By: Ali Eliabeth Turner
Usually, this type of op-ed is reserved for the end of December — a look back at the previous year, dreams and plans for the new year coming up, and it’s designed to be retrospective, introspective, and hopefully helpful as to its total perspective.
What inspired the column and its timing was a question that I was asked this week by my dear friend and mentor, Kathrine Lee. Kathrine is a highly successful businesswoman, executive coach, speaker, author, maven of personal development, and most importantly to me, a true lover of God and people. She and her husband, Michael, founded a place that is one of my favorite places on the planet– Pure Hope Ranch. And, true miracles happen there in the lives of young women who are being restored from being trafficked. Here. In America. Not Thailand. Not Dubai.
The question was, “Look back from a year ago to now. What has changed?” I can’t exactly explain it, but I know that I have grown on the inside. It might not be obvious on the outside, but the Battle of Life has been relentless and fierce, and often has made me have to use my “tool kit.” The Good Book says that there are “weapons of our warfare” which we must use quickly, continually, and precisely in order to not just survive, but to do what I have coined a word to describe it — to “surthrive.” Those weapons are “mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.” A good picture is a fortress that is destroyed plank by plank, and the planks (thoughts) are taken back to the Heavenly Commander-in-Chief as proof of the victory He won 2,000 years ago. It’s messy, exhausting, and worth it. The year 2025 has been that year for me and for many. Unspeakable losses and victories have kissed this year.
So, in answer to Kathrine’s question regarding what has changed the most in 2025, I would say that I am more grateful. Every November we do something as a nation to give thanks, and let’s just say that in 2025, I am thankful for having been taught new ways by Kathrine and others to be more thankful. I am thankful that I have the freedom and the opportunity to express that thanks because of soldiers and first-responders who have given up their safety to keep me safe. I am thankful for farmers who sweat so I can shop for my food in air-conditioned supermarkets. I am thankful for family and friends who stay close and watch out for me in ways great and small. I am thankful for a hard-working, truck-driving husband of 30 years on November 24. I am thankful that I can worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and speak freely about the love of that God’s Son. No one is waiting outside of WKAC 1080 on Mondays after I get finished with my radio show to arrest me because they didn’t like what I had to say.
And, for the purposes of this Point, I am more thankful than ever for all things Athens Now. To our crew and our readers, thank you for making it possible for me to walk in my why, and part of that is to help you surthrive. Happy Thanksgiving 2025.
