The Sacred Yes: Reclaiming Joy in Midlife Starts Here

About this sermon

Welcome to the first episode in our summer series, Sacred Yes: Reclaiming Joy in Midlife. After years spent saying yes to obligations, expectations, responsibilities, and everyone else's needs, what happens when we finally learn to say yes to ourselves? In this deeply personal solo episode, Jen takes us to the place where this journey began: Me Camp. What started as a spontaneous trip to coastal Maine during one of the hardest seasons of her life became an annual practice of restoration, adventure, healing, and joy. Six summers later, as she arrives in a tiny lakeside town in Ontario for another month of Me Camp, she's reflecting on the small word that changed everything: yes. But not every yes is created equal. Jen explores the difference between the "obligated yes" that leaves us depleted and resentful and the "sacred yes" that reconnects us to ourselves. Along the way, she shares hard-won wisdom about boundaries, people-pleasing, midlife exhaustion, and why so many women find themselves carrying responsibilities that were never meant to belong to them alone. Most importantly, she makes a compelling case for something many of us have forgotten how to practice: unproductive joy. The kind of joy that doesn't earn a paycheck, check off a to-do list, or justify itself with results. The kind that nourishes our spirits simply because it delights us. Whether your version of Me Camp is a month by the water, a Friday afternoon reserved for lunch with friends, a stack of library books, or an hour spent doing something that makes you feel alive, this conversation is your invitation to begin. This month, we'll be exploring what it means to reclaim joy, embrace rest, honor our desires, and create lives that are not just productive, but deeply satisfying. It's time to discover your own Sacred Yes. Thought-Provoking Quotes "Me Camp changed my life. I'm not being demonstrative or exaggerating. It's where the 'Sacred Yes' got its first footing." – Jen Hatmaker "I keep my heart open to whatever's possible. Who could I meet? What could I experience? Where could I go? What can I see? And when people are like, hey, do you wanna…? The answer's yes. And so that sacred yes got sort of imprinted on my heart." – Jen Hatmaker "When we say yes to keep the peace, what that really means is yes to keep someone else's peace, because you'll definitely forfeit your own." – Jen Hatmaker "I feel the weight of irresponsible yeses that should have been no's." – Jen Hatmaker Resources Mentioned in This Episode Me Camp 2026 Announcement – https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaJsPG2CaQU/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Awake: A Memoir by Jen Hatmaker – https://amzn.to/4xzBo5n Jen's Substack – https://jenhatmaker.substack.com/ Join the Awake Collective – https://jenhatmaker.substack.com/p/the-awake-collective Jen Hatmaker Book Club – https://shop.jenhatmaker.com/collections/book-club Connect with Jen Website – https://jenhatmaker.com/ Instagram – https://instagram.com/jenhatmaker Twitter – https://twitter.com/jenHatmaker/ Facebook – https://facebook.com/jenhatmaker YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/user/JenHatmaker?sub_confirmation=1 The For the Love Podcast is presented by Audacy.

Topics

• Joy