I wrote this a few months ago for a magazine, and came across it in my archives today. Hope you enjoy it.

Lately the question has been incessantly nagging me, “What can I do to have a fulfilling teenage life?” I think it’s something that we all desire and seek after, something that stems from our heart and the yearning to do, to act, to accomplish something for God. Time seems to slip away from our hands in a manic effort to escape us. But yet the sun still rises and sets as it has since creation, day follows day, week follows week, month follows month, and naught of my aspirations have become transpirations; this results in a review of what fulfillment really means to me, of where true satisfaction lies, and of which aspect of life does the task of “completing”. Does fulfillment lie in the achieving of goals? Does accomplishment reside in the doing of things? Is triumph born from an act of valor? Do any of the things I wanted to do, to do for God, when accomplished fulfill? Or when they transpire do they all of a sudden lose the dreamed of luster and become just ordinary, real things?

The quest remains… what is it? What? Oh, I know full well what it is. Did I ever really lose touch of what makes life meaningful? Life only consists of the now. It’s the very moment; it’s today that makes life mean something. Dreams of the future fizzle away and disappear, plans can be thwarted, and goals can be interrupted. The past is gone by, the future is not promised, but the day is ours. – a poem that somebody shared in another magazine applied to my struggle so well and encouraged me so much that I’ll quote it here.

Here hath been dawning another blue day:
Think wilt thou let it slip useless away?
Out of eternity this new day was born.
Into eternity, at night will return.
Behold it aforetime no eye ever did;
So soon it forever from all eyes has hid.
Here hath been dawning another blue day:
Think: wilt thou let it slip useless away?—Unknown

My natural tendency to make dreams and goals that I’d like to happen in the future the things that I look to for fulfillment sometimes leaves me with the temptation to let today slip by. And then, then the fulfillment is lost, the day is lost. I jotted the word, “Think…” up on my whiteboard and in my mind I finished the sentence.

Today is where fulfillment lies. Tomorrow is where trust is enriched. This is where I find the answer to my quest, but now, to put it into practice. Sometimes we wish we could plan our future, sometimes we wish everything would go just as we wanted it to. But where is faith? The future, our plans, our goals, cannot be held as what life consists of. Life consists of today, only today. This is where the Christian life is lived, this is where our questions are answered, this is where we face life’s battles, this is where the world turns, this is where the grind exists, and this is where dreams disappear. Today is where the rubber meets the road, and today is where time becomes real. What can I do to make today not only real but an experience?

Oh Lord, the future holds naught that I know; the past is set, but today is mine. Fill me; help me to live it as thou wouldst have me live it. Help me to live in such a way that thy love will flow out, spill out, uncontained, unrestrained. Don’t let me let this day slip through my hands unused. Help me not to spurn so great a gift. But rather live it, use it, complete it. Make it full and complete. The future and the plans you have for me only you know; help me trust my life and my goals into your hands and accept this thine gift – a new day.