What I Hope We’ll Carry Into 2025 (And Leave Behind)

Prayers, Predictions, and Possibilities for the Year to Come

hi friends,

I hope your holiday was everything you needed it to be—whether that meant time with family, friends, or leaning into some much-needed solo vibes. My prayer is that it nourished and restored you. This time of year? It’s my absolute favorite. And this week, in particular, holds a special place in my heart. It’s that beautiful in-between moment when we collectively lose track of time, forget what day it is, and lean into the freedom of just being. It’s indulgent. It’s freeing. And honestly? It’s necessary.

This is also the week I do my deepest reflecting—taking inventory of the past year and dreaming about what’s to come. If you’ve been rocking with me here for a while, you know my life has been through some major recalibration. It’s been a continuous journey of surrendering to God and realigning with who He designed me to be—pursuing the work I feel purposed to do, and crafting a life that’s sustainable and deeply fulfilling.

There was a time when I entered this week completely tapped out, barely crawling across the finish line of the year, gasping for air before sprinting into the next one. But things are different now. I’ve been intentional about cultivating a rest ethic, and let me tell you—it’s working. I’m stepping into 2025 with more energy and clarity than I’ve felt in years.

I keep seeing these 2025 predictions – what’s in and what’s out. I decided to take a stab at these for the first time. These are my hopes, wishes and dreams for all of us through my own observations, my studies, the vantage point of my relationships, my prayers, my experiences and my instincts. And while I didn’t think I’d have it in me to write this, here we are—excited and ready to share my hopes for what’s in and out in 2025.

Let’s get into it…

IN: Becoming our best work.

OUT: The concept of a career.

If you’ve been here for a minute, you know this is the conversation for me. The idea of a “career” is a human construct—a relic of agrarian and industrial systems that sold us a linear progression of success. Bruce Feiler, one of my favorite authors, breaks this down beautifully in The Search. The modern “career” wasn’t even a thing until the early 1900s, when folks like Frank Parsons decided we all needed structured paths and resumes (fun fact: most of our modern work systems came from a handful of white dudes).

But God didn’t design you for a “career.” He designed you to be His masterpiece, expressing the unique gifts, talents, and assignments He’s placed within you. That is your best work. And here’s the thing—your best work doesn’t live in a title, a LinkedIn bio, or a company. It’s in you. It’s who you’re becoming as you evolve, take on new assignments, and embrace your God-given multitudes (word to Walt Whitman).

2025 is about stepping into that fullness—breaking free from the limiting boxes of “career” and fully embracing becoming who we’re called to be.

IN: A rest ethic.

OUT: A work ethic.

Y’all. We are tired. Like, very tired. Soul-tired. The kind of tired that a good nap won’t fix. It’s chronic, it’s cultural, and it’s killing us. We’ve glamorized hustle and grind culture for too long, and it’s left us depleted. I wrote about this around election time, the other environmental crisis we’re not discussing. People across the nation are operating in survival mode, stretched thin by exhaustion, distrust, and the chronic stress of simply getting by. Every system we live in today—work, social media, home life, even our health systems—is so damaged and so misaligned with human needs that we’re beyond crisis mode.

It’s time to flip the script. This is not the same as a “soft girl life” or a “soft girl era” either. A rest ethic isn’t about laziness—it’s about sustainability. It’s about living and working from a place of fullness, not collapse. My God-brother Kevin Stuckey has been leading the charge on this, and he’s right: rest isn’t just self-care—it’s a strategy directly from God. We can’t pour out if we’re empty.

So in 2025, when someone brags about their grind, let’s hit them with: “Cool, but what’s your rest ethic like, bro?”

IN: Service.

OUT: Hyper-individualism.

We’re in another gilded age, y’all—where greed and self-interest reign supreme. Our obsessive hyper-individualistic energy is not working, it’s isolating, it’s annoying and it’s leading us further and further into destruction. But the antidote to selfishness isn’t more selfishness. The way forward is higher. (Word to Michelle Obama.)

