7

Anyone read 7, by Jen Hatmaker?

I've tried for weeks now to put something onto paper. Some arrangement of words that would describe what's going on in my heart and my head. I read 90% of the book in two days... I couldn't bear to put it down. But once it started to conclude, it's as if I developed a bad case of the butterflies.
I knew I was different for reading it. I knew it had stirred something in me. I knew that it had fed fuel to a small flame that had been burning inside of me for a while.

You see, I've always had a thing about stuff. I like to simplify. I hate junk. I have no qualms about tossing things into a garbage bag to be donated and never seen again. I appreciate sentiment, but I am not one to save something for a rainy day. If I haven't seen it, used it, or worn it in a year then see ya.

But even with that attitude, we still have lots of junk. Things. Stuff. Just in case. Sure, it is all neatly (for the most part) tucked away in closets or under beds (ssshhhhh!), but it's there. It's slowly but surely taking over my house, and maybe it's a startling reflection of the condition of my heart.


Are my wants blinding me from the needs of others? 
Are my abundant blessings keeping me from seeing how fortunate I really am?
Is my desire for comfort taking up room in my heart where the desire for justice and mercy for the oppressed should be?

I don't know yet how this has changed me. I just know that it has rocked my comfortable little world. It's not just about throwing away stuff. It's about minimizing. Reducing. Trimming the excess....to allow the important, the eternal,  to fill our hearts and minds.

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."  2 Corinthians 4:17-18 NIV (emphasis mine)
  



Lauren