There’s something about the end of the year that leads us to introspection. It’s only a date, but our culture has made it a marker between two well defined points. 2024 is about to end. 2025 is beginning.

How was your 2024? Did it turn out the way you expected it to on December 31 last year? If you are like me the answer is probably yes…and no.

I’m going to indulge myself today and do something I rarely do here. I’m going to talk a little about myself. I’m hoping that there will be aspects of my journey this past year that resonate with you also.

I started the year feeling drained. Something had to give. If I had made a New Year’s resolution, it would have been to divest myself of some of my volunteer commitments.

That didn’t happen. You could make a good case that I have more on my plate now than I did a year ago, but I feel better than at this time last year.

I know that in some ways that doesn’t make sense. Shouldn’t being busier be more draining?

I’ve realized it depends on the busy. I’m tired from too many activities during the Christmas season, but a couple of days of quiet will cure that.

Some of what I felt a year ago was, I am sure, partly the post-COVID letdown so many people have experienced. As a society we went through a traumatizing experience that we weren’t prepared for. Some people still haven’t recovered mentally and emotionally.

Some of it was work-related. I was dealing with people who had family trapped in Gaza. I couldn’t help. That, I realized in retrospect, took something from me. I know we live in a fallen world and there’s nothing I can do to change that fact, but some days are tougher than others.

Any year is a mixture of good and bad. We always hope there is more good, and I think that was true of my life this year. Yes, there was death, both family and friends, but death is part of life. There was birth too, and joy.

I have too many things to be thankful for to list them all here. I know I have been blessed, and am well aware that suffering continues, not only in far-flung parts of the world but here at home also. There are challenges ahead for our society, but also for me as an individual. Aging brings with it perspective and (hopefully) wisdom, even as the body can no longer do what it once did. At this point of my life it seems like a fair trade. I may feel differently a decade from now, but I am hoping not.

There are still some things I would like to give up in 2025, though at this point I don’t know exactly what. That’s the problem with options; the choice isn’t always obvious.

unlike this time last year, I don’t want to give things up because they drain me, but because there are only so many minutes in a day. I’d like to spend more time reading and writing, and perhaps playing guitar. If I do give up something, I’m trusting God will direct the timing.

That’s my introspection for the last day of 2024. As a private person, it feels somewhat weird to be sharing in this way, but sometimes you have to step outside your comfort zone.

As the clock ticks down to midnight tonight and you look back at 2024 and ahead to 2025, my prayer for you is that you will see where God has been walking with you during the past twelve months, and join with Him on the journey ahead, allowing him to set the pace.

Happy New Year!