I usually avoid online arguments like the plague. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of arguments on social media are worthy. Things like ‘Is COVID-19 Real?’ and ‘Who is Keeping Our Government Accountable?’ and ‘What is Your Favourite Musical and Why is it Hamilton?’ Then there are religious debates. The place of LGBQTI+ people in […]
church
Stories of Singledom
It never ceases to amaze me how society pressures single people to ‘just’ get married. I hear it anecdotally in the stories told by single people who get called ‘fussy’ or ‘picky’. I hear it in singles asking aloud why they’re still single. I read it in social media complaints about the lack of eligible […]
Can We Have a God’s Day Instead of Mother’s and Father’s Days?—Part 2
Last week I shared the breath of fresh air of talking about God on Mother’s and Father’s Days, instead of our earthly mothers and fathers. I love the idea of focusing on God’s fatherly and motherly traits on such days. I would love for churches to make God the centre of these celebrations—to the extent […]
Can We Have a God’s Day Instead of Mother’s and Father’s Days?—Part 1
Most childless people struggle with Mother’s and Father’s Days. It is an unfortunate but understandable part of the grief of not having the children we wanted. It’s even harder in church services for us to applaud those who get the life—and children—we hoped for. That’s why I think we’re better off focusing on God, instead […]
My Favourite Things: When Church Does Childlessness Well
Churches often struggle to include childless people. They’re great at ministering to mothers and fathers and kids. But they often neglect those in the minority, those who didn’t follow the expected social and spiritual trajectory of getting married and making babies. I have a few choice stories about the bad and the ugly of church […]
Legacies of Faith: The God Who Weeps
It’s Mother’s Day again. My church is holding a Mother’s Day service. Other childless Christians might appreciate the dilemma this presents. On the one hand, I love my church and want to be part of it. On the other hand, Mother’s Day can be one of the toughest days in the calendar year. There are […]
What Would I Want the Next Generation of Christian Women to Know?
I was recently interviewed by Fixing Her Eyes* and they asked me a difficult question: What would I want to tell the next generation of Christian women? What would I want them to know? I believe this worthy question warrants more than the couple of paragraphs I originally wrote. So here goes. To Christian women […]
This Jesus
Have you ever found church tiring? I know I have. We have internal church politics, fanatical offshoots, people leaving the church in droves. We have hypocrisy and apathy and disillusionment. We have COVID-19-weariness, the effort of trying to keep the living body of Christ alive in lockdown. We live in a world where Zoom fatigue […]
Singledom: The Short Straw?
A recent Triple J radio interview struck a chord with me. Yesterday, on the 8th of July 2021, Triple J’s Hack podcast talked about how singles often get the short straw in social situations, with their dating life on public display and even used as a source of entertainment by their coupled friends. (Listen here: interview […]
My Baby Book
Tomorrow is the launch of my new book, Surviving Childlessness. And it feels like I’m birthing a baby. (It’s possible to give birth, even when you are childless.) This is not the only time I have felt like I have birthed something other than a biological child. When my first book was published, I felt the same way. […]