Why ME?

I asked "Why ME?" of God when I first felt the stirrings of a religious vocation.  I was 25 years old but looking for something more meaningful to do with my life.  I had graduated with a degree in biology and a minor in computer science from the University of Nebraska, Kearney.  I was working in a research lab in Bethesda, MD but knew agar plates, gel chromatography and centrifuge runs were not going to be in my permanent future.

I went to Mass every Sunday, (I was a good Catholic) but didn't have much of a personal prayer life.  I figured God might get involved with my future planning if I gave him more than a personal nod on Sundays.  I found prayer rather boring so I asked for the gift of wanting to pray and for help in what I should do with my life.   To be honest, what I really wanted was for God to find me a nice job somewhere in the mountain states of Colorado, Wyoming or Montana.  (I loved to camp and hike and wanted to live somewhere with much natural beauty)

God proceeded to plant the stirrings of a call to religious life instead of pointing me to the classifieds.  I ignored that 'voice' for about a year but God would not let me so easily off the hook because the thought would just not go away.  I like my independence and my freedom and God could certainly have found more suitable candidates.   It was when I began asking, "Well, why not me?" that I started thinking it might be an okay idea.  It took another 2 years of discernment and searching before I entered the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

The irony is that I just wanted a decent prayer life and God instead gave me a life of prayer.

Lesson to be learned - Be careful what you pray for!