This past year, my colleagues in Christian publishing have treated me with immense kindness. Thank you.

I wish I could say I have witnessed the same kindness in other arenas. If you follow current events even as a casual observer, I don’t need to recount the bitterness and rancor over ideas, processes, and how to deal with misdeeds.

But processing debates helped me progress in my own attitudes. For example, I felt unexpected emotions upon seeing personal, nasty jokes about a political figure. Rather than finding the lowbrow humor amusing, I felt offended and then, compassion, for the victim. I realize those in the public eye know that being made fun of by people with opposing opinions “goes with the territory” so to speak. Yet when you run out of legitimate arguments and decide to resort to dirty jokes, you’ve lost the battle. Even the war. The forum of ideas can be enlightening when everyone is respectful. Bullying, mockery, and name-calling do nothing to elevate any exchange.

I hope people think of me as kind. Even so, rank “humor” and many other instances of meanness I witnessed, particularly in the past few months, made me resolve that the year 2018 will see me be as kind as I can be to everyone. I am hoping to take empathy to the next level.

May you experience the lovingkindness of the Lord, as well as everyone you encounter, in 2018 and beyond.