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Hey guys!

Many people do year-end reviews. This could focus on one’s performance, achievements, habits, etc. I chose to emphasize what resonated with me in this year’s particular season of life. My practice is as follows: around late November, I comb through many of my journals, scribbles, and notes to discover my most favorite takeaways, insights, tools, tips, resources, and memories. I want to remember what God was teaching me. So here it is:

💥 MY 2025 YEAR IN REVIEW

1. Doing a 1-4-1-4 strategy for missional and family planning. Aiming at a destination helps me focus on my next steps. In the last 5 years or so, a few things have really permeated my worldview: reading Atomic Habits, learning about rhythms from Family Teams, goal planning from 7 Habits, and the power of culture-building from my degree in World Arts. 2025 was a year further compounding many ideas on routine construction. I first read this Ralph Waldo Emerson quote about 18 years ago but only recently seeing the reality of it more: “Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.”
2. Plein air painting in the pews at churches. I started 2025 strong trying to draw from life. James Gurney. Danny’s Essays. Drawing while traveling.
3. Family teams reflection map to see your highs and lows from the year.
4. ​Family ID Assessment.
5. My first full year of consistent weekly newsletter postings on The Yellow Ochre Newsletter.
6. In the finishing steps before self-publishing my first book in 2026, Resurrection Hope for Crucifixion Work, a book of 40 meditations on the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians.
7. I also finished a rough draft for a training guide for culture and missions. The Puritan book project came to a halt when we entered moving season to move across the country. I paused this project for the 2 Corinthians one.
8. I designed the cover art for Steve Leston’s excellent work, From The Ground Up. Super honored to be apart of this one for my good friend and co-worker!
9. Books of the year: Seth Godin, “Tribes,” “This Is Strategy.” The 33 Strategies of War. The War Of Art. Generations. The Compound Effect. Currently loving: Robert Murray Mc’Ceyne’s memoirs and diary.
10. ​Drawn To Life. I grew up loving art. But somewhere in childhood, I subtly believed in a specific definition of art that went something like, “the better art reflects realism, that it art. The further away from realistic representation a work is, the more garbage it is.” This view permeates the Western world. The end result? I lost the love of playfulness, spontaneity, and exploration in my art making. I look back and can say that I went all through art school not enjoying drawing, but trying to find somewhere to arrive, some level to get at, some way to show off my pride. This set up my adult artistic posture for boredom, failure, and plateau. In 2025, two resources really helped breath new life into my artistry: The Sketchbook Skool and Drawn To Life book. I’m learning things I have never learned about being an artist before. These insights reach even further than drawing for me…they are showing me new ways of seeing God’s life in my world.
11. If 2024 was the year to explore freelancing and art as commerce, 2025 was exploring art as play.
12. Wes Kao on cohort designing. I’m designing a cohort-based training at the moment and found these insights very helpful. We are using the Disco platform to construct our online communities. Priya Parker’s The Art of Gathering a
13. Gospel musicians cover Queens Of The Stone Age and other juicy hits.
14. Radiohead not only released a live album in 2025, they went on tour for the first time in forever.
15. Say what we will about AI music. Some of what I’ve come across is super cool. Korn’s Freak On A Leash as motown. Forgot About Dre as 50s soul.
16. My daughter is learning violin, so it prompted me to wipe the dust off mine.
17. Movies: both Wicked movies,
18. Shows: Slow Horses, Billy Joel bio series, rewatching The Office, The Chosen (S5), Shogun, The Amazing Race, Tournament Of Champions, Severance.
19. Music: My friends Joel and Mandi recommended Andrew Bird’s I Want To See Pulaski At Night. I must have lived under a rock for almost 14 years missing that he put out this album.
20. For getting me feet off the ground with self-publishing, I found Rob Fitzpatrick’s Usefulbooks website helpful. He emphasizes the role of growing a group of beta readers early on. One of my main takeaways from starting a freelance business in 2024 was the need to gain an audience. Fitzpatrick is helping me in this self-publishing regard.
21. Pen and ink. Jon Tello’s pen and ink gift. Testing out ideas for the puritan book.
22. Finished my study of Psalms in 2025. Favorite resources included: Tim Keller, Eugene Peterson, Charles Spurgeon, William Plummer, James Montgomery Boice. This time around, I used the ESV Journal for Psalms. I began in September 2023 when I hosted a “exposition and express” workshop in the Psalms with our church. After Psalms, I began a study in John and then began a project on Art in the Bible.
