When Will My Life Begin?

When I was eight years old, the Disney movie “Tangled” was released– the classic story of a princess locked in a tower until she is rescued by her true love. I learned all the songs by heart and would twirl around the house singing them while vacuuming, or sweeping, or taking a shower (much to the annoyance of my younger sister).

As I grew into adolescence and then adulthood, one song from the film stuck with me more than the others. It would often echo through my head as I went about my daily tasks– first, chores assigned to me by my parents, and eventually, chores around my own house. When Will My Life Begin? It sounds quite silly, perhaps, but sometimes it felt as if each day were only a repeat of the last. Tasks were completed each day only to be done again the next.

Obviously, for me to compare my experience to the experience of a girl who’s spent her life locked in a tower is pretty absurd. So where does this discontentment come from? Why are there so many times I’ve felt as if I’m waiting for something BIGGER to happen to me? Rapunzel’s life begins when she meets her true love and finally dares to disobey Mother Gothel and leave the tower. In this and most Disney films (until recently, that is), this seemed to be the overarching theme or moral of the story: fulfillment and happiness come when the heroine finds her true love. They get married and live happily ever after.

I think it is absolutely fair to say that getting married and having children is the most fulfillment you can get out of this life. After all, that is the purpose to which God ordained us in the very beginning when He told Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply”. However, although the union of a man and a woman is God-ordained and holy, it cannot provide ultimate fulfillment because it only lasts “until death do us part”. And children don’t stay children very long– eventually they grow up and start their own families, and you have to let them go.

Something that doesn’t last can only satiate you for so long. Bread alone cannot sustain us. As Christ our Lord says: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4) And, later on: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” (Matt. 24:35)

This got me wondering: maybe searching for fulfillment in something earthly is a form of idolatry.

Instead of filling my soul with the word of God, I was stuffing myself with bread and hoping to stay full. Instead of finding fulfillment in my identity as a child of God, I was seeking it elsewhere.

When will my life begin? I, like you, am but a sojourner on this earth. This life is only a precursor to the one that is to come. Our lives will begin when Christ returns and our mortal flesh is made immortal, even as His was that Easter morning.

So I repent of my idolatry. I believe that God has given us earthly things like marriage and family for our enjoyment, but that is only a tiny fraction of the story. Life begins when Death is cast into outer darkness. Life begins at the end of this vale of tears. That is what I’m waiting for. That is what we, as the church of Christ, are waiting for.

I believe it will be worth the wait.