Yesterday was my birthday. I turned thirty-six this year. For me this year is unique. I came to Christ eighteen years ago. This is my half-way point. I have lived following Jesus just as long as I lived with little knowledge of Him.
Eighteen years with Christ and I feel as if I am still only at the beginning.
I have just now begun to fully taste the goodness of God in my life. I remember being eighteen and wondering if my new faith would be a phase that I would soon grow tired of pursuing.
Any time I have grown tired, though, it has been God who has pursued me.
Eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, full of mercy, robed in righteousness; eighteen years has only given me a scent of what all of that means. What little I do know tells me this: that it is a wonder that a Creator so great as He would take the time to know and love a speck like me.
Yet He does, and He rejoices in it.
I have eternity to delve the depths of God. The sun has just barely risen on my walk with Him. My feet take it one step at a time, while my heart finds every inch closer to His greatness a joy unlike any other.
Each day I take my choices and actions in hand and attempt to choose well and enjoy the moments. One line from Ecclesiastes presses on my heart all the while:
Sow your seed in the morning,
and at evening let not your hands be idle,
for you do not know which will succeed,
whether this or that,
or whether both will do equally well.
-Ecclesiates 11:6
I don’t know for certain that my labor will succeed in this life, but I know what awaits me in eternity: days that will make these seem like a morning haze burned away by the glorious afternoon sun. My valuable labor brings me closer to Him and to forever love. How can I fail at that?
Choosing well shows me that the best has only just begun. Here’s to year number nineteen.
