I get this question or a variation on this theme a lot. In fairness, the book's cover if clearly marketed to women, and probably younger, sassier, 20-30-something women at that. But in reality, the book is meant for a variety of audiences (and judging from the feedback I've received from younger and older, married and single men, including mothers of three or fifty five year old bachelors, the book is connecting).
The book works on two levels: the first is the obvious one--an exploration of what it looks like to navigate the world of unintentional singleness in a culture that is rapidly changing, pumping out so many single adults. Unashamedly, as this is what I know best, the book explores what it looks like to walk as a single woman in a relational and social landscape for which previous generations' maps do not work, or not nearly as well as they once did.
But at the end of the day, "unintentional singleness" is simply this author's way into a much bigger question. How does one whole-heartedly embrace a life which looks little like the one she (or he) desired or envisioned? Where is Life with a capital "L" found when that which you thought would be your source of Life doesn't submit to your control? And how does God fit into, or even shape, these realities? This is the second level at which the book reads.
Put differently, singleness has been my way into having to face these deeper, tougher questions. In so doing, I have discovered that these are the kinds of questions that almost everyone--male or female, married or single--grapples with, at least at some point. And while I don't provide tidy solutions, and perhaps even raise more questions than I answer, I do hope that in my exploration, I stir up authentic hope that there is a real and loving God, who is alive and well in the lives of all kinds of people, even today. |