Jesus gave us the blueprint: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It’s not about waiting for someone else to fix things. It’s about taking initiative—doing for others what we’d want done for us. Service is the key to healing what’s broken in our world.

IN: Radical simplicity and minimalism.

OUT: Materialism and “stuff.”

Stuff is suffocating us. The trap of things means the more we acquire, the more work we have to do to maintain those things and the more burned out we continuously become. We are also so grossly overwhelmed and overstimulated that our brains and bodies literally can’t handle it anymore. Things are what keep us bound to the life we don’t desire and are making us sick and sad.

There will (hopefully) be a return to things that are simple, minimalist and calm. This goes for our homes, our relationships, our aesthetics, the brands that will stand out, our relationship to social media, all of it. I attended three funerals this year (each of them 45 years old) and none of them took anything with them to the grave. The only thing mentioned when we gathered to honor their lives were our relationships and priceless moments together. No “things” were ever mentioned.”

Let’s reimagine generational wealth and inheritance to mean more than things and money – let’s leave a model of a life that’s healthy, sustainable and fulfilling.

IN: Walking this thing out together.

OUT: Influencers and thought leaders talking at us.

I loathe the terms thought leader and influencer. We literally don’t need anymore thoughts. We are overloaded with thoughts. We need practical application. We need blueprints. We need examples. We need community. We need people who will not sit on a stage and tell us how our lives should be, we need people who are willing to walk with us and alongside us.

Now that everyone has a platform and a stage to entertain and inform you, it’s going to be more important than ever to discern who’s worth following and who’s parading as an influencer. It’s so easy today to make it look like your life is thriving but to be secretly and quietly suffering behind the scenes (some of your faves are deeply depressed, lonely and sad). Not all advice is good advice. Not all influencers' influence is actually real. A clear way to discern is to take an audit of those you follow – online, in life, your pastors, your leaders at work, anyone you look to for wisdom, advice, guidance or goals…

1. Has following them tangibly improved your life?

2. Has anything changed for you or do you just know more info than you did before?

3. Besides large following counts, what is the other fruit of their impact?

4. Whose lives have changed and gotten better?

5. What do others who have close proximity say about them?

6. Is it all about them?

7. Are they talking to you or are they walking with you?

Just because you’ve mastered the algorithm doesn’t mean you’ve mastered this messy thing called life. Just because it sounds good doesn’t mean it is good. Just because it looks like influence, doesn’t mean it is. Show me your receipts, not your instagram, your comment section or your TED talk. Let’s prioritize leaders who create tangible change, not just viral soundbites.

IN: Creating, expressing and practicing out loud.

OUT: Perfectly curated feeds and lives.

Speaking of social media, one of the many things it’s ruined is our creativity and expression. Our collective fear of looking stupid, bad or weird is stifling our work and our becoming. I can’t even tell you how many people won’t try because of how it might look. I know for me, it was one of the barriers that kept me from trying new things. The idea that it’s not done, I don’t know what it is yet or not knowing if people will receive it. Natalie Manuel Lee said this in our most recent conversation – “when you create something without any expectation of how it will be received, it’s an act of worship.”

I think about that moment in Beyonce’s Homecoming on Netflix when she came on camera after giving birth to twins, 200+ pounds and hadn’t learned any of the choreography. She said, “this is the problem, people don’t want to look ugly when they first begin.” And look at that masterpiece we received. Everything starts as a mess. So get ugly. Get weird. Get messy. Try random things. Live out loud. Practice out loud and let’s cheer each other on. We need your creation.

IN: Childlike joy, wonder, authenticity and expression.

OUT: caring what people think.

And lastly, who cares what people think. Everyone is a mess. Truly. Figure out who matters and consider what they think.

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Do you agree, disagree? What would you add? What would you like to see in 2025…

Sending you so much love wherever you are,

m