February Book Review

I call this month "The Month Jen Hatmaker Invaded My Life." 

Oh, how I LOVE Jen Hatmaker to pieces! She's an author, speaker, blogger, pastor's wife, mom to five, etc. One of my most FAVORITE things about her is her ability to communicate in the most hilarious way one minute, and the most profound way the next! Oh, my gracious. She's awesome! Not to mention she spits out truth, so you better hold on!

I began the month reading her newest book For the Love. 

I recommend this for adult women of ALL ages! I'm not joking when I say she had me laughing uncontrollably several times! I would chuckle OFTEN as I read in bed at night. Tyler would say, "What are you laughing at?!" And he just enjoyed hearing me chuckle randomly! I was also in tears several times because she pulled at my heartstrings with this book. She so genuinely tells about her life, talks about our struggles as women, in the church, and in life in general. She recaps her journey of Jesus teaching her to LOVE ALL people, just as He does. The slogan for the book is "Fighting for GRACE in a world of impossible standards." Sometimes we just put too much pressure on ourselves and on other people. This book is a great reminder to give some grace and accept it too. OH ladies, you HAVE to read this one! I'm not joking. 

One of the most profound takeaways for me was reading about being kind to other people. In this certain chapter she was writing a letter to her children. She says she wants her kids to see and care for other people who are hurting. She says:

"I hope you see them. This is harder than it sounds; you have to learn to see hurt people, because they figure out how to act invisible. Kindness needs recipients. The whole world is filled with lonely and left-out and humiliated and sad kids, and seeing them is the first step. Because they are just as precious as you. If you can learn this, it will change your life because you'll develop eyes for pain, which is exactly how Jesus walked around on earth. If your mercy radar is strong now, God can do anything with you later. My dream is that you see hurting kids and do the simple, brave work of kindness."

Isn't that beautiful? I just wept over this. I pray this for our two boys (and any other kids we may have). I also pray this for myself. I desire to see the hurting, and to fight for them and be a friend to all. I cannot say enough wonderful things about this book. GET YOUR COPY NOW! I'll make it easy...here's the link: For the Love

My second February book (you heard that right! TWO books in February! Wooohooo!) was 

Interrupted, also by Jen Hatmaker. Hence the name "The Month Jen Hatmaker Invaded My Life."

I don't even know where to start with this one. My mind's blown. My heart is racing. I feel extremely challenged and am in a state of searching and prayer. Jesus is trying to wreck my comfortable Christianity, and it's GOOD. I never intended to find myself here--comfortable and going through motions. I THOUGHT I loved like Jesus loves, but now I just know there's so much more. There's more I can do. There's a whole big world out there who needs Jesus, and we aren't going to convince them through arguments or strangers appearing for a second to tell them of Jesus to never be seen again. Love, service, and relationships speak the loudest volumes.

I can't say enough great things about this book. Every believer needs a copy. We need this message. I love that Jen tells it like it is. She speaks truth and is challenging our complacency through sharing her story. She says, "Until we are all compelled and contributing, we're settling for an anemic faith and a church that robs Christ followers of their vitality and repels the rest of the world."

She takes you on a journey of how her and her husband's comfortable lives were interrupted (hence the title) by Jesus. She writes about how Jesus' love was so tangible while on Earth. How He served without a trace of selfishness, and He truly cared for the least of these. We ought to as well. It is OUR job to take care of those in need. The single moms, the homeless, the tired and weary, the sick, the elderly, the orphans. Matthew 25 isn't just a suggestion. This leaves me praying fervently for answers. Where do I need to change? How should my life look differently? Where do I serve? What's my role? I'm on a journey that began many months ago when I started reading through the Gospels, studying Jesus' life. And now it's landed me here...God pushed my heart to pick up Interrupted and start the whole book over. My heart must've not been ready for this message a few years ago. I want my life to count for the kingdom. I'll leave you with this excerpt from the book that spins in my mind. 

"Transformation came in the form of dirty homeless men and abandoned kids. It came through abused women and foster children. It came through neighbors crying at my kitchen table. Transformation began with humility, even humiliation. It started with conviction and discipline. It increased through loss, not gain. It grew through global exposure and uncomfortable questions. It was born out of rejection, replanted in new soil. It was not found in my Christian subculture but in the eyes of my neighbors, the needs of my city, the cries of the nations. It was through subtraction, not addition, that transformation engulfed me, and I'll tell you something: I am not the same...

If an endless array of Bible studies, programs, church events, and sermons have left you dry, please hear this: living on mission where you've been sent will transform your faith journey."

We've got to stop creating programs upon programs, trying to get the people to come to us. 

We've got to meet them where they are and starting BEING the Church.

Get a copy and read it. I urge you!