“Marriage will solve my lust and loneliness problems.” “When I get married, I’ll finally be able to serve God in my fullest capacity.” “When I get married, my problems will be over.” I’ve heard single people make comments such as these. I used to believe them myself. As a single 29-year-old, I was convinced that […]
Surviving Singledom
Issues relating to my book and to the broader challenges facing Christian singles
Did You Survive?
My social media feed one month ago was inundated with pre-Christmas survival-type blogs. You know the kind of thing: “7 tips to stress less this Christmas”, “How to spend time with family without wanting to kill them”, “How to make a killer Christmas lunch” and so on. My feed was full of tips and tricks […]
Surviving Showers
There are a lot of celebrations designed to congratulate couples. There’s the engagement party, bridal shower, kitchen tea, hen’s night, buck’s night and of course the wedding. Dating couples get Valentine’s Day and married couples get the yearly wedding anniversary. Once kids come along, there’s a whole new plethora of celebrations to be enjoyed. Baby […]
Surviving Singledom: A Testimony
I can hardly believe that I published Surviving Singledom one year ago. How well I remember undoing those boxes and smelling the fresh aroma of new pages wrapped in plastic. I could barely believe they were mine or that I had written every word printed on those pages. I was so excited to take a […]
Missing the Boat
During a rather fun conversation yesterday with Vision radio, I was asked by the co-host Alex about how to respond to single people who feel they have “missed the boat.” Alex told me of a single friend in her 40s who had given up hope of finding someone. This friend felt she had missed the […]
Out of the In-Crowd
One of the problems that many single people face is social exclusion. A friend of mine at church once told me of an experience where she was explicitly told by a group of church friends: “We’re going out for dinner now, and you’re not invited because you’re single.” Then all of the couples in the […]
Adopt-A-Book
“Write a book, they said. It’ll be easy, they said.” – Jeff Goins, Author. The concept of writing a book is a notable and noble-sounding goal. It holds the promise of notoriety, publicity and personal reward, with the act of publication held high as a sort of monumental achievement. But there’s another, less-often discussed side […]
It Takes a Village
It’s funny how people talk to you once you have a book published. Since the launch of Surviving Singledom I’ve had people approach and tell me of the book they want to write, asking for my advice. Suddenly I’m a mentor to a whole bunch of aspiring writers, even though I feel I’ve just begun […]
Close Encounters
I can’t believe it’s happened. One week ago today, I launched my new book Surviving Singledom. Amidst the fairy lights and red balloons, amidst the strumming of acoustic guitar and vocal chatter, the book was launched. It was a wonderful night in many ways. About 40 people attended in the end, a number which pleasantly […]
A Story of Self-Publishing
I was recently asked, “What prompted you to turn your story of prolonged singleness into a book?” I thought this was a good question, as many of us experience lengthy periods of singleness or “late” marriage (relative to Christian early marriage) but not many of us write books about it. The answer is that I […]