Think you're late to getting your life together? You'd love St. Augustine's life story.

Do you overthink decisions and occasionally wonder if everyone else got a life manual you somehow missed? You're in good company. There was a guy in the fourth century who did all that too. 

His name was Augustine. And somehow, he became one of the most influential saints in Christian history.

Some prominent people feel impossible to relate to.

They are too accomplished. Too holy. Too calm. They probably woke up at 5 a.m., drank the right amount of water, and had their entire purpose figured out by age 19.

St. Augustine was not one of those people.

Before he became St. Augustine of Hippo, he was just Augustine: brilliant, restless, ambitious, occasionally dramatic, and very good at knowing what he should do without immediately doing it.

Which feels familiar.

Quick Backstory of St. Augustine

• He was born in 354 in North Africa, in a place that is now Algeria. 
• He grew up with a Christian mother, Monica, and a pagan father (must be a fun marriage).
• Augustine was intelligent, charming, and clearly capable of doing something great with his life. 
• He was also more interested in having fun, chasing success, and figuring things out on his own terms than following anyone's advice. [Britannica]

You know. Normal young-person stuff.

Except Augustine had the habit of turning his every thought, decision, mistake, and inner conflict into something worth analyzing for about 400 pages.

So, yes. Overthinkers, this one is for us. 

Maybe start writing down what you're spending too much time replaying and analyzing. 

Someday, the future generation might learn from your tendency to overthink.

He wanted to change. Just not yet.

One of Augustine's most famous lines is also probably one of the most relatable things a future saint has ever said:

Basically, he's saying: I want to become a better person. Eventually. Just not today.

It is easy to laugh at that line because it sounds so honest. Most of us have had some version of this conversation with ourselves.

"I'm going to start saving money. I just need to buy this first. I deserve it!"

"I'm going to cut sugar. After the holidays."

"I'm going to stop dating people who are clearly not good for me. But this one feels right. Let's see where it's going."

"I'm going to get my life together. Starting January."

St. Augustine: Pleasure-Seeker

Augustine liked pleasure, attention, good conversation, theater, romance, and being admired for how smart he was. 

Vatican News describes him as lively, witty, exuberant, and someone who loved friendship, entertainment, and life's pleasures.

In other words, he doesn't like to live a boring life.

He wanted a meaningful life. He also just wanted to keep every other option open.

I can just picture him saying, "God, look away for a second."

St. Augustine: Pear Thief & Philosopher

If you have never heard of Augustine before, let me introduce you to one of the strangest reasons he is memorable: the pears. 🍐 

When he was a teenager, Augustine and some friends stole pears from a neighbor's tree late at night. Not because they were hungry. Not because they could not afford pears. Not even because the pears were especially good.

They stole them because they could.

Then, according to Augustine, they barely ate any and tossed most of them to pigs. [link.springer]

Was this an international crime? No.

Was it a little unnecessary? Absolutely.

But Augustine spent a surprising amount of time reflecting on it in his book Confessions. He wanted to understand why he had done something he knew was wrong when he did not even want the thing he stole.

It was not about the pears. It was about the impulse.

The thrill. The friends. The strange human desire to do something simply because we can get away with it.

And maybe that is why this random fruit theft stuck with him. 

We all have our pear moments.

• The text you should not have sent.
• The offensive joke you laughed at—and maybe added to—because everyone else was laughing.
• The "sure, why not?" decision that made perfect sense at 11:47 p.m. and much less sense the next morning.

Augustine had many big ideas, but one reason people still connect with him is that he did not pretend he had always been wise. 

He was willing to look back at his messier moments and ask, "What was going on with me?"

That is not always a comfortable question. But it is a useful one.

A very long search for "enough"

Augustine was not a late bloomer because he did nothing with his life. Quite the opposite.

He was educated in rhetoric, which was basically the art of speaking and writing persuasively. 

He became a teacher, built a career, and traveled in pursuit of opportunity. 

Later, he became a bishop, a prolific writer, and one of the most influential thinkers in Christian history. 

But before all of that, he spent years looking for the thing that would finally make him feel settled.

Maybe it would be success.

Maybe it would be being admired.

Maybe it would be love.

Maybe it would be finding the right philosophy.

Maybe it would be finally proving he was right about everything.

Sounds familiar?

The search is over

Eventually, Augustine came to believe that the restlessness he felt was not something to outrun or numb. It was something worth paying attention to.

His best-known line from Confessions puts it this way: 

"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." 

• If you are spiritual, you may hear that as a statement of faith.
• If you are not, you might still recognize the feeling behind it: the idea that we can keep collecting accomplishments, relationships, experiences, distractions, and open tabs, yet still feel like something is missing.

Not because our lives are empty.

Late Bloomer ≠ Lost Cause

There is a lot of pressure to become someone impressive early.

You are supposed to know your career path, your purpose, your relationship goals, your five-year plan, and possibly your morning skincare routine before you turn 30.

If you don't, it can feel as if you have missed some invisible deadline.

He did not wake up one day as an accomplished person. 

He changed over time. He questioned. He resisted. He made mistakes. He changed his mind. He kept searching.

Then he wrote about it all with enough honesty that people are still reading him more than 1,600 years later. 

That is a pretty good comeback story.

And maybe that is what makes Augustine more interesting than the polished version of a saint's life. 

He was not born with everything figured out. He was not immune to bad choices, mixed motives, or the temptation to put off the hard work of changing.

He was a person who slowly became more honest about what he wanted, what he feared, and what was not working.

That is not just a saint story.

That is a human story.

Life Lesson in St. Augustine's Story

You don't have to become a bishop, write a theological masterpiece, or spend several chapters processing a stolen pear.

But you might take a little comfort in this: 

It might just mean you are finally ready to stop running on autopilot.

Augustine did not get his life together all at once. 

He wrestled with it. He thought too much. 

He wanted better for himself while also wanting to stay exactly where he was.

Then, little by little, he became someone different.

So if you are still figuring things out, welcome to the club. Maybe you're still in the middle of your own Confessions. 

Remember:

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