Culture

In Defense Of The Gamer Boyfriend

I was the girl who thought video games were a waste of time, until I realized what they were actually doing for the men in my life.

By Brooke Brandtjen3 min read
The Witcher

For most of my life, I was something of a tomboy. I liked rock music, Legos, and comic books, all of which helped me build strong friendships with a lot of the guys in my social circle. The one thing I never cared for, though, was video games. Chalk it up to my non-competitive nature, but the allure of gaming never got me. Apart from Girls Go Games and Club Penguin, I never jumped at the chance to join in. Even the low-stakes fads, like Pokémon Go! or Kim Kardashian's once-popular mobile app, stressed me out. When my friends suggested Mario Kart at parties, I'd roll my eyes and find something else to do.

Video games annoyed me because they were a way for the guys in my life to connect, and I didn't want to participate. I felt excluded. But the truth is that men deserve a space of their own, and video games are one of the best ones they've found.

It can be frustrating to watch your husband or boyfriend choose a night in with a controller over going out. We often equate time spent online with time being wasted, and virtual interactions rarely feel as meaningful as in-person ones. That discrepancy is especially noticeable for women, who tend to be highly attuned to physical presence—a friend's body language, the energy in a room. Women generally forge friendships through emotional intimacy, which is why we gravitate toward activities like coffee dates and long conversations. The connection is the point. For us, presence signals investment. When he's staring at a screen instead of being present with us, it can feel like a rejection, even when it isn't.

For men, connection often works differently. Men are more likely to form bonds through shared activity and adventure, which is why so many programs for young boys center on the outdoors. The Boy Scouts were built on exactly this idea, created "to teach [boys] patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred values." Camping, building, doing things together: that's how boys become friends. The activity is the vehicle for the relationship, and that doesn't change when they grow up.

Casual gaming reliably reduces stress and anxiety.

In the modern era, most of our husbands and boyfriends aren't exploring uncharted territory or going on expeditions (or at least not regularly). Camping trips are fun but notoriously hard to coordinate once careers and kids enter the picture. And yet men still need an outlet for their adventurous nature. They still need a way to bond with their friends. How do you do that without turning into Indiana Jones every weekend?

Video games. Take that outlet away, or make them feel guilty for wanting it, and something slowly erodes. Their friendships get thinner, the isolation creeps in, and the guy who used to have a solid group of friends finds himself, a decade into adulthood, with no one to call.

For years, video games were dismissed as a waste of time; a bad habit that would rot your brain. Some of that unfair branding has stuck, and as women, we've absorbed it. But the reality is that video games are one of the easiest and most accessible ways men have to stay connected with each other. Every game offers some version of a quest, an adventure you can go on without a plane ticket. Most games feature multiplayer functions, so guys can meet up in person or sync up online—playing a few rounds in the living room, or logging on at the same time from different cities. Either way, they're going on a mission together, and that matters. It's not that different from us getting together for a movie night or a group chat that runs all evening. The medium is different, but the need is the same.

Video games aren't the mental junk food we've been told they are, either. They require strategic thinking, decision-making, and hand-eye coordination. Studies show that action games in particular can have significant cognitive benefits. Players tend to prioritize tasks more effectively and demonstrate faster mental and visual processing. These aren't trivial skills. The overlap between gaming skills and professional ones is real, even if we've been conditioned to dismiss it.

And beyond the cognitive side, video games are genuinely one of the best ways for men to decompress. Slower-paced games can be calming; fast-paced ones help blow off steam. Research has found that casual gaming reliably reduces stress and anxiety, particularly among people who are already carrying a lot. And men, by and large, are carrying a lot. The pressure to perform at work, to provide, to stay stoic—it accumulates. Having a guilt-free space to decompress is just maintenance.

For a generation of men who are struggling to stay close to old friends and make new ones, that infrastructure is genuinely valuable.

That matters more than ever right now. We're in the middle of a loneliness epidemic, and men are taking the hardest hit. Malls are emptying, bars are losing their appeal, and the cost of concerts and sporting events is pricing out regular attendance. A quarter of men aged 15–34 report feeling lonely, compared to 18% of women the same age. As many as 15% of men in that group say they have no close friends at all. That's not a small problem, and video games are part of the solution.

They give men a way to find and maintain friendships. Gaming communities form around shared interests, spanning time zones and countries. Niche games develop dedicated fanbases who connect on subreddits and Discord servers. For a generation of men who are struggling to stay close to old friends and make new ones, that infrastructure is genuinely valuable.

