I get jealous sometimes. I do. It isn’t a giant secret that I would love the opportunity to write a book, one that would get picked up and published. That hasn’t happened yet. Good things, envy worthy things have happened to me, and I am grateful for the opportunities, for getting to do a TEDx talk, for writing for the Huffington Post, for having people want to read the words I write and for emailing me to tell me my words matter.

But I still would love to write a book, and I live in a place where some of my friends get to do that, and sometimes that makes me jealous. I feel like I am maybe not supposed to say that on the internet but I know that I am not the only one. People get jealous sometimes. It is okay. Jealousy is a lot about what you want (so it is good to pay attention to it) and scarcity (that is the lying part that says if they got it, it somehow takes something away from me.

Celebration and sharing are the best weapons against the scarcity part of jealousy. If I am HAPPY for you. Genuinely happy for you because I think the work you are doing is really really important, then scarcity goes away and dies in the horrible pit of a cave it came from.

Here is the truth of abundance: No one else can do your work, and you can’t do anyone else’s work. You can’t write their book and they can’t write yours. So we should be celebrating each other’s successes. I am really excited to share with you some work that I think is awesome. I am grateful for these people doing their work faithfully and want to share it with you.

Sarah Bessey has a book coming out. Sarah has saved my faith more than any other person who I have never met. I am not the only one who says this. Women like me love Sarah because she faithfully does her work and it helps us. Here are ways to help her. Also, buy her first book Jesus Feminist.

Seth Haines has a book that just came out. It is different than any other book I have ever read about faith. It is sort of about alcoholism, but not really at all. It calls me back to freedom. Also, it is just really beautiful prose. Here it is.

Tara Owens and Erin Lane both wrote incredible books this year. Both could be nominated here.

Embracing the Body is about sex and bodies and spirituality. It is absolutely a game changer, like an immunization for all that bad theology we learned while reading I Kissed Dating Goodbye. Buy it here. 

Lessons in Belonging is about not beloning, and wanting to, and feeling like everyone else in church is just la-de-da no problems and you are a mess in the pews. This book brought me safely through our church transition and I could not be more grateful for it. Buy it here. 

Or ask you library to stock one or all of these. Or put one on your Christmas list.

AND THEN TELL ME! What awesome work are YOU up to? How can we abundant with each other?