Plant shade you’ll never sit under. That’s what faith looks like with dirt on its hands.

Some work only pays out to people you will never meet. Planting something slow means accepting that the benefit arrives after your involvement ends, which removes the reward most effort depends on and leaves only the decision that it matters. That is a hard and unusually clean form of generosity.

Start something this year whose payoff is years out: teaching someone younger, a habit your future family will inherit, a repair that outlasts you. Do not attach your name to it more than necessary. The test is whether you keep at it without the satisfaction of seeing the result.