Welcome to 2026

Welcome, one and all, to 2026.

As we change our calendars today, many of us quietly hope that something within us will shift as well.

If there is one thing I wish to change, it is how we approach one another. Everyone is navigating unseen complications, trying to make sense of the world around them whilst carrying burdens we may never fully understand.

It is moments like today that kindness is not optional but it is necessary.

This time of year invites reflection.

We look back at what has been and consider what remains unresolved.
I was reminded recently of a verse that spoke about forgetting the past, not as an act of erasure, but as an invitation to release what no longer serves the soul, so that healing can begin.

We are who we are, formed by experience, memory, and grace.
Yet we are also called to be a forward-looking people, and faith teaches us that hope is not passive. It is lived.

Our strength, intelligence, wisdom, and courage are gifts entrusted to us, not for hoarding, but for service. (I read that somewhere on Akin’s blog).

When we respect creation and honour the rhythms of life, we allow what is sacred to flow through us and beyond us.

We cannot spend our days blaming those who came before us for the brokenness we see today.
Responsibility belongs to us who are here now, breathing, believing, and still given time.

As I have grown older, I have learned that circumstances begin to speak differently. What once felt distant becomes deeply personal, and what once felt theoretical becomes a call to action.

This time is ours and ours to steward wisely.
Ours to heal what has been wounded and to restore what has been neglected.

Though change may feel larger than us, faith reminds us that transformation often begins in quiet obedience, in small acts done with love.

As we step into 2026, may we walk with humility and purpose. May we listen more than we speak, forgive more than we judge, and love more than we fear. May we trust that even in uncertainty, we are not abandoned. We are guided. And may this year find us not only hoping for a better world, but becoming the vessels through which that better world is made.