Living a fulfilling life where you are

5-minute read

When trying something new feels risky

Have you ever wanted to try a new hobby, skill, sport or activity but have been nervous to look dumb or silly because you wouldn’t be good at it? As soon as you begin, you realize it’s harder than you thought and you have this feeling that you will never figure it out, or you might not ever be good at it. You feel stuck in this middle ground wanting to learn but tempted to give up. It is easy to get caught up in wanting to quit because you aren’t immediately successful. In the process of pursuing new hobbies, there can be quite a learning curve and yet, it’s still easy to tell yourself:

• “I’m not a dancer until I’ve made it to Broadway.”
• “I’m not a farmer until I’ve made a living selling my harvest.”
• “I’m not a photographer until I’ve made X amount of money.”

Growth often starts small

When the COVID-19 pandemic began back in 2020, many people took up new hobbies including doing puzzles, Tiktok dances, making sourdough or developing home gardens. Thanks to YouTube, you can learn how to do just about anything. As most American millennials grew up being told – with the right attitude and hard work, you can do or be anything you want to be, even though that’s not entirely true. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to try new things and experiment. During Covid, everyone was experimenting, so it was a safe time to try new things. But maybe your first loaf turned out quite dense or a bit flat. Maybe the tomato seeds you planted seemed to die off pretty quickly in the summer sun.

It’s harder when you’re the only one

It can be much harder to try new things when you are the only one. Maybe you just became a Christian, and no one around you knows who Jesus is. Maybe everyone around you is a Christian, but no one else is sharing their faith. It can be really scary to talk about something no one else is talking about. It can be challenging to ask questions about something that seems controversial or taboo. Just like planting a garden, there is a process that has to take place for fruit to be harvested, or for you to see flowers bloom. And you may not get it right the first time. 

Living a fulfilling life does not mean you are going to be perfect at something on the first try, or even the fifth try. Sometimes you try twelve things for an entire season and you don’t know until the harvest if any of it worked. Maybe you change four of those things next season and it takes five years of gardening to get it to work. That doesn’t make you any less of a gardener; it just means you are better equipped to know what does and doesn’t work.

Faithfulness is not perfection 

Living a fulfilling life does not mean you will not fail. It means you are being faithful to what God has called you to, wherever he has planted you. You can be faithful in the waiting and also still move toward what you are working for. The fulfillment is in the journey. It’s the faithfulness in the small steps each day. I would hope every season of life is rich and full long before you have “retired” near the end of life. Don’t wait until you’ve “arrived” to see the opportunities God has given you to grow and bloom where you are. 

God calls you to be faithful right where you are

In the process of whatever you are doing and wherever you are going, God calls you to be faithful where you are. He repeatedly commands Christians to be obedient in Scripture. 

• John 14:15 (English Standard Version) – “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
• Acts 5:29 (ESV) – “But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than men.’”
• 1 John 5:3 (ESV) – “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”

Wherever you find yourself right now, be faithful to today, be faithful at school, at home, in your neighborhood, in the waiting, in the pauses and in working toward the goal you are seeking.

The fulfillment is in faithfulness

  Living a fulfilling life happens when you do the things God has asked of you. Often you wait for the big girl job, or you wait until you get the degree, until you make the team, or get the award, but you don’t have to. You can be part of fulfilling the Great Commission wherever you are today by planting seeds. You can be faithful today by watering the garden or tilling the soil. It’s not always time to harvest.

Jesus lived the most fulfilling life, and he only lived 33 years. He didn’t travel the whole world, he didn’t have a degree, and he wasn’t married or a parent. He was a single, broke, homeless, wandering carpenter who was faithful day by day to the things he was called to. 

One faithful step at a time

Before leaving Earth, Jesus gave the command to go and make disciples of all nations. You can be part of that today by asking questions, listening well, learning from others, sharing parts of your story, asking others to share their story, and taking one step at a time. 

A fulfilling life is doing the work wherever God has called you right now. That might not be where you want to be. It might be in a season of hardship, temptation or waiting, but that is the beauty of life; it’s always going to change, and yet God doesn’t. He asks you to trust him, to follow him and for you to make disciples while doing it.