7 by Jen Hatmaker

Jen Hatmaker does a crazy thing.  She picks 7 areas of her life that she feels are out of control and she spends seven different months fasting from those things: food, clothes, media, spending - this book is her journey into saying no to something so you can feel more of something else.

7 is not my usual sort of book.  While I am absolutely a Christian, I prefer scripture itself to books ABOUT scripture or about general Christian topics.

However.

This is not just a book about a Christian mom and her desire to have more room in her heart for Christ, although it is most definitely that.  It is also a raw and expansive look at a subject that my husband and I have had on our minds a lot since we started getting our house ready to sell: stuff.  How much stuff we have.  How we use it (or don't). The discrepancy between our lifestyle and the majority of the world's.  Where our money all goes, dang it! How busy our lives are and how we can make it more peaceful.  Her section on stress and keeping the Sabbath as a holy day really reminded me about how much I love Sundays and how powerful it is to have a day to rejuvenate and spend time with my family.

I enjoyed this read immensely.  She is quirky and witty and sometimes just laugh out loud funny.  Her desires to be MORE that is REAL really resonated with me.  I have had several interesting conversations with my family and friends about her ideas.  She clearly wants to be the type of Christian that Christ wants her to be and I feel like her thoughts helped me to organize my own thoughts a little bit.  

I'm glad I read it.