“One of the few things I know about writing,” wrote Annie Dillard, “is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now.”

I thought of these words recently as I was reading the nearly 200 submissions to TGC’s Essay Contest for Young Adults. Dillard would have been proud of the contestants. In essay after essay, these young writers give everything they have in order to communicate the joys and challenges of their generation. They write about the power of the gospel in their lives as students, about the way they think through ethical issues like abortion and human sexuality, and about the reasons they keep showing up to ordinary churches every Sunday.

These Gen Z writers don’t hold back, and we need to hear what they have to say.

Sara Gonzalez groans under the generational pressure to fix a broken world and finds rest only in Christ. Luke Engstrom describes the single most formative experience of his 18 years: going to church every Sunday. And Ashley Kim wrestles with an uncomfortable theological doctrine that met her in her eating disorder.

You don’t want to miss reading the winners of this year’s contest. And keep an eye out for other outstanding submissions that will be published on our site in the coming months. These essays will stir your heart to love Christ more, and, I, for one, am grateful that their authors left it all on the page.