I am a great fan of the BBC Series Call the Midwife, and in a recent episode we saw a new, trainee midwife, Sister Catherine, moving into Nonnatus House to complete her training.
Not long after Sister Catherine’s arrival Sister Monica Joan, a much older, experienced nurse seeks ‘the new girl’ out and engages her in a fascinating and challenging conversation asking if this is the life she imagined, and what changes a life given entirely to God would entailed.
Sister Catherine, who by now we have learned used to enjoy trampolining and golf begins to list her thoughts… “my time, pear drops, my cat Maude, mascara, coffee in the percolator, my brothers and sisters, waking up in my flat with my friends. Choosing what to wear, choosing what to eat, choosing what to do… sometimes, it’s the choosing that I miss most of all.”
In other words, you could say that as Sister Catherine sees it God demands her all, He doesn’t pick and choose. If her new life means she is to follow Him, He demands her everything.
Hearing her say this I began to think about the word ‘everything.’ It is rare for someone to relinquish, surrender their rights or to give up their control of something. It would usually apply to property rights, part of an inheritance, or in rare occasions, the rights to the care of a child. Sister Monica Joan was born into a wealthy, aristocratic family who had disapproved of her choice of a Midwifery career and even more so of her being a Nun, taking her vow of poverty. Sister Catherine, at the beginning of her own journey, was honest about the challenge of ‘letting go,’ and the right to choose for herself.
We sometimes sing the old hymn ‘I surrender all.’ I find it immensely difficult to sing this hymn. It is hard to relinquish control, to ignore our material ‘stuff,’ and things that we like to have around us. We have our home, our car, our salary, our pensions, our holidays, the electronic devises that connect us to family and others. We have daily plans, schedules, and the things which entertain.
All to Jesus I surrender
All to Him I freely give
I will ever love and trust Him
In His presence daily live
All to Him I freely give
I will ever love and trust Him
In His presence daily live
All to Jesus I surrender
Humbly at His feet I bow
Worldly pleasures all forsaken
Take me, Jesus, take me now.
Humbly at His feet I bow
Worldly pleasures all forsaken
Take me, Jesus, take me now.
Immediately after Jesus was baptized, He was taken into the desert for a time of severe testing. In the third and final test Jesus was taken to a very high mountain, shown all the kingdoms of the world, their magnificence, and their delights, the devil, announcing, “everything there I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” “Away with you, Satan!” replied Jesus, “the scripture says, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve’.” Matthew 4 v 8-11 NIV
The devil offered Jesus ‘everything.’ Everything can be yours, but only if you will worship me.
Jesus was tested to the extreme, which gives me hope that He understands my struggles, my confused priorities, my muddled thinking, my pressures and my weakness.
PRAY
What do I hang on to at all costs? What time swallowing task could I let go of?
Jesus, shape my life so that it may more resemble yours. Prune my priorities and desires.
Jane Coates.
February 2025