23. I’m diggin my new desk from Ikea.
24. My wife’s sister’s husband’s dad makes his own Maple Syrup harvested from Wisconson maple trees. It’s delicious and they’ve gifted us several bottles this year.
25. More consistent weekly meetings with my wife. I found this conversation helpful to facilitating a time to work on our family. The key: highs and lows of the last week and what adjustments can we make going into the next week?
26. “People don’t do what you expect, but what you inspect.” My boss shared this and it’s stuck with me.
27. I learned that ratchet straps are one of man’s most useful inventions. Also, for just a few short weeks this year, I was sold on the idea of owning a truck.
28. Most memorable articles/blogs/twits:
    1. ​This article (if the topic has ever confused you) navigates the contexts of Eating and Drink in an unworthy manner.
    2. Viewing life as a series of projects. This post really got my wheels turning about this idea.
    3. ​5 tech trends will shape the next 100+ years.
    4. ​What Does It Mean To Do Justice by Marty Schoenleber, Jr.
    5. Getting to the heart of training other to exegete poetry through experience and performance over mere literary analysis.
    6. ​Brian Tracy: The Law of Substitution (if you think and talk about the problems, you’re mind will be filled with negativity) versus the Law of Attraction (if you think and talk about the problems, you’ll attract more problems into your life) versus the Law of Correspondence (the more you think and talk about problems, the more they preoccupy your mind and your external world will be characterized by problems) versus solution or future orientation (if you think, talk about, asking what do we do from here). The same idea is shared here.
    7. ​Thread on how people and environments can influence us. Cultural Tutor uses Van Gogh to show this example.
    8. Why Christian men need friendship, not just accountability.
    9. The key to structuring family vacations.
    10. Little white blood cells explode germs.
    11. My main ambition in life isn’t to be rich. But I do desire to be wise. Finances, investments, etc. have long been a foreign concept to me, so things like this have helped.
    12. How art movements got their names.
    13. ​Severance and Visions of Hell.
    14. Kevin Kelly’s 50 Years of Travel Tips.
    15. For the culture raised on Fight Club vision of the world.
    16. ​How to help poverty. Check out Poverty Inc.
    17. Law vs Chaos, Good vs Evil (chart).
    18. ​Helpful AI prompts.
    19. ​How to read icons. While I’m not Eastern in my beliefs, I value taking time to understand that which I don’t. This was helpful.
    20. The Parenting Switch.
    21. Life isn’t just about resting, it’s also about running.
29. How to have begin and maintain a conversation. I can’t always depend on the extroverts to bail me out of my introverted tendencies.
30. Tim Keller on Forgiveness. This interview came at a timely period of 2025 for me.
31. Enjoyed creating a home office this year. My office space is usually a mess and not very well thought through. So I tried to take what I learned from Atomic Habits and design the space in a way that would facilitate some values. I wanted my kids to feel like they could enjoy doing artwork while I did my own work. Thanks Austin Kleon for your thoughts here.
32. ​24 in 24: Last Chef Standing. This show deserves it’s own point. My wife and I had so much fun watching this show.
33. How did this musician make $500k working 2 hours a week? This was a fascinating interview.
34. ​Rejecting Viral Content Formulas.​Will Paterson is a captivating graphic designer. He’s emassed quite a following over the years on youtube and for good reason. This was a fun interview to listen in on.
35. ​Intro to wholesale. What If I Diversified My Income By Wholesaling My Art in Retail Stores?
36. Favorite thing to do on roadtrips. Listen to podcasts and audio record my takeaway notes. We did quite a few travels this year so this always comes in handy for me.
37. Asking Chat GPT to describe my heros and enemies based on everything it knows about me.
38. ​These Beats By Dre headphones. My wife got these for me a few years ago. I absolutely love them.
39. My parents got us Santa Cookie Elf Candy Snowman for Christmas last year and our family instantly fell in love. Lots of laughs.
40. Did my first Tough Mudder in 2025. This is a particularly special memory for us. We got an airbnb with a few other families and the husbands did the mudder while moms stayed back with the kiddos. Great friends, great memories, great challenge, great refreshment. Not the mention, we got a beautiful glimpse at the hill country of Austin. None of us had phones while on the race, so this memory is merely burned into my imagination. Had bonfire, great conversations, and restful unwinding with amazing friends.
