Between the Boardroom and the Beatitudes: A Christian Woman’s Journey Nearing 40

By Candice Santana  

The world loves categories. It loves to define, measure, and compare. Yet some lives and some callings refuse to fit neatly in the boxes society provides. I am a woman, almost 40, unmarried, childless, and deeply invested in a career I believe God has entrusted to me. I am also a devoted Roman Catholic, seeking to live my best Christian life in a world that often measures a woman’s worth by her marital status, her children, or her conformity to certain timelines.

It is a journey with its push-and-pull factors and with an anchor far deeper than public opinion.

The Push Factors: Navigating Expectations

Being unmarried and childless at this stage of life can mean facing the unspoken, and sometimes loudly spoken, questions of others:

“When are you going to settle down?”

“You’re not getting younger.”

“But you’d be such a good mother.”

These voices, sometimes well-meaning, sometimes intrusive, can echo louder than they should. Society’s script suggests that fulfilment for a woman lies primarily in marriage and motherhood, and if you are outside that script, you risk being viewed as incomplete. The temptation is to internalise these narratives, to see your life through the lens of ‘what’s missing’ rather than ‘what’s present’.

Yet Christ Himself reminds us:

“Do not model your behaviour on the contemporary world, but let the renewing of your minds transform you, so that you may discern for yourselves what is the will of God what is good and acceptable and mature” (Rom 12:2)

The Pull Factors: The Call to Vocation and Service

If the push factors press you toward conformity, the pull factors invite you toward purpose. For me, that pull has been in the arena of professional service. My career is not simply a way to pay the bills; it is an extension of my vocation, the place where my God-given skills meet the needs of the world.

In Scripture, work is not merely toil but stewardship:

“Whatever you eat, whatever you drink, whatever you do at all, do it for the glory of God” (1 Cori 10:31).

I have found joy in work that protects creation, serves communities, and brings order where there is chaos. In many ways, my desk is my mission field, my meetings are moments of witness, and my leadership is an act of stewardship.

Finding Balance: Between Martha and Mary

The danger of being career-driven is that the scale can tip too far toward constant doing and away from being. In Luke 10, Jesus gently corrects Martha, who is anxious and busy, while commending Mary, who sits at His feet and listens. The lesson is not to abandon work, but to keep Christ as the centre and restorer of the soul. “You worry and fret about so many things, and yet few are needed, indeed only one” (Lk 10:41–42)

For me, balance means keeping the sacraments central: Mass, Confession, the rosary, and time in Adoration. It also means setting boundaries so that work does not consume every waking hour, leaving space for prayer, family, friends, and the stillness in which God speaks.

Purpose in Career, Purpose in Christ

There is deep peace when you realise your career is not a rival to your faith, but a stage upon which your faith is lived. My professional purpose, to serve, to steward, to build systems that bless others flows directly from my spiritual purpose in Christ:

“For we are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live it” (Eph 2:10).

Whether or not marriage and motherhood come, I know I am living a life of fruitfulness—fruit measured not in children’s milestones, but in the lives touched, the people served, and the integrity maintained.

A Life Fully Lived

Being almost 40, unmarried, and childless is not a deficiency. It is simply a different expression of God’s plan. Christ Himself was single, yet fully alive, fully fruitful. The Apostle Paul wrote that singleness can allow one to focus more fully on the Lord’s affairs (1 Cor 7:32–34), not as a lesser calling but as a different one.

In the end, my measure of success is not whether I followed society’s script, but whether I can say, like St Paul: “I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith” (2 Tim 4:7, )

Until then, I will keep walking, with my laptop bag in one hand, my rosary in the other, and my eyes fixed firmly on Christ.

Photo by Ross Sneddon on Unsplash