Article Share: “So God Hasn’t Given You The Desires Of Your Heart”

Joy Beth Smith is a woman who GETS being single in the evangelical community. And she GETS the struggles of twenty-something and thirty-something life in general. She’s a bridge-builder, and she writes with an apt poignancy. If you haven’t read her book yet, I recommend it: Part Of One: Truth, Longing, and the Subtle Art of Singleness

She also wrote this article for Relevant Magazine: So God Hasn’t Given You The Desires Of Your Heart, and I think many of you will find it resonant.

Here are a few reflections I’ve had as I watch the celebrations and frustrations unfold on my newsfeed at the end of another academic year:

This is the time of year when many people are transitioning into the next stages of life. It can be an exciting time and a challenging time–graduating from college; struggling to find work; preparing for another year at a school or a job beyond the time you had hoped to spend there. I know several people who are recently engaged or getting married in the next few months.

For any of my former students in school or church, and for friends, who are struggling to process the discrepancy between the life you expected and the life you have–as it pertains to career, family, marriage, or anything else–I hope you’ll find these words encouraging. I hope you’ll find your life ripe for romanticization–more so than you ever dreamed it could be in a story different than what you hoped for.

For those of you who are lucky enough to have expectations and reality lining up for now, I hope you’ll read this too–and help change the narrative in the Church and the wider culture.

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