"7" : A Rare Review.

Disclaimers are typically found below a closing paragraph. However. I am not being paid to write this, and so my disclaimer shall be the welcome mat of this post. If it makes your toes curl to read what should be last, first, then wait until end and come back up here. Fine by me either way. So here we go:

*Disclaimer: I have always, always, always loved to read. I can zip through most books and in some cases, completely lose myself in them, tossing cheese sticks at my children for breakfast, lunch and dinner while simultaneously pushing 'repeat play' on already scratchy Curious George DVDs. Actually, the last time that happened was during my brief time traveling experience into the deep south during the nineteen sixties ("The Help"), two years after the other 2.2 million readers made their trek. As tears were rolling down my face, listening to Aibileen building up little Mae Mobly “You is kind. You is smart. You is important.”, I'm threatening my children a 5:30pm bedtime if they do not leave me be, tossing them another cheese stick for good measure (and kept me from being needed to help 'wipe'...constipation has it's advantages for the reader).

If it has not be made clear: I love to read. Yet, with equal passion it can be said that I do not like to be obligated/forced to read. Required reading in High School showcased my strongest streak of rebellion. Even when I realized I was absorbed in The Great Gatsby, I couldn't let on lest it would show a acceptance of the requirement.

In the same vein, now that adulthood holds no such 'requirements' in my current landscape, I still tend to resist running out to get the newest 'it' book, waiting to read it (if I even have a desire to in the first place) until after the furor has died down. For whatever reason, my toes instinctively curl when I'm told "I MUST" read something and when the t-shirts and journals come out at the local Christian book stores, my eyes start on auto-roll. I'm not saying I'm right, nor am I excusing my behavior with a wink and a nod. I'm just telling you how I am wired, right or wrong. Or neither.

End of Disclaimer**

THIS IS WHY the fact that I am even bringing up a current fresh-off-the-presses book to do a three-chapter review on is startling to me. Yet my wrist is sore from underlining and my voice is hoarse from emitting a hearty 'amen' (slight exaggerations are part of my makeup too. sorry), that it seems wrong not to share what is simultaneously wearing me down and lifting me up. 

I'm gonna be brief. Yes, this might be a first. Don't be surprised if the sun sets in the East tonight.

This is the book:

This is part of the synopsis on the back of the book: 

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.

These are my thoughts, in no particular order, on the book:

You do not HAVE to read it. If you read it, you don't HAVE to love it. But you probably will.

If you do read it, do not be scared you will be put to shame. You might be, but you won't notice it right away because you'll be laughing too hard. I should add, she won't be the one pointing the finger at you, because she's too busy pointing it at herself.

If the "stuff" of life is gnawing at you or cluttering your heart this will probably help clarify what's been a sense of random discontent.

From my incomplete read, I feel no nudge to do exactly as she did, start a club of 7 groupies or live in a thatched roof hut (although my husband would love that). The book points not to the author, not to a 'how-to-start-a-7-club'....but rather, the author of the book points directly to the way of Jesus. Clear. Simple. And most importantly, without the grossly overused cliches of American Christendom that make me gag and slap a book shut when I read it.

Did I mention if you read it, you will laugh?

Her words will not only cause a pause for reflection, but provide a kindly kick in the pants towards action. Words spring off the page and I feel like jumping up to shout "Preach it!", but I'm usually reading when the children are sleeping and I am not willing to sacrifice silence for a charismatic response.

The first time I felt such a spirited response coming on was after reading this:

"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."  -page 24

Ok. One more. That's it. Promise (This is where I would be getting annoyed as a review reader):

"There was nothing physically attractive about Jesus. He wasn't rich or notorious, well-dressed or handsome. At first glimpse Jesus was forgettable, neither standing out for beauty or charisma. Maybe this is why the widow and marginalized and sick and outcast flocked to Him. He was approachable in every way...

...His humility appeals to the unloveliness in us all. We are drawn in by His simplicity, then transformed by His magnificence.  

Oh sure, there will always be people who want Jesus in the Oval Office, on Primetime, across from Oprah, on the Red Carpet, spruced up by a stylist and touched up for cameras. They try to assign Him the power and public sway He always resisted; people want to make a starlet out of Jesus. But He insisted His power was activated in the margins. Jesus didn't redeem the world on the throne but through the cross." -pages 67-68

I would write a nice little closing paragraph here, but since two of the five children are literally covered in chicken shit after I asked them to collect the eggs from our girls (excuse me for being literal, but there are moments where being so provides great release), I must abruptly end here. Read "7" if you want a worthy challenge that points to the authentic ways of Jesus, accompanied by belly laughs.