As I mentioned a couple posts ago, in the last month or so I’ve recently felt this tension in my life that leads me to feel that maybe I’m not quite living life as the Bible instructs. Last week I was sent the e-version of Jen Hatmaker’s new book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess and was blown away. This lady gets it and she wrote a book about it.
Don’t get me wrong, she hasn’t sold her house, all her belongings and given it all to the poor. But she spent almost a year, deeply scrutinizing every part of her life to remove the excess, give to the poor, love on her neighbors, and remember what’s truly important in life. In the first month she ate only 7 whole foods, the second month she wore only 7 articles of clothing, then she spent an entire month giving away well over 7 items per day, she cut out 7 different media items (TV, gaming, the internet, etc) for a month, spent one month focusing on 7 ways to cut waste and help take care of God’s beautiful creation, spent her money in only 7 places for a month, and spent the last month honoring the Sabbath and taking 7 pauses each day for prayer and reflection. And she included her husband and children in most of these months. As she did all of this she wrote the book 7, detailing each day in journal form.
This book goes far beyond a simple experiment on living without, it describes the freedoms that can come without all of the excess of the typical American lifestyle. It explains the joy that can be found in meeting the needs of others with simple items that are cluttering up your home. This book helps the reader see that the fastest way to happy is with much less, not more. When we take away the excess from our lives we have more time, more things to give away, less stress, richer experiences, and we can find beauty again in the simple things.
This book instantly drew my attention and I could have read it in one (somewhat long) sitting, but I forced myself to spread it out over a few days to give myself time to reflect and absorb all of the details. This book definitely opened up my eyes to some things in my life that I would like to change. I love that Jen specifically wrote the book in a way that is not condescending, you can walk away from this book completely guilt-free. There aren’t how-to lists for decreasing your own personal excess, it’s simply an explanation of her experience during this year of her life. I will say though that the book may convict (read: convince) you to run through your house with a big box aimed for your local homeless shelter or Goodwill, it might also make you crave a break from some of the modern technologies we love that steal loads of our free time. The book will also make you laugh and you might even cry. It’s completely relatable and I would recommend that everyone go read it. Right now.
Tags: 7, excess, jen hatmaker
Have you heard Robert Morris’ series The Blessed Life, or read his book by that title? You can find the series at http://gatewaypeople.com/sermons or see me for the CDs. I think that series provides a great prospective on how God blesses us so that we can bless others.