Friday, January 20, 2012

"7" by Jen Hatmaker


So here's the thing………

I love Jen Hatmaker even though I've never met her.
I'm old enough to be her mother, but wish we could be next-door-neighbors and best friends.
I heard her husband speak last summer at the Free Methodist Church General Conference (our husbands are both FM pastors).
I read "Interrupted" soon after I retired, and it helped me to put into perspective what I hope to be doing with this final third of my life.

I read "7" at an ironic time and in an ironic place. I live in Ohio where the state colors should be gray and grayer. My husband has embarked on career number four at the age when most men are counting the days to retirement. We are blessed enough to be able to withdraw to Florida for three weeks each January where we own a timeshare in a beautiful Hilton resort. So, I lay down in the sun, next to the pool, and began to read………..

Here is the synopsis from Amazon, so you understand what the book is about:

American life can be excessive, to say the least. That’s what Jen Hatmaker had to admit after taking in hurricane victims who commented on the extravagance of her family’s upper middle class home. She once considered herself unmotivated by the lure of prosperity, but upon being called “rich” by an undeniably poor child, evidence to the contrary mounted, and a social experiment turned spiritual was born.

7 is the true story of how Jen (along with her husband and her children to varying degrees) took seven months, identified seven areas of excess, and made seven simple choices to fight back against the modern-day diseases of greed, materialism, and overindulgence.

Food. Clothes. Spending. Media. Possessions. Waste. Stress. They would spend thirty days on each topic, boiling it down to the number seven. Only eat seven foods, wear seven articles of clothing, and spend money in seven places. Eliminate use of seven media types, give away seven things each day for one month, adopt seven green habits, and observe “seven sacred pauses.” So, what’s the payoff from living a deeply reduced life? It’s the discovery of a greatly increased God—a call toward Christ-like simplicity and generosity that transcends social experiment to become a radically better existence.


So that's the Cliff Notes version; trust me, you really, really need to read this book.

In addition to all that, though, "7" meant much more to me. I read it while on vacation, and each chapter stirred something in me that I'm not sure was ever Jen's intent.  I want to pull out excerpts that went straight to my heart--new things revealed by the Holy Spirit plus confirmation of things that have been swirling through my soul recently (especially since my retirement and Mike's new responsibilities).

Month One "Food"
When my husband was the pastor at Living Water, he was known to occasionally tell his people to "stop studying their Bibles." This always shocked us (this pastor's wife got very uncomfortable) until he explained that an over-abundance of head knowledge without putting that knowledge into action was meaningless. Here's what Jen had to say:

"Teaching by example, radical obedience, justice, mercy, activism, and sacrifice wholly inspires me. I'm at that place where "well done" trumps "well said." When I see kingdom work in the middle of brokenness, when mission transitions from the academic soil of the mind into the sacrificial work of someone's hands, I am utterly affected. Obedience inspires me. Servant leaders inspire me. Humility inspires me. Talking heads dissecting apologetics stopped inspiring me a few years ago."

…...and this one:

"The careful study of the Word has a goal, which is not the careful study of the Word. The objective is to discover Jesus and allow Him to change our trajectory. Meaning, a genuine study of the Word results in believers who feed poor people and open up their guest rooms; they're adopting and sharing, mentoring and intervening. Show me a Bible teacher off mission, and I'll show you someone with no concept of the gospel he is studying."

Ouch! Pastor McFarren would be proud!

Month Two "Clothes"
Jen and Brandon and the Austin New Church are radical servants (they do what Jesus calls all of us to do). Here's an insight from Jen:

"I'm going to bed tonight grateful for warmth, an advantage so expected it barely registers. May my privileges continue to drive me downward to my brothers and sisters without. Greater yet, I'm tired of calling the suffering 'brothers and sisters' when I'd never allow my biological siblings to suffer likewise. That's just hypocrisy veiled in altruism. I won't defile my blessings by imagining that I deserve them. Until every human receives the dignity I casually enjoy, I pray my heart aches with tension and my belly rumbles for injustice."

