Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

jen hatmaker

5 on Friday: Blog posts to challenge your Easter thinking

In the course of a week, I read a lot of stuff on the Internet. Here are some Holy Week related posts I found valuable to challenge my thoughts about celebrating Easter. blog note

  • Forget bunnies and chocolate, how about iPads and flat-screen TVs? This post by Eugene Cho raises the question: Is the Gospel enough?
  • This post by Jen Hatmaker made me cry. “What if we calculated the money we’d spend on new clothes, anything having to do with a bunny and chocolate, and used that investment for great good, pouring out for someone in need of mercy? Maybe instead of matching outfits from Dillards, we invest in family t-shirts benefiting someone’s adoption, someone’s mission for Christ. Perhaps rather than time and energy spent on ourselves, we ask: “Who can our family serve? Where can we put our hands and hearts to use in Jesus’ name?”  Who in your city desperately needs hope but won’t find their way to the sanctuary Sunday filled by people dressed to the nines?”
  • Sarah Bessey wrote this post which challenged me to a life less full, especially during Holy Week. “And I think we need more theologians with a poet’s heart: a little imagination when we speak of God never hurts.  The best art leaves a bit of silence, room on the edges, for interpretation and response. It is often in the white space of art where I find the Holy Spirit, hovering, stirring, waiting.”
  • And this one, by Rachel Held Evans, is for those who show up on Easter with more questions than answers.
  • This last one isn’t an Easter post, specifically, but it’s one I read recently that I can’t get out of my head. It’s by Preston and is posted over at A Deeper Story. A mixture of beauty in the mess of life. A story of the Eucharist. (WARNING: Contains language some might find offensive. But it’s used purposefully.)

What have you read on the Web lately, Easter related or not?

How to give up what you love: Review of 7 by Jen Hatmaker

So it’s Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, a season where Christians seek to give up things and empty themselves in honor of the sacrifice God made on the cross, His Son, Jesus.

And while I didn’t exactly plan it this way, as I read Jen Hatmaker’s book 7: An experimental mutiny against excess, I thought its themes tied in with the sacrificial nature of the season.

7 cover7 is a peek at one woman’s journey away from selfishness toward selflessness, away from consumerism toward communion, away from me-first theology to love-your-neighbor action. For seven months, Jen Hatmaker focused on one area of excess in her life each month: clothes, shopping, waste, food, possessions, media and stress. For each month, she narrowed or limited each area to seven items, places or actions. For example, during the clothing month, her wardrobe was limited to 7 items.  During waste  month her family adopted 7 ways to live a greener lifestyle.

Hatmaker writes about her experience in journal-like form, and her insights, failures and successes come across like a chat over coffee rather than legalistic mandates. She writes at one point near the end of the experiment: “This isn’t a sage’s manifesto but a sinner’s repentance.” (page 157)

I am ruined in a good way because of this book. Hatmaker’s radical experiment loosed the chains of selfish consumerism in her life and opened a window to a world of poverty, creation care and loving her neighbor. Great insights. Practical steps. Humor. Grace. I loved every piece of this book and read at least one paragraph per chapter out loud to my husband (to his delight *sarcasm*). I laughed. I cried. I am deeply convicted.

Here are a couple of my favorite (most challenging) portions:

My luxuries come at the expense of some of God’s best handiwork: forests, petroleum, clean air, healthy ecosystems. We also ravage the lands of vulnerable countries, stripping their resources for consumption. The wealthy world has a sordid history of colonization, ruling by force over indigenous people and profiting from their natural resources and local labor. Yes Africa, we’ll take your diamonds, gold and oil, but you can keep your crushing poverty and disease. (136)

There is something so nourishing about sharing your living space with people where they see your junk mail pile and pee wee football schedule on the fridge and pile of shoes by the front door. Opening your home says, “You are welcome into my real life.” … It’s unsanitized and truthful. We invite you into this intimate place, saturated with our family character. (176)

The working poor get lost in the shuffle. … The usual clues that point to poverty are ambiguous for those in the gap. The working poor are one missed shift from homelessness, one lost paycheck from hunger, one overdue bill from repossession. However, they learn to camouflage nicely into society. … In many ways they are invisible. (84)

By the end of the book, Hatmaker emphasizes that this is not a blueprint for everyone to follow. Where she lives, who she is, how her family operates–these are the pieces of the 7 puzzle that can’t be duplicated. So, an experimental mutiny against excess will look different for different people.

She recently released a small group curriculum to accompany the book. That would be an invaluable resource for churches, Bible studies or women’s groups.

As we proceed with the Lenten season, I will carry the lessons of 7 with me and look for ways to incorporate simplicity into my seemingly unsimple life.

(P.S. If you liked Rachel Held Evan’s A Year of Biblical Womanhood, you would like this book. Comparable writing style and blend of humor and conviction.)