Looking Ahead

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” -Revelation 21:5

The new year is upon us! It is our custom to treat this as a fresh start; this post muses on that.

Forget What is Behind . . .

In Philippians, Paul reminds his readers about the need to strive for improvement (knowing God better):

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)

Note that Paul says "forgetting what lies behind." My pastor points out that this is everything—the good and bad! It is easy to either focus on our past successes (and revel in them beyond their due) or failures (and wallow in worldly sorrow, which produces death). The Bible calls us to do neither, but to "press on toward the goal . . . of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Striving More and More . . .

We make resolutions, and should! This reflects the Biblical truths and calls to do so. In Thessalonians, Paul states: 

Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. (1 Thessalonians 4:1)

Do so "more and more." The Thessalonians were doing a good job—Paul calls them to keep growing. It doesn't matter how good you are; you can always improve. As we increase in obedience and holiness, we will more vividly recognize how far we [still] are from the perfection God demands. There is always room for improvement.

Because of God's Strength . . .

Back in Philippians, Paul reminds us why we need to strive more and more. 

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-14)

Many modern stories focus on "inner strength" and "believing in yourself." This distorts the truth and puts the focus on us. The Bible is clear that our strength comes from God. Without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5), and He supports us (Romans 11:18). We can (and must) strive more and more because God is our strength.

Knowing the End . . .

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6)

This is one of the most encouraging verses in Scripture. God promises to complete what He starts. As I look at my life, I see lots of folly, flaws, and failures. Lessons I (apparently) haven't mastered even after years of walking with Christ. Deep-rooted selfishness and rebellion. That is demoralizing. But I see something else, too—I see progress. Even if it is small, even if it is incomplete, even if it is slow . . . I see maturity. And that is due to God (see previous point), which means He has started something. And that means He will complete it. God keeps His promises. We thus run the race with anticipation and even joy (see next point). We know how this story ends.

And Living in Joy.

For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. (Ecclesiastes 5:20)

Ecclesiastes talks a lot about vanity. The vanity of striving after possessions, pleasures, and so on. The general message (summarized in this excellent commentary) is "life is gift, not gain." We strive not for gain itself but to better and more joyfully know, rest in, and reflect Christ.

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Looking ahead to 2026, may this year see great growth. But remember that "spiritual disciplines are not about making you more precious to God. They're about making God more precious to you." - Matt Smethurst

Clementine (Sara Pennypacker)

Clementine is an eight-year-old who definitely pays attention. Just not to whatever her teacher or parents want, apparently. And it's not fair that she is named for a fruit but her brother isn't (so she calls him Turnip or whatever pops into her head). Her best friend is Margaret, who lives in a room that looks like a magazine picture (Clementine's room does not). One day, Margaret accidentally cut part of her hair, so Clementine helps her but cutting off the rest. This does not go over well. Clementine understands that she is the hard child. Will her parents keep her? Or is she too much to handle?

This children's book is a delightful look at life through a what I assume is an ADHD child's eyes. It's funny, it's zany, it's scatter-brained. It was intriguing to see that Clementine was always paying attention to something—just not what others told her to. Overall, I quite enjoyed this quick read, though I didn't like how sometimes Clementine gets words wrong (example: "historical" instead of "hysterical") and she isn't corrected. That's fine for adults reading but not for kids learning words.

Rating: A-

So Begins 2026

image from here

Happy New Year! As is my custom, this post lays out goals for the year. The goals themselves are in italics, with explanation following in regular font.

If I could pick an overarching theme for the year, it would be a quote from The Lord of the Rings: "do not spoil the wonder with haste." I try to pack too much into my life, and my days are a dizzying blur devoid of wonder or gratitude. I hope to change that this year, and part of that . . . is having fewer goals.

Spiritual
- Meditate more. 

- Love self-forgetfully. 

- Be thankful.

The Biblical call to meditation is not what some envision (emptying the mind). Rather, it is a charge to ruminate on God's Word. To that end, I actually want to read less this year but think on it more. To swap quantity for quality.