Month Three "Possessions"
From Jen: "Sometimes the best way to bring good news to the poor is to bring actual good news to the poor. It appears a good way to bring relief to the oppressed is to bring real relief to the oppressed. It's almost like Jesus meant what He said. When you're desperate, usually the best news you can receive is food, water, shelter. These provisions communicate God's presence infinitely more than a tract or Christian performance in the local park. They convey, 'God loves you so dearly, He sent people to your rescue.'"

Month Four "Media"
I cherish my family both biological and spiritual. I know that I am a uniquely created individual and that, in Christ, I am even a New creation, but I am also the product of those who have influenced me (both positively and negatively) through the years. What you do, affects me. Jen puts it this way:

"Our stories affect one another whether we know it or not. Sometimes obedience isn't for us at all, but for another. We don't know how God holds the kingdom in balance or why He moves a chess piece at a crucial time; we might never see the results of his sovereignty. But we can trust Him when He says press on, cling to hope, stay the course. He is always at work, even if the entire thread is hidden. I might just be one shade of one color of one strand, but I'm part of an elaborate tapestry that goes beyond my perception."

A long time ago, I heard God's voice--audibly! He said something so profound that it comes to my mind often. Get ready, here it is:  "Robin, you either trust me or you don't." I choose to trust!

Month Five "Waste"
Jen may be one of the most honest authors I've ever read. Her genuineness and honesty are a breath of fresh air in this politically correct society in which we live.

"My land, do we have far to go! My hypocrisies are too numerous to count, but this month birthed something unmistakable: I'm done separating ecology from theology, pretending they don't originate from the same source. 'The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.' (Psalm 24:1-2)"

Month Six "Spending"
I have toyed with, played around with and basically ignored the Biblical mandate for fasting. I've read, I've listened to sermons, I've signed on the dotted line. Never have I been as convicted as when I read this:

"At some point, the church stopped living the Bible and decided just to study it, culling the feast parts and whitewashing the fast parts. We are addicted to the buffet, skillfully discarding the costly discipleship required after consuming. The feast is supposed to sustain the fast, but we go back for seconds and thirds and fourths, stuffed to the brim and fat with inactivity. All this is for me. My goodness, my blessings, my privileges, my happiness, my success. Just one more plate."

The feast is supposed to sustain the fast…….God forgive me.

Month Seven "Stress"
I have owned "Seven Sacred Pauses" by  Macrina Wiederkehr for several years now. I love it! I set the alarm on my phone to call me to pause and pray (just like Jen). It got old; I quit; I must confess.  Those of you who know me well, know that I testify to how important my prayer life is to me and how I long to be a true Intercessor; how I long for my home to be a house of prayer. I'm reinstituting the seven pauses. Ask me how it's going. If my alarm goes off while we're together, pause with me.

One last quote that I must include begins with Matthew 16:19--"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."  From Jen: "Maybe after we say, 'I'll forgive,' He inspires repentance in the offender. Perhaps when we say, 'I'll finally trust you,' He delivers. Is He waiting to hear 'I'll do it' before clearing the path? If we can bind and loose things in the spiritual realm, why are we squandering prayer words on football victories and temporary luxuries? What a waste! We could be binding evil, injustice and hatred while releasing freedom, recovery, and healing--partners in mercy, not just consumers of it."

Wow……

Here's another unexpected "7" result. I have seven grandchildren. For a long time, I pray for each one on his or her own particular day: Monday is Tyler day, Tuesday is Nicholas Day, etc. Since reading "7", I have decided to keep my daily prayers in seven journals. Grandma's prayers will be next year's Christmas gifts. Please pray for my procrastination to be held in check. What better sacrifice of time could there be?

I love "7"! I love that Jen Hatmaker allowed the Holy Spirit to use her and to speak through her to me in ways that she may not have asked for or imagined! I know that it will speak to you.