The heavy burdens of our evangelical hero complex, our identity, our questions of worth and being used by God, all of it—in that moment, we surrendered them. We laid them down on the altar, set them on fire, and stood back at last. They burned down to ashes before our eyes, and yes, some younger version of ourselves ached with the loss of it. But the exhaustion disappeared, the feelings of worthlessness, the crippling misidentity went up in smoke.
Letting the PhD go
