My Year in Review

Thanks be to God!

First things first: A reminder that you can still sign up for one of my January rule of life workshops.

Toronto pastor and fellow Substacker Phil Reinders has recently written about the benefits of a rule of life practice (as opposed to resolutions). It’s a good one, and I hope you’ll read it! Phil’s doctoral work explored how a rule of life helps to shape Christians in community.

My two January rule of life workshops are Friday, January 10^th, 11 am – 3 pm EST OR Saturday, January 11^th, 9 am – 1 pm EST. Subscribers to AHCF are entitled to a 50% discount. Promo code is AHCF50.

Here’s Tish Harrison Warren’s endorsement for my rule-of-life work:

Jen’s work adds to a growing body of resources on formation and historic Christian practices that help introduce Christians from evangelical backgrounds to the rich resources in the broader tradition of the church . . . Christians today are longing for roots, thirsty for meaning and deeper nourishment than what a consumerist or culture-war drive faith can offer. And voices like Michel are both deeply needed and in short supply.”

Find out more about registering for the workshops here.

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All announcements aside, I’m finally taking the time to process my end-of-year review. To be honest, I can tend to get overly thorough about this kind of exercise, which means I usually don’t finish. To avoid this, I’m trying to make it as simple for myself as possible and if I don’t get through rereading my 2024 journal (I’m only currently in March), I’ll give myself permission to let it all be okay.

Now, without further ado and in no certain order, here are my 2024 reflections.

Best kitchen hack: Processing garlic in bulk.

I do lots of cooking and hosting, and because I’m a sucker for thoroughness (see above), I’m generally never going to substitute jarred minced garlic for fresh. But a helpful trick for using fresh garlic is to peel the garlic in bulk. Don’t chop it; just peel it. The hardest work is done. Do a head or two of garlic at a time and leave it in a small bowl in the fridge, covered with plastic. It will keep a week.

Best disposable pen: Pentel EnerGel

I don’t remember how I stumbled upon this pen, but I love it. I use the blue 0.5. I’ve converted my husband to the EnerGel, too, but he prefers the black, 0.7.

Best household practice: Yearly calendaring

Ryan and I look forward to doing this every year. And truthfully, most years we’re doing it a little earlier than January 1. It helps us put the “big rocks” in place and let the rest of life settle in around it. In 2024, yearly calendaring made a big anniversary trip to Banff happen, and we were so grateful!

Best life practice: Living in season

An important rule of life principle that I teach in my workshop is living our lives in their proper season. What this means for me is:

· Making room for important life events (and arranging my work around them). This is huge privilege, I know, and I’m grateful for it. I had a lot of fun travel in my calendar this year for wedding events, graduations, 50^th birthdays, an anniversary trip, and a trip to France with my younger daughter, settling her into her year abroad. I never drove myself crazy with unrealistic work deadlines because I made space for a celebratory year.

· Recognizing guilt from previous seasons and being wary of “compensatory zeal.” Guilt, I’ve realized, drives me to gestures of excess, and it’s been especially important to receive forgiveness for past mistakes. It helps me live today, not yesterday.

· Parenting in season: All of our kids are in such different seasons. It wouldn’t make sense to relate to the 23-year-old married daughter as I relate to our 16-year-old twins. So I’m worked to articulate in my rule of life what each of my children might need in their season and how to support them accordingly.

· Menopause: yep, I’m going through the transition and minding the needs of my body. Fiber, sleep, regular exercise, gentleness.

Best marriage habit: Sunday morning breakfasts

For a couple of years now, Ryan and I eat breakfast on Sunday mornings at our local bodega. We talk calendar, hospitality, travel, budget, and yes, there are occasional arguments. We call this our business meeting, and it doesn’t make up for more romantic date in the week. But it’s superful helpful to get on the same page about household decisions big and small.

Daily dose of beauty: Poetry

I used to make a goal of reading a poem a day—and then fail that goal miserably. But this year, I’ve had more than enough material in Jane Kenyon’s collected poems, which are marvelous. Kenyon is a model for illustrating that so much beauty can be made from such ordinary objects and events. I got a shorter poetry collection for Christmas, so next up will be Maria Popova’s The Universe in Verse: 15 Portals to Wonder through Science and Poetry.

Most fruitful spiritual habits: rule of life, communal Bible study, spiritual retreat, spending questions, Sabbath

This feels impossible to narrow down, which is why I really didn’t narrow them down. I have some good habits in place that I didn’t name, like daily Bible reading, prayer, corporate worship, and Sabbath, but these I’ve listed felt especially consequential this year.

—A rule of life: because it’s a prayerful exercise in keeping company with God, choosing what matters, and sustaining—with the help of the Spirit—those written commitments.

—Communal Bible study: because close attention to the Bible always rewards, and paying attention in community rewards infinitely more.

—Spiritual retreat: because there’s nothing like getting out of your home environment, having meals provided for you, and keeping unhurried company with God.

—Spending questions: because it’s helpful to have a values-oriented guide to check your consumerism and impulsiveness.

Hardest decision: Putting my mother into memory care

I’m trying to honor my mother’s story and not reduce her life to her Alzheimer’s diagnosis. But this was a big thing this year, recognizing she needed a new level of support. I can see the benefits already, and I’m so grateful to the staff.

Best memories: Wedding showers (Chicago and Montreal), 2 college graduations, 1 wedding, 1 anniversary trip to Banff, 1 trip to France with Camille

I told you it was a celebratory year!

Best reads: An Intimate Good and The Feast

For the ERB end-of-the-year podcast, I selected Laurel Mathewson’s An Intimate Good: A skeptical Christian mystic in conversation with Teresa of Ávila and Margaret Kennedy’s 1950 novel, The Feast. I’m always hard-pressed to choose the “best” books of the year, but these were two memorable ones. This podcast conversation was delightful, and you’ll be sure to find some great book recommendations if you listen.

Work I can call good: Much!

Good here doesn’t mean “viral” by any stretch. This is simply work I’m glad to have done and made available in the world.

· The Death of the Deadly Sins: Embracing the Virtues that Transform Lives. My chapter is entitled, “Building Godly Character.” The book is now available for pre-order.

· Scrolling Ourselves to Death: Reclaiming Life in a Digital Age. My chapter is entitled, “From the Age of Exposition to the Age of Expression.” The book is now available for pre-order.

· Mockingbird: The Long Lent of Alzheimer’s

· The Gospel Coalition: Why Lone Artists Need the Church

· 9 Rule of Life workshops (virtual and in-person)

· Cincinnati Enquirer: “Political candidates are on the ballot this election. Compassion is not.”

· The Dispatch: “Is Lapsed Patriotism Lapsed Faith?”

· Common Good: “Life’s Work: A Meditation on Ambition”

Most-read Substack Posts:

· The Day I Decided to Quit Book Publishing

· Women and Christian Publishing

· The Morning After

Lessons I must constantly relearn: Many!

· Make reading a daily priority.

· Clean off my desk before the next work day—and especially before Monday.

· Expect less emotional payoff in daily life and work. Persevere to persevere!

· Fun must be planned.

· Hard is good and good is hard.

· God means for us to live in community.

· Simplify. Ask myself important questions like: what small thing counts? What modest effort matters? What will exaggerated expectations and too much complexity keep me from doing?

· Discern: I’ll need helpers here, starting with Ryan.

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I pray you’re making space for reflecting on your 2024, before you plan for 2025! Grace and peace, dear readers, and thank you for choosing to read here this year!