Suddenly you know why you're there

This article was originally posted as a “Dear Me” blog on time4thinkers.com. The site’s “Dear Me” series asks bloggers to write a letter to themselves at a specific moment in their life, past or future. It’s a creative way to share what they’ve learned with the rest of us. 

Dear Daniel,

You’re lying on the damp grass in the backyard of an abandoned house. It’s late summer, and the humidity of the air is still palpable even though it’s past sunset. Mosquitoes swarm around you, making you even more uncomfortable. The voices of your friends and classmates meander out the broken window across the yard over to your secluded spot in the dark. They’re on their fifth game of beer pong and show no signs of slowing down. Less than two hours ago you thought that you and some friends were going to see a movie. How did you end up here? And more important: What’s the point?

High school isn’t easy. Classes can be challenging, and the added problems of peer pressure and social drinking don’t help. You’ve been taught since you were little that man is inherently good, and that goodness is a spiritual quality that comes straight from God. But at this point in your life, this goodness is hard to see. You’re trying to live your life in the way that best reflects this goodness, but over and over you find yourself in situations where others put you down for your choices, or shun you for refusing to drink.

You slap one mosquito, then another. It seems so unfair that living a good, spiritually based life has landed you in this insect-filled yard in the middle of nowhere. Maybe there isn’t some grand plan for your life. Maybe God doesn’t exist?

But even as these thoughts swirl through your head, something keeps you in that yard. Like your being there has a purpose—even though that seems far fetched at the moment. Eventually, around 2 a.m., your classmates begin stumbling out of the house to head home. Most have walked here and live close by, but it looks like some drove as well. You watch as one of your classmates trips over himself several times as he struggles to pull his keys out of his pocket. There’s no way he can be thinking about driving home in that condition. He’s easily well over the legal limit; he’s also under 21. Other classmates begin piling into the back of his car and the whole situation begins to look truly alarming and unsafe.

Suddenly you get it. You know why you’re there, that you have a purpose, that this goodness you value so much has a place.

Just because others ignore or are hostile to you doesn’t mean you have to reciprocate those feelings. You have an opportunity here to do good. You’ll take the wheel. You’ll make sure your classmates get home safely. For the first time, you see so clearly that God does have a plan that includes you—and even those who would shun you. After dropping off the last person, you realize that this night did end up meaning something. You found the good you had been so desperately looking for.

Sincerely,
Daniel