or not.