Never Give Up!

And he told them this parable:

“There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.”

What a gift it is to have that person in our lives who never gives up on us! We all need that one friend who, despite our many clunky tries at being the person God wants us to be, stands by us no matter what.

I recently came upon a collection of my photo ID cards that spanned nearly 50 years. As I looked at my face from each chapter of life –high school, college, graduate school, workplaces, and seminary – I was reminded that through each adventure, I could always count on Christ to stay with me.

As we read in this Sunday’s Gospel, the Lord is the best gardener who patiently cultivates and feeds us so that we may “bear fruit in the future.” I recall how through each attempt at doing God’s will, Jesus supported me, loved me, and occasionally saved me so that I would grow into the disciple I was supposed to be.

So what did my trip down memory lane teach me? God never gives up on anyone, so I should never give up on anyone who is trying to be who God wants him or her to be. And I should always be available to remind him or her that if we do the work of becoming who God wants us to be (and by the way, it’s the work of a lifetime), we will be at peace. In other words, if we desire to be peacemakers, we first have to be at peace with who we are. Lent is the perfect time to think and pray about who we are becoming.

May the peace of Christ remain in our hearts, our homes, and in the world.