This fall, I began my second year working at a small Catholic college in the academic success department. 

I originally took this job because it was part- time, and would allow me “less stress” and more time for homemaking. A small part of me wondered if it would allow for meaningful opportunities to help and nurture students, but nothing came of that hope last year, so this semester I was no longer looking for it, and assumed it was not in the cards.

It seems Jesus had other plans. 

Already, in only two months of this new academic year, the Lord has orchestrated so many conversations, moments of encounter, and opportunities to give and minister to these students. It has been interesting, too, how the most rewarding moments have been the ones that cost the most to give. 

Although there have been so many, two of the moments have been particularly impactful for me as I reconsider the validity and reality of spiritual motherhood in my life.

As I was leaving campus one Friday at lunchtime, excited for my early start to the weekend and considering my plans, a student asked if I could bring her to Urgent Care. I instantly said yes, my Friday afternoon plans discarded in a moment. I spent the next three hours in the waiting room with her, encouraging her, hearing more about her family and hopes, and begging the Holy Spirit for wisdom to answer her questions and worries well. 

After dropping her back off at her dorm and promising her I could take her to follow up appointments if she needed it, I was overcome with a poignant sense of belonging. Of being exactly where the Lord intended me from all eternity to be. In this town, on this campus, helping this young woman in need. 

I saw my life, in all its crazy twists and turns, as being lovingly and intentionally crafted. I could say with St. Joan of Arc, with deep conviction for one of the only times in my life, that I was born for this. Previous wounds and experiences from my life were allowing me to comfort and counsel this student in ways I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to. My struggle with infertility and resulting childlessness was the reason I was working outside the home and even knew her and was available to drop all my plans to help her that day. This was not a random chance, a consolation prize, a back up plan. This was Plan A, God’s perfect plan for me.

A few weeks later, I was working my late, after-dinner shift, wanting nothing more than it to be time to clock out and eat ice cream in my pajamas with my husband. Finally, the student finished the exam I was proctoring for her. After turning it in, instead of running out the door, she asked if she could make tea. I said yes, of course, still hoping she’d grab a to-go cup and wouldn’t stay. But stay she did – until several minutes after I was supposed to get off.

And while it took a lot of grace to assure her she could stay as long as she wanted and that I was glad to be talking with her, I realized that I really meant it. So many of the challenges she shared with me were ones I also dealt with in college – or are still working through now! Being the privileged person she chose to be vulnerable with and ask advice from was such a gift. And I learned anew that it is “in giving we receive.”

Driving home (late), I no longer felt like I was striving to cobble together a good life with the scraps that I could collect. I knew that I was made for a plan and purpose. All the ways I felt I’d been gypped, or wounded, or cheated out of the life I wanted were really the Vine Dresser pruning me (cf. John 15:1-2). Those “empty” places in my heart and life were being shaped very specifically to allow me to be open to the people I would be invited to love and serve. Sure, people who don’t share my name or my home, but nevertheless people I’ve been invited to mother. 

Katie Summers and her husband Matthew were married on the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday in 2019 and live in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She enjoys early morning Holy Hours, coffee dates with Matthew, and good conversations.