None of this is to say gaming belongs exclusively to men. The number of male and female gamers in the US is nearly even. But women tend to play a few hours a week; men are far more likely to play five or more. And nearly half of female gamers play exclusively on mobile. The investment levels are different, and that difference is worth understanding rather than resenting. When we treat his gaming habit as something to be managed or minimized, we're dismissing one of the primary ways he maintains his mental health and his friendships, not just a hobby.

Men need spaces that are distinctly, unapologetically theirs, just as we need ours. Video games can absolutely become a problem if they tip into avoidance or addiction, and that's worth watching for. But if your husband wants to spend a few hours playing Fallout with his friends after a long week, that's not time being wasted. That's how he stays connected. Let him have it.

Culture

The Most Controversial Show On TV Right Now Isn't Violent Or Explicit. It Just Shows A Good Marriage.

The show builds the case over 6 slow yet beautiful episodes that high-rise concrete jungle living is hollow and marriage is worth honoring above all else. No wonder TV critics don't know what to do with it.

By Jenny Thomas2 min read
Paramount+/The Madison

The setup of Taylor Sheridan's newest series, The Madison, is both brilliant and heartbreaking, to say the least. Stacy Clyburn (Michelle Pfeiffer) is an obscenely wealthy woman living in Manhattan, married to Preston Clyburn (Kurt Russell), her teenage romance. Right out of the gate in episode one, we’re met with Preston and his brother Paul dying in a plane crash. The Clyburn clan of women travel to the Madison River Valley to handle the devastating aftermath. True city rats (as Stacy calls herself) scurry to the open land to experience Preston's most prized possession: his land.

The Love Story TV Forgot How To Tell

No matter which platform you turn on to watch TV right now, you'll find no shortage of stories about women mocking men. Women hating men. Women telling men to shut up and listen. The Madison is the antithesis of that, and it's a breath of fresh air.

The show is, bar none, unlike anything else on television right now. It makes the case that two people loving each other well is one of the most powerful forces in a room, and then it shows you exactly what that looks like when it's gone.

At its core is a decades-long marriage and what that love story ripples outward to everyone who lived inside it. The show depicts what a committed, imperfect, stubborn, hard-won marriage actually builds over a lifetime. The way it shapes every person who grew up watching it unfold. The daughters who can't stop fighting because they never learned how to grieve without their father holding them together. The granddaughter who tells her uncle she can't remember his face anymore. The son-in-law who tells Stacy that he and Paige always looked at her and Preston's marriage as "the dream."

Sheridan made a bet that viewers actually want to see a woman honor her husband. That bet won. The show broke 8 million views in its first ten days. So the question is: will other shows finally stop painting marriage as the thing women need to escape? Let's hope so.

When Wokeness Meets The Wilderness

The granddaughters might be the most telling part of the entire show. These girls just lost their grandfather in a plane crash. They're out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountains and grief and a family that can barely look at each other without falling apart. And somehow, all they're focused on is making sure everyone around them is politically correct.

It puts the whole thing into perspective. When you're in the middle of real loss—actual, irreversible loss—none of that posturing matters. And yet the girls can't help it. They'd rather correct someone's language than accept their hospitality. They'd rather be right than be present. Sheridan just lets that sit there, and he knows exactly what he's doing to the viewer.

The Real Reason This Show Makes People Uncomfortable

The Madison currently sits at 60% on Rotten Tomatoes. The Daily Beast called it “culture-war insanity.” Most shows frame Manhattan high-rise living as the aspirational ideal and anything resembling a slower, quieter life as the punchline. Sex and the City, Gossip Girl, Emily in Paris—these are apparently the lives women are supposed to want. The Madison flips that entirely. So is the critical backlash really about quality? Or is it that critics are simply uncomfortable watching a show that doesn't flatter the world they live in?

The Paige scene puts it perfectly. She goes back to her high-status job and overhears a female coworker mocking her father's death, saying he was just another white millionaire who deserved to crash for putting "a carbon footprint on the Earth in his private plane." Paige punches her in the face. It's not subtle, but it doesn't need to be. In that moment she sees herself and who she was, and something breaks open. Sheridan earns the scene because he's spent five episodes building toward it. The mountain air isn't just a setting. It's changing this family in ways none of them saw coming. And watching it work is the whole point.

So Is It Actually Sheridan's Weakest Show?

