At 21-years-old, not much about life is for certain. Leading up to this point, everything was lined up for you. From age 6 until now, you took on the identity of student, athlete, scholar etc. The most stress you’ve faced up until this point was trying to figure out how you were going to manage to write 3 papers and study for 4 final exams all in the matter of one week’s time – granted at the time your head wanted to explode … I know mine did. There comes a time when you have taken your last exam and you have played your final game, a time where everything that your life consisted of beforehand has now come to an end. Now what? This is where most of us have an ‘oh crap’ moment. Adults will call it, “growing up”, but it feels more like a quarter-life crisis or a breach in identity at the time you are going through it. For the first time in your life, what’s comfortable is no longer there, and you are faced with some difficult decisions and even more difficult realities that test your faith. Do you move into your own house? Do you take that job in a different city? Do you go back to school to further your education? Do you buy a car? Do those things called bills actually have to be paid? (Pulling out student loans seemed amazing at the time…just wait!). All of these questions, questions that have never before been on our minds, need to be answered, and sometimes at 21-years-old, you don’t have all of the answers – that’s what tests your faith. When you’re young, you want to grow up so fast. But, when you grow up, you want to be young again – it’s a catch 22 and unfortunately, as ideal as that would be, it doesn’t work that way. I am finally starting to realize why my aunts and uncles told me to stay young as long as I possibly can, because at some point the real world hits, and the real world is not as black and white as it was as a kid. Up until this point we are told that if you study for your exams you’ll make the Deans List, and if you practice hard, you will win championships. You had a picture, you just had to paint it. You had all of the answers to your questions. A wise man once said, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get” (Forest Gump), and this saying holds true to an extent, because there is more uncertainty to life than most people are comfortable with, but instead of leaving your life up to chance, leave it up to faith – Give it to God. Life isn’t a box of chocolates, not everything is sweet. Life doesn’t sit before you as a choice between caramels and toffee – even wishful thinking can’t be that optimistic. Instead, life is like putting together a 1000-piece puzzle, and you don’t have the box top. It is difficult, frustrating, and sometimes you may think you don’t have all of the pieces (In all reality I have been very close to calling manufacturing companies in the past with the thought that they left pieces out). You will have times of defeat where you contemplate giving up, but moments of absolute joy when you put together the pieces you’ve struggling to find. When you step back from the puzzle, thinking you have really made some headway and realize that you’ve only put 10 pieces together, you start to understand how difficult it is to solve a puzzle without the picture – That’s life and the only person that knows the full picture is God. You see, it is impossible to live life without God’s presence in it, because you will try to put together a puzzle that may not be yours, you may try to paint a picture without any paint. Without God you don’t have the tools to create the life that will fulfill you completely. The stresses of life can beat you down, throw you off course and make you question your faith, but don’t be defeated because there is a plan, you just have to have faith that it will come to fruition. God literally says in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you… plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”. So, keep building your puzzle, because God has the box top. Keep painting your picture, because in God you will have the tools to create a masterpiece. Leave all of your questions up to him, because in him you will be fulfilled.