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The night train leaving Venice was crowded with summer vacationers. As college-age travelers, we were saving the cost of a hostel by traveling at night. Since we couldn't afford sleeper bunks or reserved seats, we jostled past each other in the unreserved cars, bumping backpacks in the narrow hallway as we peered into sliding-door cabins in search of an empty space. In many of them, sleeping passengers sprawled across more than their share of the six places on two facing benches, but waking them to insinuate oneself into the cramped and stuffy quarters would only make everyone more uncomfortable.

I was weary of searching car to car for an opening, so I decided to stand until a few passengers might peel off at a stop down the line. I found a quieter car with less through-traffic and propped myself against the window with my bag at my feet.

The rhythm of the train's motion reached a lulling hum that hushed the commotion among the Venetian boarders, who gradually sifted into the cracks of one cabin or another. As the train left the range of the city's lights, the interior scene sank into the surrounding half-light.

Idyllic moments have a way of creeping up unannounced, and this was one of them. The dark blue sky had soothed all the surroundings but for a bright moon that made the waterways dance as we skimmed their surface, with the mellow evening air streaming by the open window as their accompaniment. It was as exquisite as some of the art and architecture we had come to see.

Ten years later I had a similar sensation while driving home from work on a placid fall evening, listening to the mellifluous voice of Norah Jones. Rolling to a stop on a tree-lined suburban street, everything was still and soothing. The air seemed to have neither motion nor temperature of its own as it faded onto my arm that was resting out the window. I hadn't expected to encounter such tranquility on an average Tuesday in September.

Much of the journeying between those two points was spent inching home in a rush-hour traffic jam or driving 60 miles an hour for a weekend away—struggling to get to a better situation and not really enjoying the ride. Even the destination often failed to live up to expectations.

We spend much of our lives pursuing the idyllic conditions of a summer night near Venice or a fall afternoon filled with velvet air and soothing voices. Naturally occurring moments of pure contentment are few and fleeting, however. We're more likely to stumble onto them than to contrive them.

Circumstantial contentment is an unsure destination that eludes us and satisfies little beyond a few memories of golden moments. Aiming for just-right conditions will keep us striving for situations that may disappoint our expectations or may never materialize at all. The very things we imagine will bring contentment may bring us new and different sorts of challenges and frustrations, whether a fabulous new job, a dream house, or a dream spouse. We may have visions of wedded bliss, but as any married couple will tell you, the reality is decidedly mixed—the result of human sinfulness.

The better way is a model that the apostle Paul preached and lived: "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want" (Philippians 4:12).

Paul's secret is the satisfaction of bringing glory to God through obedience in our callings. If joy springs from what is within us rather than what is around us, we can find it here and now as well as in the not yet—even as we await the ultimate heavenly completion of our contentment in Christ. Finding that secret of contentment for the present begins with some concrete decisions about our relationship with God and with others.

Tending the Spirit Within
God made human beings, alone among all living creatures, in his image. We can cultivate the image of God within by practicing spiritual disciplines and guarding our hearts and minds.

Practice Spiritual Disciplines
Growing to be more like Christ is the most important part of life in all seasons. We grow in this way by reading God's Word, praying, and being joined to his church.

These spiritual disciplines are for us here and now. Today—not the next season of life—is the time to develop the habits of spiritual discipline. It's tempting to think that it will be easier to find time to read the Bible or pray more consistently after the next deadline or milestone.

After I get done with graduate school…
After my busy season at work…
Once I settle down and get married…

We need the benefit of spiritual discipline as much today as we do after that next milestone—and for whatever lies unknown in-between.

Guard Heart and Mind
Most of us are prone to anxious thoughts and worry. Our minds are tempted to go down all kinds of rabbit trails imagining worst-case scenarios. Stopping worry is almost a physical task. We can't just repress it; we have to pull it out like a weed and replace it with something more edifying, or it will grow right back.

Guarding our thoughts is a habit that at times is not merely a daily duty. It can be an hour-by-hour or minute-by-minute task, a direct struggle between rebel thoughts and those things that Scripture explicitly tells us to think about: "Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable…excellent or praiseworthy" (Philippians 4:8). We must actively choose to think on these things and to ask for God's help to do so.

Sometimes our circumstances prompt us to ask God why, and sometimes He leads us to a gracious plateau where we can see the purpose in the broken path. At other times there may be parts we can't figure out, turns that our lives have taken that don't make sense for a long, long time or perhaps ever in this lifetime. These become the mind's Sit 'N Spin.

Remember the Sit 'N Spin? It's a merry-go-round for one, a simple plastic disk a child sits on cross-legged around a short stem in the center on which a sort of steering wheel is mounted. By working that wheel hand over hand, a child can get the disk—and herself—spinning, and soon it has a momentum all its own and just keeps her spinning until she's too dizzy to see straight.

Watching the world whirl by is a fun pastime for a child, but as an adult, it's far from enjoyable to have that going on inside. Just like the child on a Sit 'N Spin, the mind churns obsessively on things we cannot understand, like why someone else got that dream job or why that relationship ended so abruptly or why so-and-so never called again.

Wrestling with such perplexities is necessary, and the more severe the pain or misunderstanding, the longer the wrestling will take. But when such obsessive patterns of thought become a distraction from the things we are called to in Christ, that's when we have to pray to leave them behind, even without understanding fully at that point.

