This morning as I was walking my dogs, the words, “Verbum Domini manet,” engraved high up on our beloved Wycliffe College building, jumped out at me. “The word of the Lord endureth,” originally from Isaiah 40:8 and then cited in 1 Peter 1:25. I found myself comforted by the enduring centrality of these words to our mission here at Wycliffe as we prepare for the start of another new academic year.
This year in our Vestigia Dei blog series, we’re going to be reflecting on Jeremiah 17:7-8 and Psalm 1:3. I have a long relationship with the passage from Jeremiah, going back to my days as an overcommitted university student, engaged in a range of campus ministries, sports, and other obligations alongside my studies. I wrote these verses out and taped them onto the front of my planner:
Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. (Jeremiah 17: 7-8, NRSV)
Back then, my planner was a paper calendar I carried with me everywhere I went. I did not, at that time, understand the context in which these words appeared in the book of Jeremiah, but the Holy Spirit used these verses to encourage me and to invite me to begin to understand a theme that is found throughout the biblical story – that as God’s people, we are called to rely on God and the work He is doing rather than on our own anxious toil.
I shared with staff and faculty last week, as we gathered together for a day to prepare for the new academic year, that in my early years as a Christian, I thought a lot was in my hands – in my own life of faith, in ministry to others, in having an effective witness in the world. But over time I learned that God is the most important actor, and that all of my work can and should be placed inside of God’s hands – inside of God’s ongoing redemptive work in the world. In light of these theological convictions, shaped by figures like Augustine of Hippo and Karl Barth alongside the more popular writings of Eugene Peterson and J.B. Torrance, I largely removed words like “successful” and “effective” from my vocabulary.
In fact, in my early days of teaching, every time a student would write something like, “I hope to be a part of a successful ministry,” I would take out my red pen, strike out successful, and ask them to consider that our calling is to be faithful – not to be successful. We can’t control whether our ministry – or our work – will have successful outcomes. What we can do is offer our work to God and trust Him with the outcome.
Adopting tree and fruit imagery from Scripture is one way to help us remember to place our work inside of God’s work. We are deeply rooted in Christ, and we can trust the Holy Spirit to bring forth the fruit. As Jesus says, “Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5b). As trees planted by streams of water, we can rely on God to yield fruit through us in season and to give us leaves that do not wither (Psalm 1:3).
This is a gift to us here at Wycliffe College, as it is to all Christians in their lives of faith and ministry. It’s not up to us to produce the results as we seek to grow as Christians or to be faithful in ministry. God never leaves us on our own to produce the results. From the fruit of the Spirit manifest in our lives as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control to the fruit we are called to bear in the world as disciples, God in Christ invites us to have deep trust in His ongoing work through the Holy Spirit.
As we look forward to celebrating the 150th anniversary of Wycliffe College beginning in January 2027, I am grateful our reliance on the word of God remains central. I want our work at Wycliffe College to continue to bear fruit – considerable fruit – in the lives of our students, in the wider church, and in the world, even as I recognize that it’s up to God to bring that fruit.
I would be grateful if you would pray that we will continue to rely on God’s word and to trust in the Lord, as Jeremiah calls us to, that we might be like trees planted by water, deeply rooted in the living water of Christ, trusting God to sustain us and to bear fruit through us as we prepare for the next 150 years
