This is something I’ve been working on for quite a while. It is meant to be a “shorter” Reformed catechism on suffering in light of the Gospel. May it bless you and lift your eyes to the hills (Psalm 121:1).

Toil is from God so that our joy has a weightiness to it. A well-earned, well-deserved gravity. When we completely outsource our labor to a technological advancement, we lose the dinner table's nightly pull of joy's gravitational field.

Once it is hidden there, it is yours. Once it is hidden there, it no longer only belongs to the page of your Bible; it no longer only belongs in the mouth of your pastor. It has become yours. Once it is hidden there, the seed is down deep in the soil, much harder for the evil one to snatch away.

If you try to raise yourself from the dead in 2026, you will fail, but in Jesus: looking to him, seeking him, trusting his promises, worshipping with his church, receiving his washing, and feasting on his body and blood, you can die to the old you and be raised a new creature in the new year.