It’s vulnerable and honest about what everyday life looks and feels like for a family. It asks the viewer directly whether a slower, more connected life—built around family, land, and the humility to admit what you don't know—is worth more than the glitter and gold. The critics who called it "culture-war insanity" might be telling on themselves. Because the truly radical thing, it turns out, is a show about a woman who grieves her husband, honors what they built, and chooses the wilder life over the easier one. That's what makes people uncomfortable. And that's exactly why it's worth watching.

Culture

Postpartum Depression Hits Dads Too. We're Just Not Talking About It.

A new study tracking over a million fathers just confirmed what many wives already suspected: your husband is not okay, and the hardest part hits later than you think.

By Lisa Britton4 min read
Pexels/Arina Krasnikova

Recent decades have brought seismic shifts in how we parent. Dads today are far more hands-on than their own fathers or grandfathers ever were—changing diapers in the middle of the night, juggling work with story time, and carving out precious paternity leave when they can. As I stroll around Brooklyn, New York, I see so many fathers pushing strollers and playing with their kids at the park. I’m pretty sure this wouldn’t have been the case a few decades ago. This evolution is wonderful in many ways.

Fathers and mothers are different, and each bring unique benefits to raising children. Dads often excel at rough-and-tumble play that builds resilience and confidence in kids, while modeling strength, respect to authority, problem-solving, and emotional steadiness. Moms, on the other hand, provide that irreplaceable nurturing core. Together, they create balance. But if we truly want fathers to stay deeply involved, we must take their unique challenges seriously instead of assuming they’re fine as long as mom and baby are okay.

A groundbreaking study published just last week in JAMA Network Open drives this point home. Researchers tracked more than one million fathers in Sweden whose children were born between 2003 and 2021. What they found is eye-opening: a father’s risk for depression and stress-related disorders jumps by more than 30 percent toward the end of his child’s first year. The risk actually decreases during pregnancy and the first few months postpartum, likely because everyone is in survival mode, laser-focused on the newborn. Anxiety and substance-related issues return to pre-pregnancy baselines by the one-year mark. And depression and stress? They spike later, when the initial adrenaline fades and the long haul of fatherhood truly sets in.

A father’s risk for depression and stress-related disorders jumps by more than 30 percent toward the end of his child’s first year.

Dr. Khatiya Moon, medical director for the collaborative care program at Northwell Health, put it perfectly in the NYPost: “Screening for mental health concerns in fathers is important and is something that isn’t really done very much. Maybe if we did more screening, we’d have more opportunity to catch fathers when they’re struggling and support them.” 

She notes that dads often slip into a purely supportive role early on, prioritizing mom and baby’s vulnerability. That selflessness is noble, but it takes a toll. “I wonder if that eventually gets more difficult to sustain,” she said. Fathers also lack the community moms enjoy through prenatal appointments, mommy groups, and endless baby visits. No one really asks Dad seriously how he’s sleeping or feeling. That needs to change, starting at home.

This isn’t just about feelings, though. Did you know a man’s biology also changes when he has a child? Science confirms it. Studies show that testosterone levels often drop significantly in new fathers—sometimes by 25 percent or more—especially among those most involved in hands-on care like feeding, bathing, and playing.

Lower testosterone isn’t a sign of weakness, but it does appear to shift a man’s priorities away from competition or mating efforts toward nurturing. This makes sense. After all, we were biologically designed for family, and family was biologically designed to make communities less aggressive, more safe and unified.

Oxytocin, the “bonding hormone,” rises in dads too following a birth, promoting physical closeness, emotional attunement, and that protective instinct we see when a father scoops up a hurt or crying baby. Cortisol, the stress hormone, spikes helpfully when dads hear infant cries (helping them respond fast) but drops during skin-to-skin contact or play, reinforcing positive caregiving loops.

Brain imaging reveals neuroplasticity in fathers as well—structural and functional changes in areas tied to empathy, emotion regulation, and reward processing. These shifts happen through real-world father-infant interactions, not pregnancy hormones. In short, fatherhood literally rewires a man to be a better dad. The best version of himself for himself, his family and his community.

But when those changes collide with sleep deprivation, financial pressure, relationship strain, and societal expectations to “man up,” the result can be isolation, irritability, or full-blown depression. One study even linked lower testosterone nine months postpartum with higher postpartum depression risk in dads, while very high levels sometimes correlated with hostility in the environment.

We ignore this at our own detriment.