41. Nathan Berry shared about this Ladders of Wealth idea. His insights for creators about building strip malls vs skyscrapers is particularly helpful also: “Most creators make businesses like strip malls. They start multiple ventures and ideas, unrelated…[instead] build a skyscraper- an ecosystem. Connect all your ideas and ventures and projects to it.”
42. Mantra by Derek Sivers: “Hell yes! Or no.”
43. I’ve hosted my Yellow Ochre newsletter on Kit (formerly ConvertKit) since 2024. But in 2025, I discovered the wealth of insight and resources from Kit. Videos and other resources.
44. Enjoyed looking up more etymologies in 2025.
45. My top podcasts 2025:
    1. ​Draftsmen - Art teachers Stan Prokopenko and Marshall Vandruff host the Draftsmen podcast.
    2. I came across and devoured a lot of episodes of the 3 Point Perspective podcast. Professional illustrators Jake Parker, Samantha Cotterill, and Anthony Wheeler give terrific behind the scenes takes at working as an illustrator in the industry.
    3. ​Norah Jones’ interviews and play alongs. Noteable: Dave Grohl, Andrew Bird.
    4. How I write interview with Max Tucker on memoir writing.
    5. How to rebuild trust with kids after dropping the ball.
46. Things I enjoy that I didn’t know I’d enjoy: rasberries, sweet plantains, confrontation can be constructive,
47. My wife found a great deal on an espresso machine. We made a bunch of lattes this year at home. Our friend and coffee shop owner, Kenny, came by to show us how to work it.
48. Making a time capsule with the kids (somewhere secret in the world).
49. Enjoying the 90s throwback radio music in Chicago.
50. Watching SpaceX rockets as a family.
51. First ever blizzard experience on my daughters birthday. Set up Christmas decorations.
52. Enjoying the final year of my childhood home. I’m savoring these days living closer to my folks as they count down the days until they move from my childhood home.
53. Teaching the kids to skip rocks at a local IL river.
54. Discovering new towns off the beaten path. One of our favorites sits right on a river with a bridge. My oldest wants this spot to remain private and secret just for us.
55. Dates with kids are getting more conversational interspersed with fun and games.
56. Total days not living in a home in 2025: 40 days. 960 hours.
57. Connecting with other arts and mission wizards from around the world.
58. 2025 marks the first official year our organization is completely de-centralized. Adjusting to this new normal. Re-reading the Life and Diary of David Brainerd, remembering it first being assigned reading when I entered.
59. Got reconnected with the wonderful folks at my sending church. Missing Rich Tempel who went to be with the Lord this summer.
60. Culvers and Rosatis Pizza have become quite the favorites for our family in IL.
61. My parents imemories account is filled with my dad’s old home movies.
62. Jacob Collier as a musical genius. If I ever want to be fascinated, I look him up on youtube. This video of him improvising with a symphony gives me the chills. I wish I could attend one of his audience singalongs.
63. I remember a friend and pastor saying, “the first 8 years of your kids lives, you have no idea what’s going on in pop culture.” I can attest to this.
64. Snuggling with the whole family in bed in a hotel watching the Food Network.
65. It took over ten years, but we finished our Van Gogh 1,000 piece puzzle. I’ve never been into this kind of this, but it was worth framing and not hangs in our bathroom.
66. Traditions: We completed family mural number 3. This has become quite the tradition each summer. I’m gearing up to begin our twelfth awkward Christmas photo.
67. C.S. Lewis on little decisions as compound interest.
68. Hearing jazz fusion on the radio while driving in the snow.
69. Layering up when it’s cold.
70. Samples from Costco and Sam’s Club.
71. You become the average of the top 5 people you spend time with. This quote has resonated with me a lot over the years. I like the way PJ Milani visualized it.
72. FEEL, FELT, FOUND - Nick Saban on how to be someone that somebody wants to emulate. Being a good example means being a good listener: “I know how you FEEL I FELT that way before. Here’s what I FOUND out.”
73. During our cross-country move, I battled a broken down car 1-hour into the trip, and fever stricken by day 3. Not a highlight, but, for sure, a memory! One of the things this move did was show me how much I’ve changed since leaving the Midwest.
