Twenty-Five

I thought I’d have a lot to say about my twenty-fifth birthday. It seems like an important year: ¼ of the way to 100, a halfway point between decades, the beginning of my “late twenties.” But I feel the same today, on December 10^th, as I felt waking up two mornings ago, on my last day as a 24-year-old.

A day doesn’t do anything. This December 9^th did the same thing each of the last twenty-five December 9^th’s has done: merely marked another year since God brought me into the world. What will make my twenty-fifth birthday important, I think, is what happens in the next 52 weeks. How will I spend my twenty-sixth year? What does today kick off? What will I begin today that will define my life as a 25-year old?

While I have a few goals for my twenty-sixth year, the defining characteristic I most want to develop in the next year is peace. At the root of all discontent in my life, all arguments with those I care about, all restlessness is a lack of peace. I fail, most of the time, to put my future into God’s hands and to leave it there, taking with me the peace He promises. Don’t we all tend to snatch our plans back from His hands, confident that they’re safer under our control? I don’t pretend to be any different. But my goal this year will be to develop the silent, trusting peace of someone who doesn’t need all the answers. I aim to be a person who is content under any and all circumstances, not resorting to grumbling, not wallowing in worry, and not questioning the purposefulness of what I’m called to do each day.

“My peace I leave with you,” Christ said. And he meant it. With twenty-five years under my belt, I think I’m ready to accept that peace. And doing so will make this year extremely worthwhile.