We ignore this at our own detriment. As we’ve discussed before, involved fathers produce better outcomes for children: higher academic achievement, stronger emotional regulation, and lower rates of behavioral problems. Kids with present, engaged dads are less likely to struggle with anxiety or delinquency later. Strong father-child bonds also protect marriages; couples who navigate the transition together report higher satisfaction and lower divorce risk. 

Yet our culture still treats paternal mental health as an afterthought or even a joke. Postpartum support is overwhelmingly mom-centric (rightly so in many ways—mothers face their own hormonal tsunami). But dads deserve more than a pat on the back and “you got this, man.” We need practical, targeted help: routine mental-health screening for fathers at pediatric visits (just like we do for moms), dad-specific, male-led support groups or apps that normalize the struggle, and encouragement for couples counseling during those big transitions. Employers could expand meaningful paternity leave without stigma. Churches, neighborhoods, and extended families can build “dad communities” the way we’ve built them for moms, like Saturday morning breakfasts with other fathers sharing the events of the week, a movie they watched, or war stories.

We also fail to acknowledge how men’s careers are impacted when they have a newborn at home. The sleep deprivation and being financially stretched carries over into their work environments, sometimes decreasing their productivity and challenging their professional identity. This can take a significant toll on a man’s mental health as well.

We already have issues within our feminized mental health system when it comes to men. We’ve been telling men they must change to work with the system. But maybe we need to change the system so it better addresses men’s needs. We can do this by creating more male-led and male-focused therapy solutions, ones that fit with the way they are. We must also encourage more young men to enter therapy career fields. Only 20% of psychologists are male today, and boys and men are paying the price for it.

Dr. Donghao Lu, the study’s corresponding author, nailed the urgency: “The delayed increase in depression… underscores the need to pay attention to warning signs of mental ill-health in fathers long after the birth of their child.” The first year isn’t just about baby milestones. It’s when dads quietly wrestle with identity, purpose, and the weight of providing while bonding. If we help them through it—through honest conversations, practical relief, resources and zero judgment—we get more present fathers, happier marriages, and thriving kids.

A family where mom and dad are both struggling in silence isn't good for anyone, least of all the baby.

But support for dads shouldn’t stop once the baby phase is over. Fatherhood doesn’t end when children grow up, and neither do the struggles. Men carry heavy burdens at every stage: the relentless financial pressures, the anxiety over their kids’ direction in life, the deep worries about their mental health, and the constant fear of how the world will treat them. These challenges don’t magically disappear when kids turn eighteen.

We need real, ongoing support for men through every chapter of fatherhood.

I'm not suggesting we downplay mothers' challenges, and supporting dads doesn't mean we stop supporting moms. These aren't competing causes. Postpartum depression in moms is real and devastating, and we've made great strides in destigmatizing it. I've had two family members experience postpartum depression, and it was heartbreaking. The progress we've made for mothers is worth protecting. But let's extend that compassion to dads without pretending men and women experience parenthood identically. Biology, roles, and wiring differ, and that's a good thing that should be respected. Celebrating those differences while refusing to leave anyone behind is how we build more resilient families. Both parents matter. Both deserve support. And a family where mom and dad are both struggling in silence isn't good for anyone, least of all the baby.

If we do more to help struggling men and dads—through screening, community, biology-informed understanding, and cultural support—I believe we will see more involved dads and stronger families. The data backs it. The science backs it. And children’s futures depend on it.

Culture

NYC's Hottest New Club Is Catholic Mass

There's a new hot-spot taking over, and there’s no cover charge or VIP section in sight.

By Brea O’Donnell6 min read
Pexels/Miguel Rivera

Walk into the right church this Easter, or any Sunday lately, and the scene might surprise you. Packed pews. Standing room only. 20-and-30-somethings and beyond in their prettiest spring dresses and young men in pressed collared shirts and button-downs, lingering long after the service ends to talk, laugh, and swap Instagram handles. It’s an energy that's warm and intoxicating… even without the bottomless mimosas. One viral tweet recently described a packed Sunday Mass in Manhattan as "the hottest club in NYC right now," and she wasn't exaggerating. Something major is happening across the country, in Catholic cathedrals and in all denominations and non-denominational services: young people are going to church.

Gen Z, once labeled a godless generation—atheist at worst, agnostic at best—have come rushing back, fueled by their fire for the Church’s framework of femininity and masculinity, for truth, for God. Right now, Bible sales are at a 20-year high. “We’re witnessing a remarkable surge in Bible engagement,” said Bobby Gruenewald, YouVersion founder and CEO. The YouVersion Bible app recorded 150 million installs in 2025, up from 100 million in 2023. We’re seeing baptisms on college campuses. A hunger for reverence. And a return to Christianity like we’ve never seen before. And the best part is, they actually want to be there, they’re not going because their parents are dragging them. They’re all grown up now, setting their alarms, putting on real clothes and showing up entirely by their own will. And the energy in those rooms reflects it.

