Journeying Through 2025
Each year, it's fun to peruse my pictures and remember the year. There was this gathering and that event, this moment and those smiles. I love this yearly tradition and I've included my highlights below.
Yet, media alone will never capture the full picture; photographs and videos are only one point of view. They capture the smiles and the sights, but they obscure the sorrow below the surface. "
Proverbs 14:13
Even in laughter the heart may be in pain,
And the end of joy may be grief."
Assuredly the moments media capture are real and true, but there is much to say in this year's review than "2025, what a time!"
This year, multiple of my church's members died: one mother of young children, one single man not much older than me, and one grandma. This year, my friend's unbelieving father died, leaving her a veritable orphan. This year, my friends' 9 month old daughter was diagnosed with a terminal, untreatable disease, leaving us devastated.[^1]
How could any picture capture that?
Of course, this is but a sampling of the suffering of the year. As part of my church's staff, I have the privilege of reading our members' prayer requests, heartfelt requests for God to intervene in their marriage strife, wayward children, heart attacks, dying parents, breakups, job loss, car accidents, miscarriage, stillborns, unbelief. These are the burdens and brokenness of God's people, the pains of being pummeled by a sinful world and broken world.
It is my job—as both a gospel minister and a church member—to communicate the love and compassion of their Heavenly Father. It is my burden to bear their burdens and lead them to Jesus, their sympathetic high priest. It is my blessing to remind them of Heaven to come.
Yet what 2025 Unwrapped could show that?
To be clear, my 2025 was fairly simple and full of God's kindness. I got to hang out with friends who love me far more than I deserve. I moved down the street to live with brothers from my church. I 3D printed lots of weird things for friends. I was blessed to attend 6 retreats (e.g., LBCOC youth, Lighthouse youth, JEMS Sr. High, LCBC youth), 2 conferences (IBCD, Lighthouse Kids), 4 weddings (S&E Kawakami, K&R Tuan, T&T Lee, Z&L Chen), 2 youth kids lock-ins, 2 engagement parties, 2 funerals, and an Andrew Peterson Christmas concert. God empowered me to preach 40 sermons and teach 29+ Bible lessons. I finally got back into reading (from after seminary) and chewed on 12-ish good books. I bought hundreds of dollars of maker tools and storage supplies.
Assuredly God has painted the night sky with dazzling starlight from a million galaxies. I praise him from whom every blessing flows, for they lead me back to him!
Yet at the same time, life is a journey, and in the day to day of 2025, I was not sure where I was going. I know and believe with all my heart that, for the Christian, the final destination is sure: Heaven, to be in the presence of God. The company is sweet and secure: the very Spirit of my God dwelling in his people. The purpose clear: the glory of God in everything, always.
Yet day to day, and especially as the days melt to weeks and the weeks pool into months, the journey is full of uncertainty, of waiting upon God, of hoping beyond hope. If each day was unceasing light, of ever-increasing joy, hope would be easy. But life—at least my life—is far from such a fancy. Some days, hope is as a furnace; more often, it is a flickering flame.
This year, the Lord has taught and is still teaching me to learn to be content in everything, no matter what. He is reminding me that placing my hope and joy in getting what I want, or improving my circumstances, or fabricating earthly gain are fool's errands, as chasing the wind. He is saying to me that
“These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free
And break thy schemes of earthly joy
That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”[^2]
And so I take courage, and set my hope on eternity, not today or tomorrow. Until Christ comes again, Heaven has not yet come down. Joy has not yet come to the earth—not fully, not as it is still yet to be. He has not yet made his blessings flow as far as the curse is found. Because Christ does not yet reign in glory and might, in presence and in person, the Father's will is not yet done on earth. Things are still desperately wrong, and the death in my church, and the sorrow in my friends, and the suffering in my world are all too pungent reminders of the stench and effects of sin.
But even in the darkness, the dark does not overcome the light (John 1:5, ESV). The challenge—my challenge—is not just to quote Romans 8:28 but to sing it until I feel it with all my heart. The challenge is to not drown the anxiety, fear, and discontent with diversion and frivolity but to face each day with courage, knowing Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever—faithful (Heb 13:8). The challenge is to weep like the psalmists (Psalm 42:3), rejoice like Paul (Phil 4:4), and know that sorrow and joy are oft strangely commingled (2 Cor 6:10). The challenge is to hope against hope (Rom 4:18), and to learn to be content, in anything and everything the Lord brings (Phil 4:11-13)—until finally my Savior comes and makes all things right (Phil 3:20).
So, how my year? Probably similar to yours—filled with joys and sorrows, heartache and elation. My friend, I charge you and myself: embrace the suffering for Christ's sake. For when we suffer in the path of obedience, trusting in the faithfulness of our God, walking by faith not by sight, we magnify our God, and inflame the hope that can never die.
Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Christ gives every moment of life—the wandering and the wearying, the sighing and the sorrowing—purpose. Such pains are instruments of the Redeemer to conform us to Him (Heb 12:1-13, Phil 3:10-11).
Remember, dear Christian, Christ, the sovereign King of the universe and God over all entered human history as a baby—not to conquer but to suffered. He, the Maker and Author became the Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief (Isa 53:3). He, our Lord and our God, was crushed under the wrath of God because I sinned (Isa 53:4-5), for our salvation and eternal joy.
That is my light and hope in the dark, as I journey through the years. My friend, may it be yours, too.
Christ our wisdom, we will follow
Though the way ahead is veiled
As we journey through the shadows
Grant us faith where sight has failed
Help us cling to Your commandments
Strengthened by Your faithful word
We will never be abandoned
You are God and we are Yours [^3]
[^1]: You can watch my friends' [testimony here](https://www.youtube.com/live/gFwqlrKHKOg?si=5F1JU1T82ApjvhrA&t=2955).
[^2]: https://sovereigngracemusic.com/music/songs/i-asked-the-lord-that-i-might-grow/
[^3]: https://sovereigngracemusic.com/music/songs/Christ-Our-Wisdom/