74. ​Tim Keller before the end of his life. It is always sobering to reflect on one’s death. We are summoned to do so in Scripture. Health issues have a way of jolting us into that reality every so often.
75. Humor of the year:
    1. Putting the 90s Bulls theme music to the Pope’s entrance was epic.
    2. Baby noises to Thunderstruck.
    3. ​The Pasta is Not There.
    4. ​Oh my gosh, it looks so good.
    5. RFK will be raiding your house for food.
    6. ​What Grandpa sees when I change HDMI ports.
    7. Trump as Vader.
76. Be a fan, don’t be a critic. Triple H​
77. The Dire Wolf was an insane cultivation in DNA tech this year.
78. Sometimes, I don’t like to have the distraction of a camera.
79. Sparking my imagination and making: John Hendrix, Thomas Fluharty, E.H. Sheperd,
80. Self talk: As my kids are skipping away from toddlerhood, remember this.
81. Post Malone at SNL 50 doing Smells Like Teen Spirit.
82. How to make handmade journals.
83. The joy of watching my kids learn to (and enjoy) read.
84. Realizing how much I value and miss Tex-Mex food, the beach, friends, warm cultures, and HEB.
85. Getting some killer Christmas gifts: a skull for my desk (inspiration from stoics and a former colleague), a wood whittling starter kit (inspired by my friend, Milan).
86. Recently, getting weekly date nights with Nati while kids are in a class.
87. Sermon sketching next to my oldest. I love that she helps contribute to my doodles. I got to explain the multiple use of journals I have to my oldest while at Barnes and Noble for her to pick out her own.
88. Being introduced to and eating taco pizza with my sister’s family.
89. Had a family reunion. For the first time in 11-ish years, my mom, dad, brother, sister, and I were all in the same space.
90. “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good ol days before you’ve actually left them.” This quote resonates with parenting right now.
91. “I just friggin love drawing man.” Thomas Fluharty
92. Youtube has some incredible Jazz playlists of Mario or Disney or Christmas music. We enjoyed putting many of these on to keep the calm. Honorable mention: Lo-fi grunge.
93. Alex Hormozi saying, “give away the secret sauce, sell the implementation.”
94. We tried the carnivore diet for a few weeks. Unfortunately, we started it just as the kids birthdays and holidays were ramping up. I enjoyed seeing how many instagram reels tried to market themselves by saying, “The BEST and most flavorful carnivore cookies!”
95. I know Kendrick Lamar did the Super Bowl and all kinds of people found it confusing. But man, I really dug this performance back when he showed up on SNL. I remember thinking, “this is so bizarre…but it’s so cool.” Same with his performance with Imagine Dragons.
96. Jesus is Lord of the Donkeys. This truth is surprisingly one of my greatest take aways from the year. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, he told the disciples they’d bump into someone with the donkey and then all they’d have to say is, “the Lord needs this.” What?! That’s it. This simple idea has helped me trust God more for resources, finances, wisdom, and ultimately has helped me chill a little more. God is worthy of our trust.
97. Voices on suffering: “Spread the sail when the breeze of adversity blows, and let it drive your vessel onwards on its course” (M’Cheyne); “Let us not marvel when we are called to tread the road which is marked by his pierced feet” (Spurgeon).
98. Blessed by liturgies. For some reason, 2025 was a year where church liturgies worked on me. I think it was merely resting in what we being communicated about truth to my heart and soul through communal rhythms, repetitions, declarations, song, and continuity with generations.
99. Why I am glad I got an illustration degree: It hit me this year why this was important. For many years, I felt guilty that this was not a wise investment. Where was the function or utility? Also, my full time work isn’t as an illustrator! So what did I come to realize? One morning as I was sitting at the table with drawing tablet over a cup of morning coffee, my youngest came down, sat on my lap at the table, and started playing on it with me. I realized in that moment that my degree was an investment into a lifelong pursuit of play and beauty.
100. Learned about the Hermeneutic of suspicion: Developed by Paul Ricoeur, it is a theory that begins with distrust, assumes hidden motives, and marked by constantly critiquing. This is not the same as Scripture. The New Testament teaches us about grace, love is slow to assume deceit, it “believes all things.”

(2024)

Blessings and Merry Christmas!

Matt