“Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?” So begins the book The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, a story of a young woman who finds herself in a library between life and death. Each book on the shelf provides a chance to go back and see how different choices would change her life. Isn’t this a tempting fantasy for any of us who would love to escape our current circumstances? 

Even after making all the “right decisions”—the things we’ve been promised will lead to happiness—many women find themselves feeling untethered and unfulfilled. We’ve been told what to pursue if we want safety, success, acceptance, popularity, and comfort. We’ve run hard after it all. But the lives we are living don’t feel like they are delivering on those promises.

This is what I was discussing with three of my favorite young people, Katie, Sarah, and Will, when the idea for Heart of Vines was born. They are filmmakers, writers, teachers, creatives, and deep thinkers. They are also all practicing Catholics who have found Christ to be the answer to their deepest longings, but most of their friends have walked away from the Church and have little to no interest in a life of faith. Unwilling to just accept this as the current state of affairs, we began to brainstorm about how to tap into the ache that so many young people feel and direct that yearning toward God.

We started by discussing the negative experiences that many have had with the Church and Christians, the perception that the Church hates gay people, and the damage that the sexual abuse scandals have caused. We knew it was important that we communicate in a way that didn’t make a person feel judged or behind the ball or that we were impatient with their progress. Nor did we want to come across as self-proclaimed experts telling them what to do. We knew we needed to move beyond empty self-care platitudes to genuine solutions. We acknowledged that many of the people we loved were searching but had already decided that Christianity didn’t have much to offer and had likely not fully examined the fullness of the Christian faith. 

What might change if we could just get them to doubt their own doubts? To examine the unexamined? To open their hearts to the possibility that perhaps they had walked away from the very thing that held the solutions they were looking for? We knew that it was impossible to prove the validity and transformative power of the gospel beyond a doubt, but what if we could achieve what Blaise Pascal said could make all the difference? He claimed that all we need to do is to get good people to wish it were true.[1] All the people we were thinking of were good people—could we get them to hope, to wish, to at least entertain the possibility that there was something of value that they had previously rejected?

When we thought of the current attempts to evangelize the disengaged—the books, conferences, and programs—we could see that something was missing. We couldn’t find an existing onramp for the skeptic, the doubter, the disenfranchised, the one whose heart was too hurt to hope and believe.

We decided to create that onramp.

And so the work began. Countless hours of delving into the heartache to better understand the questions and needs of millennials and Generation Z. Exploring the solutions the world offers to that heartache and then honestly assessing where those solutions are leaving our young people. This didn’t take long to see. Mental health is plummeting. Rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation are climbing.

We created a path for young women in their twenties so they could begin to untangle the vines wound around their hearts and move toward a place of freedom and purpose. We’ve all got tangled hearts. All sorts of vines are wound around and within. 

• There's the vine from things people have said about us and to us. These are critical voices that have woven their way into how we see ourselves. 
• We also deal with our own negative self-talk. That’s another vine. 
• Some of us have a vine of perfectionism that runs through everything, causing us to feel that we are never enough. 
• There have been experiences in the past that were deeply wounding and still have the maddening power to trigger a rush of all those original emotions. 
• There are the vines we’ve cultivated ourselves—bad choices we’ve made that have hurt ourselves and others. 
• A vine of confusion winds around our decision making, and we are so afraid that with one wrong move, everything will come crashing down. 
• When we aren't sure what we're supposed to do, a vine of powerlessness grows and paralyzes us. 

So what are we supposed to do with our heart of vines? That’s what we set out to explore. 

What resulted from our study and collaboration is a three-part journey into a young woman’s heart. The first is called Uproot. This is where we pull out the weeds of perfectionism, materialism, and lies that tell us that comfort and financial stability are the things that bring real freedom and safety. The second part is called Cultivate. This is where we explore the thoughts and perspectives that we want to cultivate as a far healthier mindset—the gospel itself explained in a fresh and relevant way. The third part is called Flourish, and we get practical here. This is where we break it all down into the spiritual habits a young woman can build into her real life that will help it become deeply satisfying and joy filled. 

The format is an online masterclass that you can gift to young women who are searching for a life of happiness, purpose, and peace. A beautiful journal is also available as a supplemental resource. There is a book version of the masterclass for those who prefer to learn and explore through reading. 

I have written a lot of books and Bible studies, twenty-five so far. But nothing, nothing has grabbed my heart like this particular project. I have my favorite Bible studies that I tend to recommend most often, but Heart of Vines is in a category of its own. For one thing, it isn’t only my writing. This has truly been a collaborative project with writers and creatives who are a part of the generation we are trying to reach. I think this has been an important aspect of this work. But there’s just something about this content. I hesitate to say it for fear that it sounds self-important, but I honestly don’t think this has been done before. I don’t see any other writing or offerings out there that respect the doubts and barriers of the people we are trying to reach in this way. And I think that matters. 

I believe it will make a difference. It meets young women where they are and gives them time to start nodding along—to believe that we actually understand where they are coming from, and only when that is established do we start progressing forward. But we do progress forward. We don’t just name the ache and give platitudes. We lead them to Jesus.

In Jon Bellion’s song, "The Good in Me," he sings, “Your heart’s a vine I’ve bled trying to climb.” This is where our title came from. And I wonder, is there a young woman whom you love and can see is floundering? Has your own heart bled as you’ve tried to reach her and lead her to Jesus? Do you see the good in her and just long for her to experience the transformation Jesus offers her? My friend, I’ve got something that will help her. And you can be the one to give it to her. 

Gift her Heart of Vines. And then pray. 

Jesus loves her even more than you do. Isn’t that incredible to think about? Let’s do all we can to fight for the hearts of these exceptional young women we love dearly. No regrets. Let’s go reclaim the territory that our enemy has occupied. These young women are God’s beloved daughters. It’s time to bring them home.

[1] Blaise Pascal, Pensées (London: Penguin Classics, 1995), 4