In Conclusion

The year is at its end.

First off, Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays! I hope you had an amazing Christmas!

2024 was one crazy year, both from a blogging and personal standpoint. A lot happened in the last 12 months, and it’s hard to imagine things getting any crazier than they did this year.

If you permit me, I’d like to end the year with a recap of everything God has done with Writing, Life, Faith. Please don’t hear this as me boasting about what I’ve done – none of this would’ve been possible without God. None of it.

A Year In Review.

• January: I kicked off 2024 by purchasing my new domain (web address), transforming samueljameswriting.wordpress.com into WritingLifeFaith.com.
• February: After going on a family trip, I went full-steam into writing and outlining posts.
• March: I submitted an article to The Rebelution, which was accepted for publication.
• April: On April Fools’ Day, my first article (Why Should We Wait On God?) was published on The Rebelution, quickly becoming my most viewed piece of writing to date. At the same time, I was interviewed as part of the Young Writer’s Workshop gazette. On top of this, I wrote my first series on WLF – a three-part series on Jesus, Christianity, and truth.
• May: As we neared the midway point of the year, I knew it was time to create a better system for outlining, writing, and editing posts. I also said farewell to the Young Writer’s Workshop after nearly two years of membership. After praying it over, I knew it was the right time to leave, especially with camp approaching in July.
• June: After finishing school for the year, I went all-in on a handful of writing projects. I submitted three article pitches to different sites, and once again The Rebelution said they would publish my article. I also completed a major redesign of the website.
• July: On Canada Day (July 1), my second article (Don’t Waste Your Life) was published on The Rebelution. I also went to my church’s camp as Staff, where I lifeguarded, cabin led, and served Jesus in a variety of ways. But that didn’t mean WLF was put on hold. In July, my bi-weekly series A Different Kind of Summer began.
• August: The final month of summer was filled with more camp, family vacations, unexpected opportunities, and more. My summer blog series quickly became an all-time favourite, both for me and my readers. Despite only publishing a post every other week, I got more views than on any other series to date. I also began outlining a new series for Fall.
• September: At the beginning of the month, I celebrated the one-year anniversary of WLF. In that time, I’ve published a blog post every week and seen a ton of growth in my writing – all glory to God. I wish I could’ve taken a screenshot of what my site looked like at the start, because it’s completely different. Midway through the month, I began The Fallacy Sessions, a series that lasted from September to December, covering different lies the devil or the culture throws our way.
• October: Midway through Fall, God put a new idea in my head, something that’s taken up a fair amount of my time since then. Plus, I had a guest post (The Best Book There Is) published on a writing friend’s blog.
• November: The second-to-last month began with more article submissions, a website update, and more work on the new project.
• December: While it is the last month of the year, December boasts the biggest changes of all. Not only did I streamline my system for writing posts, redesign my organizational system, and order some new gear, but two major projects reached completion.

Looking Forward…

Long story short, if I ever thought God was done with WLF, I was wrong. God has achieved so many incredible things in this past year. As I look at the words on my computer, it’s crazy to imagine something as simple as “I should make a website” could have turned into all this. I’m very blessed with these opportunities to use my gifts for Christ.

As always, if you have any suggestions or ideas about how I can improve my content, please let me know!

For His Glory,

~Samuel James

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans.”