How to Grieve, and Rejoice, with Friends at Christmas

I've been going through what we might call an AFGO.*

Hello, Substack readers! I’m still here. I heard from so many of you after my essay about the evangelical bro code blew up last month. So, I’m soliciting stories from women leaders who attest to being pushed out of churches and Christian organizations, and hope to draw out some themes from the stories that have been submitted. (It’s not too late to submit yours here!)

Photo by Osman Rana on Unsplash

But that’s not this post. I maintained such creative vigor throughout 2023, with regular writing, even spending the summer reading Charles Taylor’s 800-page tome, A Secular Age (something else I hope to write about).

And then, in August, I turned 39. (I know, I know…I’m still a spring chicken, although one who now thinks about crow’s feet, to mix the avian metaphors.) Entering my 40th year of life has surfaced some desires, fears, and anxieties that have taken more energy to wade through than I anticipated. This fall has been a season of AFGO: Another Flipping Growth Opportunity (except she d…