The Year of Jubilee

“Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields” (Leviticus 25:10-12).

The last twelve months I have been celebrating my jubilee year. The irony is this has not been a year of rest where I feasted off of the surplus from the forty-ninth year’s crops. My fiftieth year has been a time of sowing and fertilizing the soil for the harvest to come; one I won’t see until eternity. Many nights I battle exhaustion as I complete one more task before shutting down my computer. My mind, however, does not turn off so easily. Could I be mistaken? Am I not listening to God? Should I cease all work and take a year-long vacation? On the contrary, it seems the work I need to retreat from is that of my own conjuring, not what God has commissioned!

Although my jubilee year has been riddled with challenges and struggles, my walk with Jesus is growing more intertwined; I cannot function at a peak level without Him. It would be so nice to say the transition from my full-time corporate job into a full-time writing and speaking ministry has been seamless and swift. Instead, it is a slow arduous process. For now, God requires me to tend many fields as He simultaneously prunes me into a more glorious display of His majesty. My challenge has been to celebrate during this plowing and planting season while I patiently wait for the blooms to appear.

Recapping the blessings of the year, I find there are many reasons to throw a party. First, my book, “My Heart’s Desire: A Journey Toward Finding Extravagant Love” became an Amazon #1 bestseller in late April. I praise God every time a reader shares with me how this story has encouraged them! Other reasons to celebrate emphasis the gift of health I enjoy; one I did not always have. Honestly, I love being fifty. It’s full of surprises. People’s expectations lower when they learn I am half a century old. No one ever said to me at twenty-five, “Wow, you look really good for your age.” At twenty-five we are all supposed to look good! Any compliment at fifty seems to instantly propel me into a class of over achievers; a category I never expected to be in.

Fifty is a well-blended age. I am old enough to have survived life’s hardest trials, and young enough to put to good use the lessons acquired from them. There is a confidence I have now that in my youth I lacked. This is not of my own striving; it comes from something greater than my experiences. It is a benefit of having spent nearly nine years in a close relationship with my Savior, Jesus, and having Him walk beside me through the fires. There is peace in the knowledge that I am deeply loved and accepted by God, and I am never alone. This gives me courage to keep going when the road I am treading is filled with dark corners, large boulders blocking my path, and an uphill winding bent. There is little time to catch my breath, but a day of rest awaits me along with a picturesque view from the mountain top.

This was a year of gathering in close to my own clan, of looking back at my earthly roots while preparing for a future banquet with spiritual siblings. Although fifty was not a year of physical rest, I do not believe it was supposed to be. Instead, the Father intends for me to feed daily on the produce from His hands, not my own. He has placed me behind the plow of a computer to spread words of hope in my writing, but the Holy Spirit is the true power behind the work. As I seek His counsel, I am well nourished and equipped to share the Lord’s bounty with others. This is a time of spiritual rest and renewal. I am not reaping from what I grew myself, but from the fruit that springs forth out of the vine that gets its subsistence from the Divine Creator. You know what? God’s food is always the most succulent variety available! To go with another supplier of my daily seed would only invite blight upon my crop.

As I reflect on this milestone year, I realize that my life should be a continuous jubilee. There is no leave of absence from working in heavenly fields. My jubilation has nothing to do with turning fifty but everything to do with being God’s daughter. Whatever our age, as God’s redeemed children we can continuously rejoice in the holy work He has ordained for each of us. Let us learn to worship as co-laborers alongside Christ who gives life to all who plant their roots in the fertile soil of His love! “Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields” (Leviticus 25:10-12).

Your fellow sojourner,

Mary