There’s something beautiful about the start of a new year, something that feels like “new mercies every morning” (Lam. 3:22-23). The fresh start of January 1 means we can review our past year, set goals for the year ahead, and submit (again) our time to the Lord.

This can sometimes feel discouraging—both personally and collectively. As Patrick Miller notes, cultural figures spent a lot of 2024 complaining, accusing, and arguing with institutions or suggestions for improvement.

But as I talk to faithful, gospel-centered Christians, I have found a different kind of discouragement. You are builders. You are creating families, planting churches, practicing good habits, and investing in people.

However, that work is often slow, difficult, or boring. It can take decades to write gospel-centered music, plant churches in New England, or turn a denomination toward orthodoxy. Sometimes things don’t work out the way you wanted them to or thought they would.

But that doesn’t mean we stop—just like the generations of Christians before us didn’t stop. Miller gives us some ideas and tools for how to make “2025 the year we ordinary people in ordinary places led and served and built in the burned-down wasteland left by the demolition men.”

Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra
Senior Writer