So 2016 draws to a close at last. For some of my friends, it is already over. As I spend the final hours of this year, I want to give thanks.

This year has not been an Instagram moment. There is a time for everything, including difficult and painful things. Even so, I am grateful for 2016.

• I’m thankful for my family and friends, old and new. I’m thankful for the music we made together, for the words, and for the laughter.
• I’m thankful for the summer I spent in Boston, for CTK Cambridge, and for the fine folks at InterSystems.
• I’m thankful for the chance I had to study abroad in France, for my time at L’Abri, and for a Thanksgiving break spent in Germany and Austria.
• I’m thankful for Grove City College and the amazing people there.
• I’m thankful for the time I’ve had to read and think and pray.
• Most of all, I’m thankful for promises that cannot fail.

Tomorrow is a new year. But it’s also a new day, and we have the promise that “his mercies are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:23).

You mustn’t wish for another life. You mustn’t want to be somebody else. What you must do is this: “Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks.” I am not all the way capable of so much, but those are the right instructions.

― Wendell Berry, Hannah Coulter