"A deeply reduced life to find a greatly increased God"

(The title is a quote from Jen Hatmaker, the author of the life-changing book, "7".)

This spring I was feeling the itch. You know the feeling - things in life start feeling unsettled, or you start to get restless. Something was missing, or perhaps there was too much surrounding me. I happened upon this book via a friend who was going through it as a Bible study with her friends over the summer. I was instantly drawn to the concept of getting rid of all of this excess in my life so that I can find God - more of Him, less of this world. I almost instantly told my cousin and fellow crazy reader about it and we decided we would do the adventure together. We both read the book and then texted each other similar messages: "We need to do this NOW". And thus, the blog you are reading. Check out the author's blog for the background of her experiment.


Over the course of seven months, we will be excavating our lives - each month has a different focus aimed at helping us clear out the clutter both physically and spiritually. As we sat together mapping this out, it dawned on me that some of these months are going to be HARD, and some probably just hard - but all are things I am eager to do and I am antsy for our "go-live" date of 8/1. We will each be blogging here - a journal of sorts for our own venting/sharing, but also to share with you all about this journey. And while we have rearranged the order of the months, we will be sticking to the areas of life which are mentioned specifically in the book, and adhering to the experiment almost exactly as the author did. Here is the run down:


Month One: Waste - adopting seven habits for a greener life
Month Two: Food - eating only seven foods for a month
Month Three: Clothes - wearing seven pieces of clothing for a month
Month Four: Possessions - giving away seven things a day for a month
Month Five: Spending - Limiting where we spend to only seven places. (we are making this one more strict because we didn't feel too limited by that - details to come)
Month Six: Media - turning off seven sources of media for a month
Month Seven: Stress - Observing the Sabbath and practicing Seven Sacred Pauses


By default, my husband Steve is going to be joining us in this craziness. We have decided, however, that my kids will not be partaking to the same extent. They will eat more than seven foods - but we will limit them to whole foods/no eating out. They could probably participate in most of the other months though - I am excited to get them into the process of giving things away and honoring the Sabbath. And OH, those seven pauses! I cannot wait for month Seven!


If you haven't read the book, I cannot recommend it enough. Her writing is humorous (the laugh-out-loud kind), but the message cuts straight to the heart. For example, a group of friends supported her during this process by doing variations of her experiment. During the month of food, for example, her friends focused on a different country of the world each week and ate only what they had to eat - some were just rice and beans - and then pray for that country. It amazes me to think that I have NEVER eaten plain rice. Never. I always have a condiment (or two), or meat and veggies and sauce of some kind on it. Millions of people in this world eat only rice. If they are lucky they get it for more than one meal a day. I am thinking I am going to incorporate a day of rice into that month to further hit home this idea. Why am I complaining that my new house has a fridge that doesn't have room for my 20 condiment bottles? TOO MUCH STUFF.


At any rate, I am excited for this adventure. I cannot wait to share it with you all - the highs and lows. I cannot wait to see what I learn and how God moves during this time in our lives. I need to learn how to compost! Yikes! As we start each month we will fill you in more on the theme for the month and how that applies to our spiritual journey as well. Oh my goodness I am excited. If any of you want to join us - jump in! Both feet! It is a lendable nook book :) But either way, I beg of you to read the book. SO life-altering. And sometimes life needs a little earthquaking. 


Tami