Today is my birthday. I am turning 29 years old and, for once, I feel every bit my age. Maybe it’s because I’m no longer ministering on a college campus to students who are several years younger than me. Maybe it’s because earlier today I had to put Icy Hot on my neck to alleviate pain that I presume was caused by all the strenuous sleeping I’ve been doing. Or maybe it’s all in my head. Like I said two years ago my dad has a theory that you feel older on odd number birthdays. Maybe he’s right.

As I reflect on the previous year I can’t help but begin by observing how faithful God has been. Perhaps you recall the passage of scripture I sensed He was laying on my heart when I wrote last year’s birthday essay. It was Luke 13:6-9, which reads as follows.

And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

Towards the end of 2011 my feelings were telling me to run away, to reboot my life in a new place with new people. I was persuaded by this passage to hang in there, but to make dramatic changes. But here’s the thing. The passage doesn’t say whether the efforts taken by the vinedresser yielded any fruit on the fig tree. Likewise, I couldn’t convince myself that this passage was somehow God winking at me, that everything would fall into place in short order if only I would add this and quit that. It was more a call to humility and obedience than anything else. God was saying, “Will you trust me? Even after everything you’ve just been through, will you trust me?”

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