Celebrating Two Years of Blogging + Encouragement for 2025

Two years have passed since I made my first post here.

Honestly, I can’t believe it’s been that long. But when I think back to that January day when I was a freshman in high school, I’m reminded of how much has changed since then.

Through the mountaintops and the valleys, this little corner of the Internet has become my place to share my stories about running, life, faith, and the Savior Who makes all three roads connect.

Blogging has become a part of my life, it’s become a part of myself, and it’s changed me for the better. There have been countless moments when writing these articles changed my heart.

This little blog has pulled me closer to my heavenly Father and given my heart the hope to keep beating. I hope it’s done the same for you, my reader.

When I consider this two-year milestone, I’m impressed by my own faithfulness in writing here.

But I’m all the more impressed by the faithfulness of my readers, both the ones who have stuck with me since the beginning and those who just joined (Thank you!).

And still I’m more impressed–and flat-out awed–by the faithfulness of my God.

Throughout 2024, God showed up on the track through a rival runner’s words…

At a little coffee shop through a stranger’s cross necklace…

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean through a dolphin’s jump…

Down the dirt road through my best race this year…

And even on the bathroom wall through the perfect messages written there.

The end of 2024–the start of my third year of blogging–marks a time to build another road marker, as said in Jeremiah 31:21.

It’s a time to commemorate the faithfulness of God, that I may look back at this road marker in the hard times and let it inspire me to keep pressing forward. Sometimes even just pressing forward feels impossible–

Which brings me to my encouragement for 2025.

Stepping into 2025

Recently I was flipping through an old journal when I found a list that I had written down one evening before a track meet.

On that list I put every possible reason for why I run. I made it to remind myself that all the hours and all the miles of discomfort would prove worthwhile in the end.

After years of running, I still find myself turning to my “why”–the reason I decide to wake up with the sunrise and put myself through a self-inflicted challenge.

As both a runner and a writer, I have my work cut out for me. I’ve taken what athletes of every other sport see as their punishment, and I’ve made it into my warmup. I’ve taken what every other student sees as only homework, and I’ve made into my ministry.

Running is hard.

Writing is hard.

So why do I do these things?

Throughout my life, I’ve done these things for many different reasons. Some of those reasons proved worthy and inspiring, but others proved futile and damaging.

The experience taught me an important lesson: If we make our “why” be something temporary and out of our control, we can only get so far.

I think we’re all guilty of having our reasons relate to the opinions of others. Maybe your “why” has been the pressure is living up to expectations, or maybe it’s an attempt at breaking a stereotype or proving others wrong.

Such reasons prove futile because of the reality of change. Circumstances change, we change, those around us change.

One day you may be on top of the world, and the next day you may find yourself in the pit. One day you may have a crowd of support, and the next day you may have to run in the silence.

Don’t let your “why” change with an ever-changing world.

You, as an individual, only have so much control. You can control your discipline, your mindset, and your attitude, but you can’t control how other people will respond.

For example, if you run a race, you can’t control whether the runner next to you will speed up or slow down. You can’t control whether the crowd will cheer for you or the other runner or even show up.

You can, however, control yourself–Are you going to fight hard or give in to the temptation to stop?

There’s a catch, though: Even your self-control can only bring you so far. It certainly can’t guarantee a win.

You can try your hardest and still fail.

It’s for this reason that we must place our “why” in something far bigger than ourselves.

As we step into 2025, I challenge you to live for a worthy purpose. And right now, we’re going to look to the Bible to find that purpose.

Looking to the Bible for the answer

There’s a certain passage that inspired what I just shared.

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. ²⁵ Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. ²⁶ So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. ²⁷ But I discipline my body and keep it under control.”

~ 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

In this passage, Paul addresses both discipline and purpose, as the two go hand-in-hand. To reconcile with his Greek audience, he appeals to their honor-shame culture and the desire for kleos (glory). He illustrates his point through a concrete familiarity: the Olympics and the sports world.

It’s amazing how the analogy still holds today.

When Paul mentions the “perishable wreath,” he means the laurel wreath, a symbol of victory and honor given to the winning competitors in Ancient Greece and Rome. The wreath’s round shape also symbolized eternity, reflecting a culture that emphasized earned glory as the only attempt at conquering death.

Paul had to challenge this culture to take the pressure off the human self and look to the grace of God for a hold of eternity. By the “imperishable” wreath, he means the crown of righteousness (2 Timothy 4:8), also the crown of life (James 1:12).

When earning the respect of the world proves a temporary pursuit, we can find an eternal purpose in our eternal God. This is how we receive not only the imperishable wreath, but an imperishable motivation and an imperishable hope.

This, my reader, is how you find the strength to keep going.

This is how you find your purpose.

Don’t run into 2025 aimlessly.

Instead, let glorifying your Creator be your purpose. It’s not the world’s idea of kleos, but a more fulfilling pursuit.

As the year still changes and the laurel wreath still fades, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

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