Loving others is easy to make transactional (I muse on that here). To love self-forgetfully is to do so regardless how I am treated in return. 

Loving God means (among other things) being grateful to Him in any circumstance, and showing thankfulness daily. I started doing that more last year, and it was transformative. I need to keep going.

Nutritional/Fitness
- Keep weight under 180 lbs.

- Develop underused muscles.

I'm pretty happy where I am right now fitness-wise, but it is always good to improve. To lose a few more pounds, fully heal from shoulder surgery, and to address chronic (though mild) soreness or pains by working muscles I typically don't.

Reading
- Read 40 books.

I've done 50+ books the last few years, and this should be easily reached. I knocked the goal down to 40 to focus on enjoying more and consuming less.

Household Management
- Minimize/declutter the home.

I get stressed with all the clutter around the house. If I could convince the family to reduce . . . I think we'd all enjoy having less.
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Goals are good, but God is better.  

"The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." - Proverbs 16:9 

I hope to hit on the above this year, but the ultimate goal is to better know, obey, enjoy, and rest in Christ. More on that in a day or two. 

To 2026!

The Year in Review

As is my custom, I find it helpful to reflect upon the good and the bad of 2025.  I start the year with goals; this post looks back at some of them and considers other factors we experienced this year.

Spiritual

My goals here:

- Be disciplined in reading/prayer routines (and reduce putzing).
- Do devotionals with the family twice a week.
- Serve better, but in fewer roles.
- Focus more on others. Figure out balance with competing needs.

Some good things here. Prayer was better from mid-year on, when I started doing evening quiet times (in addition to morning) with better regularity. And I now do Sunday morning 'prayer walks' for about an hour, which has been transformative. Humbling but good and necessary.

I did not do devotionals with the family nearly enough.

I stepped down from two roles this year (one 'permanently' and the other temporarily), which was needed to better focus on the family and my own spiritual disciplines. That has been helpful, yet life remains overwhelming at times due to the busyness of the season (lots of activities and obligations for all five of us). Overall, though, this was a positive year spiritually.

Nutritional/Fitness

My goals here:

- Get (and keep) weight under 185 lbs.
- Eat more fruit/vegetables. Eat out less.
- Improve gut health.
- Complete 270 workouts; bike 1200 miles.

Weight loss achieved! For the first time since college, I dropped my weight under 180 lbs (my low was 175). I am just over 180 today, as the holiday eating has taken its tool, but am confident I can stay at/under 180 moving forward. What a blessing. The keys for me have been eating less (and better) and walking more (doing an evening mile walk plus other things). 

I completed 272 workouts, which is satisfactory. I had shoulder surgery in April that knocked out a month, but I was able to hit 1000 miles on the bike, making it the first time I've done 1K in consecutive years.

Most workouts were gym, bike rides, and yardwork. Including the past few years' totals for reference:

2023: 22 runs for 54 miles, 182 gym workouts, 58 bike rides for 623 miles, 15 hikes/walks for 55 miles, 21 mow/yardwork, 113 hours spent working on the basement.

2024: 12 runs for 25 miles, 169 gym workouts, 82 bike rides for 1119 miles, 9 mow/yardwork, 13 'other' (hikes, etc.)

2025: 9 runs for 14 miles, 127 gym workouts, 92 bike rides for 1015 miles, 34 hikes for ~95 miles, 10 yard work (mowing/shoveling)

Reading
My goals here:

- Read 50 books.
- Read 15 works at my American Reading List.
- Minimize my owned-but-unread pile

I read 55 books, and kept my 'owned but unread' pile at an okay number. My post here caps this year's book recommendations. I read only 5 works on my ARL. Overall, though, I'm satisfied.

Household Management

My goal here:

- Minimize stuff in the home.
- Figure out ideal home organization.
- Buy less/budget better.

