Joy Jordan Lake got a PhD in English Literature after completing graduate studies at a theological seminary. She was a Baptist chaplain at Harvard and served as associate pastor of a multi-ethnic church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she developed compassion ministries for low-income and homeless families. She is the author of Working Families: Balancing the Demands and Delights of Marriage, Children, and Employment, as well as a contributor to Books & Culture. Joy now resides just south of Nashville with her husband and three children, where she writes and teaches at Belmont University.