Get Up and Become: A Year-End Reflection on Faith, Integrity, and the Long Road Toward Who We’re Called to Be

Closing Out Another Year—And My God Today

With less than 48 hours left in the year, I find myself looking back at what has transpired—and the only words that feel honest are simply: my God today.

This year reminded me of challenges I hadn’t faced since college.
Heartbreak.
Financial insecurity.
Dreams delayed, deferred, and reshaped.

There were moments I sat still in a quiet room, staring at the wall, whispering prayers into the silence:

God, how are we going to make this work?
How do I make real what You’ve planted in me?
How do I stay true to myself when everything feels unsteady?

Becoming Is Not Easy—But It Is Holy Work

Becoming is never a flower bed of ease. Choosing to stand in the sun—choosing truth, choosing purpose, choosing to keep your charge—is a daily act of courage.

It requires wrestling.
It requires waiting.
It requires walking through the shadow before you reach the clearing.

But somewhere in the middle of this hard, holy year, I learned something simple:

Get up.
Do what you said you would.
Be who you’re called to be.

No more delay.
No more hiding from the hard things.
No more shrinking from the call.

Integrity Draws a Line—And Not Everyone Crosses With You

This year also brought release. People, habits, and circumstances fell away.
At first, I was upset—especially about the people—because in my heart, I want to bring everybody with me.

But what I learned is this:

Everyone can only go as far as their integrity allows.

And that has nothing to do with me.
My assignment is to keep becoming, keep rising, keep honoring what God placed in me.

A Million Daily Yeses

I am the product of a million daily yeses—my own, and those of the people who came before me.

As the characters in my novel keep teaching me:
We are the harvest of seventy generations of people who survived so we may live.

Their endurance is the soil I’m rooted in.
Their dreams are the wind at my back.
Their prayers are the reason I am still here.

Gratitude for the Ones Who Truly See Me

To everyone who uplifted me, challenged me, prayed for me, or reminded me of my own strength—thank you.

To the ones who understand that I am not to be played with—thank you.
To the ones who held space for my becoming—thank you.
To the ones who affirmed what God is doing in my life—thank you.

Not Too Bad for a Queer Boy From Niagara Falls, NY

When I zoom out, when I really pause and look at the path behind me, I can say:

Not too bad for a queer boy from Niagara Falls, NY
by way of Fort Worth, Texas.

Not too bad at all.

And the road ahead?
I’m walking it with clarity, conviction, and a renewed yes.