Buying less went pretty well until November, where the sales got me. I need to be better about ending the year well. Our home still has too many things. We made some home organization strides, but not enough. This one needs improvement.

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Conclusion
Looking across the categories above, it was a pretty good year. Here's to a better 2026. "Never stop starting."

Thus Concludes 2025

Another reading year "in the books." This post recaps the year and presents what I consider the best of the bunch.

I read 55 books this year, totaling 14,487 pages—about 40 pages a day. My average rating was 89.6/100.

Of the 55 books, 0 were audiobooks, 2 were eBooks, and 16 were borrowed from the library or friends. By genre, I read 6 fantasy books, 16 religion, 19 graphic novels, 6 literature, and a smattering of others.

I chipped away at my 240-book American Reading List (presented in four parts: here, here, here, here) and read four titles on those lists. I re-read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I studied theology books to prepare for a Sunday school class I am developing. And I kept my 'owned but unread' pile to a reasonable size.

Here are my top ten reads from this year:

The ESV Chronological Bible
Andrew Peterson: North! Or Be Eaten

- Also check out the others in that series!

Marilynne Robinson: Home

Tim Keller: Every Good Endeavor

Kevin DeYoung: Daily Doctrine

Richard Osman: The Thursday Murder Club

James K.A. Smith: On the Road with Saint Augustine

Herman Bavinck: The Certainty of Faith

J.R.R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings

Various: Batman, Volume 1: The Court of Owls

Happy reading!

Looking Back

Remember the days of old;
consider the years of many generations;
ask your father, and he will show you,
your elders, and they will tell you.

- Deuteronomy 32:7

2025 is soon over. The turning of the year is typically a time of reflection and anticipation; today, I focus on the former.

The Bible calls us to remember. The word shows up 234 times in the ESV. Some of those are featured in specific stories (e.g. Genesis 30:22), some are God remembering His covenant and people (e.g. Leviticus 26:40-45, Jeremiah 31:20), and some are a broadly-applicable call to all of God's people to remember three things:

- they were slaves and rebellious (e.g. Deuteronomy 5:15, Deuteronomy 9:7, Isaiah 17:10, Isaiah 46:8-13, Ezekiel 36:31)

- they were freed by God; He has done marvelous things (e.g. Deuteronomy 5:15, Deuteronomy 15:15, 1 Chronicles 16:8-18, Psalm 77:11, Psalm 105:5, Ephesians 2:11-13)

- they owe the Lord their obedience (e.g. Numbers 15:39-41, Psalm 103:15-18, Revelation 3:3, 2 Peter 3:1-2)

We were slaves to sin. God freed us. We owe Him our lives. As you think back on 2025, keep these three things in mind. Our reflections tend to focus on our specific achievements or trials, and yet a year is not defined by our victories (or failures). We are called to focus on and remember the Lord, who while we were sinners died to set us free (Romans 5:8). May we reflect on the ways (large and small) the Lord has shown us mercies this past year; they were new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23), whether we recognized them or not.

Winter Fire: Christmas with G.K. Chesterton (Ryan Whitaker Smith)

Winter Fire collects writings from famed wit G.K. Chesterton related to Christmas. The book has:

- 30 daily readings (a snippet from Chesterton plus commentary from Smith)

- 11 poems

- 5 essays

- 2 short stories

- 10 recipes [not sure if these were from Chesterton]

- 8 games and traditions [ditto]

- a smattering of old-fashioned paintings related to the holiday season

The book was . . . okay. I love Chesterton's wit and wordplay. It was nice to read some of his article snippets (many are from G.K.'s Weekly or other sources I didn't know). It was interesting to see how the struggles with Christmas in his day mirror our own (commercialism, etc.). Smith's commentary was mixed: occasionally helpful and complementary, but more often simple regurgitation of the Chesterton writing for the day. The poems, essays, and short stories were fine. The recipes, games, and paintings felt like filler. Overall, I would have preferred more Chesterton content and less of the other stuff.

Rating: C+