2025: The year I will never forget

Whenever we reach this time of year, I find myself reflective.  I contemplate the highs of the lows of the year.  This year has been dark and challenging, but I find myself so grateful to God for His presence and faithfulness, no matter what.  I’m reminded of a sermon I heard where the preacher spoke of a man in the church who was in the hospital waiting room, his wife was sick.  This pastor went to the hospital, attempting to encourage the man.  After a time of silence, the man spoke up and said to his pastor, “You know, this faith thing is pretty cool, until you have to use it.”  How true.

Back in March, attempting to help someone, I wrote the phrase ‘it’s always darkest before the dawn.’  While that’s true, 2025 has taught me that sometimes you can wait for a very, very long time before you see that light of dawn.  I’ve seen firsthand how long and how dark the night can be, I mean this both literally and figuratively.  I’ve been in lonely hospital waiting rooms, wondering what the coming days would hold.  I found myself in the chapel of the hospital, praying to God for Him to help and heal.

Thankfully, the Lord did heal; the one who was sick in the hospital was healed. However, this was not always a certainty.  But do you want to know what I’ve discovered in the midst of all of the uncertainty?  I discovered when you are at the lowest, the bottom rung, when the bottom drops out, and you have no one to turn to but the Lord, He is enough.  He is forever faithful.  Proverbs 18:24 states, “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (ESV).  Some interpret that to mean that Jesus Himself is the One who sticks closer than any friend or brother; I can vouch for that. 

In the midst of the craziness of this year, I learned that Netflix was removing the TV show “Arrow” from its programming.  This is because the show has been off the air since 2020 (how times flies!); they structured it to drop off Netflix 5 years after the finale.  This is fair enough, but I was still sad to see this happen.  So I binged-watched portions of the show, until it was removed; which occurred back on December 18th, I think it was.  Not only did the example of protagonist of the show, Oliver Queen (Steven Amell) inspire a group of heroes in that universe, but I confess he inspired me as well.  Therefore, Oliver’s words, at the end of an epic crossover, are a fitting way to conclude today:

Oliver Queen and Barry Allen (A.K.A. The Flash) celebrate their victory, defying impossible odds to do so.  Barry, as usual, wants to hug it out, but Oliver refuses and instead submits this toast.  “To appreciating what you have,” he says, “for however long you might have it.”  In the context of the finality of “Arrow” being removed from Netflix, this was an emotional line to hear again.  However, more importantly, Oliver’s words reinforced an important lesson that 2025 has taught me: treasure every day with family and friends for the gift that it truly is.  Because the old adage is true, ‘you never know what you have, until it’s gone.’ 

God bless,

Kevin