2025, unequivocally the most difficult year for my family, is coming to a close. Humorous timing, I have also fallen ill with uncontrollable chills, only a couple of weeks after I dealt with a lighter illness and its remnants for several weeks, the earlier through Thanksgiving and the latter nearing the end of the year. Over the past decade I have rarely gotten sick, so this caught me off guard.

Celebrating my 30th birthday with my parents in Korea, nearly 7 years ago.

Earlier in the year, my father was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. I refused to consider the possibility his time in his earthly body would end so suddenly and so soon. He had been on dialysis and unable to consume many calories, and for a year and a half, calling my mother every evening, I would always start out anxious to hear her tone and connect that to how my father must be doing. Even when I returned to Korea in May, the thought this would be my last time seeing my father in his right state of mind never crossed my mind. On September 15, when my mother informed me I should come home, by the grace of God I located a nonsensically affordable roundtrip ticket that departed the following morning, and I was able to spend my father’s final week by his side, until he went Home on September 24. Next to me on these two separate flights home, God placed first the pastor of a church in which a former colleague was deeply involved prior to relocating (he recognized my company backpack) and prayed over me and second a woman with whom I discussed the Bible after seeing we were both carrying and studying Scripture.

My reading streak continued. Based on the several books last year that helped me dive into the Word more deeply, I was eager to keep going. Finishing Tim Keller’s The Meaning of Marriage to start the year, I stuck mostly with other books by Pastor Keller, namely The Prodigal God, Forgive, Rediscovering Jonah, Encounters with Jesus, Counterfeit Gods, Every Good Endeavor, The Reason for God, Generous Justice, Hidden Christmas, and Preaching, as well as C.S. Lewis’ Reflections on the Psalms, Thom Rainer’s Becoming a Welcoming Church, John Piper’s Risk Is Right: Better to Lose Your Life Than to Waste It, and Robert Jeffress’s How Can I Know? (gift from a Christian colleague). While I search for the next book to help me grow spiritually and interpret the Bible more accurately (I am always cautious, to avoid false teachers that fill the Religion section at Barnes & Noble), I resumed rereading the second book of my grandfather’s autobiography.

I did not race as frequently this year for obvious reasons but nonetheless managed seven strong performances, including a couple of ultramarathons, a couple of half marathons, a 6.5-miler, and a couple of 10Ks. I attribute much of this to weight loss, but over the past several months, my speed rapidly and steadily increased, to the point I may look toward attempting to set some speed PRs, or at least come close, in the not-too-distant future.

Work has remained the same, with my still consistently placing #1 on the leaderboard yet no consideration for a bonus, even a slight raise, or a promotion that almost never happens by merit here. Albeit I did not express this to many at the time, a part of me did not think to look elsewhere because I did not know what would happen to my father; if anything did happen, at least I had the flexibility to go to him immediately. I no longer have that holding me back, but I plan to follow the will of God. Whatever I do, I work at it with all my heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters, so I will continue to give my best no matter how unjust these past three years have been; I trust that God sees all that is going on that I cannot. After all, I never weigh success on a worldly scale, and Jesus has always provided for me. I do hope and feel 2026 will bring a lot of change.