Bitterness is a choice. One way to avoid it is to choose not to engage in cynical conversation. One woman in her early forties told me she has decided not to spend lots of time with single women who resent their singleness. She's deliberate about pursuing contentment. "When I grow old, I want to be the woman who is known for her prayers and her sweet spirit, not a bitter old lady. It's about surrender, and seeking to be like Christ."

Lisa, 39, describes two big decision points in her life: The first, at age 25, was to do something with her life other than wait around in a dead-end job to get married—as she saw some women in their later twenties doing. The second came at around age 30 after a tough breakup, when she made the conscious choice to be happy with or without a man.

"It's about balance and not allowing one variable to dominate. If you're single, it's not allowing the missing variable to dominate; if you're married, it means not allowing marriage to dominate as the be-all-end-all," she says.

Pursuing the Fullness of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness
Our nature reflects the image of God in many ways, and we should seek to mirror him in all of them. In addition to our spiritual characteristics, another way in which we reflect the likeness of the Creator is in our creative capacity. Human beings can design, produce, form, and craft in a vast array of fields. We also have the ability to recognize excellence and beauty, to cultivate it, and to appreciate it.

When we spend a majority of our waking hours at work, it's easy to neglect certain other aspects of our nature. We need to find equilibrium between professional and domestic pursuits. We need to engage in nurturing and creative expression as well as critical thinking.

Cultivate a Sense of Appreciation
One of the ways we reflect God's image is in our appreciation of beauty and goodness. God said that creation was good. We can echo him in that assessment; other creatures don't have that capacity. While we drive west on I-80 admiring the setting sun, a cow we pass in a roadside pasture may be benefiting from its heat, but the cow is not meditating on the exquisite hues of red and orange. A horizon on fire does spark something in a human heart, however, and that spark ought to ignite praise to God.

But if we're too busy thinking about how fast we can get to our destination, we're likely to miss the sunset.

God called his creation good, and his creation includes our senses and our ability to appreciate the goodness and beauty around us. Following the pattern of God's pronouncement that his work was good, we also have a duty to know the good, to love the good, and to call others to love the good as well. Unlike God, however, we have to work at recognizing, knowing, and loving what is good, because that's not always our natural tendency. To cultivate this aspect of the image of God within us, we need to take time to nurture our sense of appreciation, developing our senses to perceive what is beautiful to the eye, to the ear, and to the touch, taste, and smell.

"Taste and see that the LORD is good," the Scriptures say (Psalm 34:8). We should appreciate God and his goodness in creation with more than our minds. God has created this world with intricacy and artistry that are beyond our capacity to comprehend; all our pursuits will barely scratch the surface. To know this world is to praise God for his creation.

Ultimately, this is why we learn. This is why we should know about the world God created, the works of his hands and the works of his creatures. Innate curiosity and competitive spirit as a motivation for learning only get a person so far. Reading great works of literature, discovering poetry, and listening to the best composers are all ways that we learn to love the Creator more. As we appreciate these things, we appreciate more of what he has done.

That applies not only to the natural world but also to culture and society. Our creative capacity should serve others. This, in part, is how we redeem the time between life's milestones. Life is more than merely marking time with big celebrations like a graduation or a wedding. It is also all that goes on in-between those milestones.

This is why we garden or spend three hours to prepare a meal or get up early to the see the sunrise. These are ways that we enjoy God's creation and, therefore, ways we enjoy God himself.

This is how we truly do all things to the glory of God, which gives meaning to the seemingly mundane. Enjoying God's creation makes our daily lives become more than going through the motions, more than drudgery, more than keeping up with the next-door neighbor. Tending to the details of this moment prevents the now from being swallowed up in longing for the not yet.

Enjoy the Here and Now
In France, my roommate and I shared an apartment that faced the building where our married friends Thomas and Maggie lived. Their patio was close enough to our window to carry on a conversation across the narrow alley. Thomas was the head of the school, and Maggie coordinated the elementary-school program.

It had been a busy and demanding year, and things got even more hectic as spring arrived. Thomas and Maggie were planning a move back to the States in June, and she was pregnant and miserable with morning sickness. Each day became a struggle of staying even-keeled enough to carry on at school, to maintain some order at home, and to prepare for the move while trying to get a little rest.

One day in May when the weather finally started getting warmer, we noticed Thomas planting red geraniums in window boxes for their patio. With all the schoolwork, housework, packing, and caring for his sick wife, why would he bother to plant flowers? He and Maggie would only be in the apartment a few more weeks, and it didn't seem worth it. How could they even enjoy geraniums at a time like this?

Most of us heading home at the end of the school year had thrown aesthetics out the window weeks before and were finishing out our year with just the bare necessities. For Thomas, however, this moment was as much worthy of enjoyment as his first days in France two years earlier. Since he had set foot in the country, he had been intentional about appreciating the way of life around him and was ever curious about the culture and history of this particular corner in the fabric of God's creation. Planting geraniums might not have resulted from a conscious theological rationale at the time, but his deep convictions that God has called us to enjoy his creation and that we should make the most of each moment had simply become a way of life.

Excerpted from Now and Not Yet © 2007 by Jennifer Marshall. Used by permission of WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. Excerpt may not be reproduced without prior written consent.

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