For a type A, driven, excellence-oriented person like me, it is actually author Jen Hatmaker’s imperfectness that draws me into her book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess. Jen is just like me–only she says on paper what is truly going through her mind. That is quite unlike me; I am very cautious about letting anyone open that closet door of my mind–that place where all my sin is stuffed. I keep it shoved behind the door and hidden, so no one can see it. I guess we are all really good at hiding it… at shoving it behind the door and standing in front of it looking pretty, with every hair in place.
I have to admit that I was afraid to read this book. I was afraid of the guilt I would feel as all of my own sin was pulled out in front of the door, and realizing all the things I was NOT doing right. But somehow, seeing someone else’s faults, and watching her pull out of and away from sin is quite inspiring to me.
So, to say this book has changed my mindset is a bit of an understatement. Seeing myself through a different lens has given me the motivation I need to change. It has given me a desire to be better, to do things differently, and to let my actions speak…not my words.
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While I can’t (or maybe a better word is won’t), go through the drastic actions that Jen did to write her book, there is a new outlook for me in all I do. Above all else, I have a desire to live a life that shows action, not words. To love those that God calls me to love (not just those I chose to love): the widowed, the orphaned, the helpless–the “least of these.” I yearn to leave a legacy for my children to go and do. A heritage of faith that doesn’t demand to be fed, but that insists instead on doing the feeding, on going and feeding His sheep.
Have you read Jen Hatmaker’s book, 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess? What did you think about it? How did reading it affect your life?
See my reading list for 2013 HERE on Faithful Provisions!