This isn't just a niche phenomenon happening in one isolated city or parish. From Manhattan to Boston, Nashville to Palm Beach, Dallas to Los Angeles, churches that were once half-empty and struggling with declining attendance are suddenly seeing an overflow at the door on Sunday mornings. And the people filling those seats are noticeably younger than in years prior.

Churches that were once half-empty and struggling with declining attendance are suddenly seeing an overflow at the door on Sunday mornings.

New research from Barna Group revealed a historic shift: for the first time in decades, Gen-Z and Millennials are now the most regular churchgoers, outpacing older generations entirely. The typical Gen-Z churchgoer now attends nearly twice a month, up from once a month, if at all, in 2020. This data strongly suggests people aren't going out of mere obligation, but actively choosing to be there, and they’re doing it more and more.

With Holy Week upon us, the momentum is only building. Easter services this year are expected to draw record numbers of young first-timers and returnees. People who are curious, people who felt nudged to go back, people who saw a friend post about it and thought, you know what, maybe I'll try it, or try it again, too. The chapel doors are wide open, and more young men and women than ever are walking through them.

Organized religion got a really bad rap for a while there. Some of it was earned. But a lot of it came from a moment in time that managed to convince an entire generation that they could build a life of meaning and purpose entirely apart from God. That self-improvement, radical autonomy and a really good therapist were enough. But for a lot of us, they weren’t.

Part of what we’re seeing now is a reaction, driven in part by voices like Charlie Kirk, who have pushed younger generations to reconsider the role of God, virtue, and responsibility in their lives.

Church offers a moral framework for how to live, how to treat one another, how to make sense of our suffering rather than trying to manifest our way out of it. It offers guidance… reasoning… hope. A sense of purpose that extends far beyond our own personal goals of self-optimization.

For a long time, the dominant idea in culture was that freedom meant the removal of all structure. No rules, no authority, no inherited belief systems telling you how to live. It sold us the idea that you could design your entire identity from scratch and shape your life entirely on your own terms. And for a while, that felt liberating. Until it didn’t. Because it turns out that total autonomy doesn’t actually give young people what they hoped it would. It gives you options, yes, but it fails to give you direction. It gives you freedom, but not meaning. It gives you endless choices, but with no clear sense of what is actually worth choosing. And at some point, it all became exhausting.

People are disenchanted by the belief that re-inventing themselves and curating their lives around whatever the latest self-improvement influencer promises will finally bring them fulfillment. Because it hasn’t. And it won’t.

Christianity offers something different. It tells you that meaning is something you find by stepping into it. That your existence on this Earth is not random. That your struggles are not pointless. That there is a way to live that is deeply meaningful and available to everyone, whether you choose to participate in it or not.

For a generation raised by the internet, the realization of there being something greater than them to guide their steps is genuinely a relief.

For years, everything was filtered through irony. You couldn’t be too earnest without fear of seeming uncool. Faith, in particular, was something people kept private and at an arm’s length, even if they were sincerely curious or excited about it.

For a generation raised by the internet, the realization of there being something greater than them to guide their steps is genuinely a relief.

Now more than ever, people are more willing to voice their beliefs. To admit they crave something deeper. To identify with their religion proudly. And it’s only becoming more apparent, despite those who bark about it being a fleeting fad.

What’s beautiful about Christianity is that you can walk in exactly as you are. Skeptical, distracted, unsure… but the experience itself has a way of cutting through all of that. The stillness. The structure. The sense that you’ve just stepped in to something that pre-dates you and will continue long after you. It’s difficult to remain detached, and young people don’t want to anymore.

What's particularly striking is where within Christianity this hunger is leading them. Gen Z isn't gravitating toward the casual, feel-good faith of their parents' generation: the Sunday-sometimes, hold-the-doctrine, skip-the-hard-parts version that dominated the 80s and 90s. They're going in the opposite direction entirely. The Traditional Latin Mass, Orthodox Christianity, and the more reverent, historically grounded expressions of Catholicism are seeing some of the sharpest growth. Incense and chant. Priests facing the altar. Prayers that predate your grandparents' grandparents. Beauty turns out to be an extraordinarily effective front door. The altar, the chant, the incense—none of it needs to be explained or sold. It simply moves people. For a generation that has been sold and re-sold every version of self-reinvention imaginable, a rite that hasn't changed in centuries isn't intimidating.

