Year in Review
God’s Faithfulness in 2025
What a year it has been for my family and me! It’s valuable to generate a few thoughts about it as 2026 arrives.
I’d consider this post a new kind of discipline for me, as before today (at least over the past decade), I hadn’t seriously considered publicizing anything of this nature. As a rule, I almost never post anything personal on popular social media (achievements, positive life updates, etc.). That’s for private notes and journals. The common human desire to seek affirmation of individually perceived honor or greatness through broad societal approval is a serious threat to robust Christian faith, since, through the gospel, we already have the commendation we need from God. So, I’ve largely rejected using social media since around 2016. In other words, I have enough glory and attention without social media, as I’m already seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6).
I’d like more Christians to join me in this joint repudiation, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Alas, the attention economy of the internet has overtaken many. The lust for glory in the here and now, before it’s received more fully and unequivocally at Christ’s return, is too alluring (even for the ostensibly best and most mature believers). Lord, have mercy. The Christian with the least social media attention on earth will receive the highest approval from heaven when the living and the dead are judged. “The last shall be first,” anyone? Seriously, can someone please show me a disciple who deeply and honestly trusts Jesus on this point? Let’s honor—let’s be—that person!
But this year has been a significant transition worth, at the very least, partially cataloguing as a testament to God’s generosity and faithfulness. Lord, help my heart to be in the right place.
This year:
Bethany, the kids, and I moved to Clinton, Missouri, to minister at Clinton Methodist Church. I started a position as the associate pastor on January 1st and am so thankful for the lovingkindness shown to our family by this wonderful congregation. The fruit being borne by God’s Spirit in the church and the Clinton community is evident. The stories of baptism, confirmation, service, benevolence, and so forth are too abundant to enumerate here. May we continue to flourish as we increasingly learn to foster a sensitivity to where God is on mission in the world and among his image-bearers all around us.
Bethany and I are standing close to Clinton Methodist’s tower. 
Clinton Methodist’s beautiful sanctuary. The pipe organ is in great shape and fully operational. I graduated from my PhD (Biblical Studies) program at Asbury Seminary in May and published my dissertation online through ProQuest.1 I’d be happy to share it with interested parties. It’s under review currently with a major publisher in biblical studies. We’ll see how this process goes! I’m praying for a good result, but it’s very possible that my work’s transition from a dissertation to a monograph will require much heavier editing before it gets through any peer-review process. As it stands, the thesis is highly technical and methodological, offering a new way of categorizing how people in the academy, church, and synagogue read the Bible theologically.
The family at the fountain in the middle of Asbury’s Wilmore, KY campus. We like Batman and Star Wars, apparently. I officiated my sister’s wedding in June, which took place in a cave! That was new. She and her husband are already expecting a little baby girl in a few months. Praise God!
My mother and I are proceeding down the cave’s “aisle” before the ceremony begins. The great folks in Clinton have encouraged us to get involved in the county’s 4-H program, and our participation therein has paid incredible dividends so far. James, our oldest child, won a purple ribbon at the county fair for his crochet project, which qualified it for display at the state fair. Johanna, our only girl, even attended the state fair for the “pedal tractor pull” (yes, that’s a real thing) and placed 4th in her age group. She’s probably our most competitive child. It’s amazing to realize the God-given differences between kids cut from the same cloth.
James’s ribbon and project Johanna and Peter (our second-born) have really blossomed as little piano players. My favorite pastime (besides playing chess or reading) has been to play duets with the kiddos. Johanna even played a duet with one of the church’s pianists for the gathering music on a Sunday morning before our traditional service, in addition to performing solo at the local hospital. Peter keeps asking me when it will be his turn to play publicly! I’m thankful for the people in the church who take the time to help our kids develop as confident servants of God and healthy citizens. Johanna also loves to sing very loudly during all three of our church services, and she receives all the encouragement in the world from our members.
Peter and I are playing together. He’s proud of himself. The piano is a Wurlitzer from the 1950s, in good condition (a gift from a precious couple in the church). 
Johanna playing Christmas songs at the hospital The three older kids (James, Peter, and Johanna) played two seasons of competitive soccer in Clinton (through parks and recreation) and enjoyed it very much! Seeing the kids’ collective transformation from relative uncertainty and timidity during the first season to confidence and self-assertion during the second was a sight to behold, a sign of how quickly things can change under the right leadership, coaching, and, of course, God’s grace.
James at one of his practices. Andrew (with the yellow ball) doesn’t care very much about soccer! Andrew (our youngest) is riding bikes. No training wheels now! His joy for simple play in God’s creation teaches me each day.
I think the training wheels came off as soon as we got home from purchasing the bike at Walmart (either that or at most a few days later)! Bethany edited or co-edited no less than 15(!) book projects for her author friends in the Indie scene. She’s much more focused and prolific than I am. I must say that I admire the camaraderie shared between authors and editors in this fiction-writing world. They speak regularly, communicate ideas, and cultivate Christian friendships upon which they depend for prayer and for their work, refusing to outsource anything to artificial intelligence. If only things were like this in scholarship and academia!
Photo by Tom Hermans on Unsplash
I’ll stop there. Thanks be to God for 2025. And may we learn to perfectly love God and worthily magnify his holy name in the newness of 2026!
Speaking of newness, I’ll conclude with this quote from Origen, the church father, who reminds us that, as Christians, we are always part of something new in Jesus:
“Some new thing, then, has come to pass since the time that Jesus suffered,—that, I mean, which has happened to the city, to the whole nation, and in the sudden and general rise of a Christian community. And that, too, is a new thing, that those who were strangers to the covenants of God, with no part in His promises, and far from the truth, have by a divine power been enabled to embrace the truth. These things were not the work of an impostor, but were the work of God, who sent His Word, Jesus Christ, to make known His purposes.”2
Aich, Benjamin J. 2025. "Biblical Theology for God’s People: Perspectives in Theological Interpretation." Order No. 32114762, Asbury Theological Seminary, https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/biblical-theology-god-s-people-perspectives/docview/3218911423/se-2. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
Origen, “Origen against Celsus,” in Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen, Parts First and Second, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. Frederick Crombie, vol. 4 of The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 655.