It makes sense, then, that New York City would be ground zero for this moment. The city is home to some of the most architecturally breathtaking churches in the country: Saint Patrick's Cathedral, the Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola, the Basilica of Saint Patrick's Old Cathedral in Nolita. These are spaces that stop you in your tracks before a single word is spoken. Influencers like Anthony Gross have gone viral for posting church-ranking series across Manhattan parishes, drawing millions of views and, more importantly, drawing curious young followers through the doors of churches they'd walked past a hundred times without ever pausing for.

Part of what makes all of this so noteworthy is that church is functioning as something modern social spaces have failed to be. It’s one of the few places where people gather regularly, in person, without an agenda. You’re not there to perform or to show off. You’re not there to social climb or to take pictures for your feed. You’re just present. Ready to hear the good news and hoping a message will find you in it and resonate. It’s a simple concept, but it’s been missing.

For a generation that talks endlessly about loneliness, going to Church has come to matter more than any bar hop ever has.

A lot of what passes as community today is actually just proximity. People in the same space, but not really connected. And for a generation that talks endlessly about loneliness, going to Church has come to matter more than any bar hop ever has.

One of the most unfortunate misconceptions about church is that you need to be ‘good enough’ to go. That you need to have your life together, your goals sorted out, your relationship with your parents in a better place.

But most of the people showing up right now don’t.

They’re dipping their toes in and figuring it all out in real time. Some of them haven’t been to any kind of Mass or service in years. Many are walking in for the very first time. And once they’re there, they tend to stay.

If you've never stuck around after a service, you're missing one of the most wholesome parts.

The smell of coffee and baked goods fill the air. Nobody’s rushing. People are smiling. Light introductions are made and conversations are struck up easily in the way they always are when a group of people have shared something meaningful together and are now standing around in their nicest clothes, feeling good.

Coffee hour is social in a way that a lot of "social" events aren't anymore. Egos are checked at the door. Agendas are nowhere to be found. No one is performing for an audience. People are just... present. Talking to each other. In person. The way people used to do before we were all chronically online.

The mix of people is also part of what makes it interesting. It's artists and accountants, people new to town, visitors, and people who've been going for years, different backgrounds and ages all sharing the same space. As Evie has covered before in our look at Gen Z's return to faith, the hunger for in-person community that actually means something has been building for a while. Church, it turns out, is one of the few places still delivering on it.

In a society that applauds self-worship and beating to the sound of your own drum, the structure of tradition feels deeply gratifying. There is comfort to be found in the sameness. The same prayers, the same hymns, the same music that's moved people for centuries. It gives the week a shape. A beginning. A moment that's set apart from everything else, that belongs to something larger than your to-do list. People describe it as the one hour of the week that feels truly peaceful. And you don't have to have your beliefs all figured out to feel it.

In a society that applauds self-worship and beating to the sound of your own drum, the structure of tradition feels deeply gratifying.

Easter has always been one of the biggest Sundays of the year, but this year, there's a particular buzz around it. Spiritual curiosity among young people has been building steadily, and the cultural conversation has shifted in a way that's hard to ignore. Faith is showing up in sports, movies, music, and in the way public figures give thanks openly for their achievements in life. Hollywood has genuinely found God, with faith-forward films and shows drawing massive audiences and studios taking notice. Celebrities from Justin Bieber to Shia LaBeouf to Russell Brand have spoken openly about faith changing their lives, identifying a clear shift toward more spiritual storytelling, pointing to a generation that is clearly orienting toward meaning.

Easter, the most hopeful Christian holiday of the year, is a natural on-ramp for anyone who's been curious but hasn't known where to start. You can walk in for the first time in a long time or maybe for the very first time ever, and the experience, the music, the flowers, the feeling in the room, is guaranteed to move you.

Whatever you believe, or are still figuring out, what’s happening right now in how young people relate to faith and community is genuinely exciting to witness. The pews are full. The people are young and engaged and showing up in their best outfits. There’s an undeniable openness to the idea that something profound might be waiting on the other side of that door.

Maybe the most significant place to be this Easter isn't the high-end restaurant with the two-hour wait. Maybe it's the church down the street that's been there the whole time, with a room full of friends you haven't met yet and a service that might just leave you feeling more hopeful than you expected.

If you've been thinking about it, let this be your sign.

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