So I decided a couple books ago that I needed to force myself to read a nonfiction book every other book, because I just have too many building up that I truly want to read but will probably never choose over an easy YA fiction book. So far, the two nonfiction books I've read since deciding that have been Bob Goff's Love Does and Jen Hatmaker's Interrupted. And let me say...I'm starting to think that this whole every other nonfiction plan wasn't my idea at all but was instead God's tricky little plan to upend my (our) entire life.
I first heard of Jen Hatmaker last year, when a friend invited me to a women's conference at which Jen was the speaker. My friend spoke enthusiastically about what a great blogger/writer Jen is and I thought it sounded good even though I'd never heard of her...and I pretty much spent the day getting knocked on my spiritual butt. Jen is not just a great blogger/writer, she is an incredible speaker and she writes pretty much exactly the way she speaks. She talked that day about a lot of the same things she discusses in this book, and I ate it up. I ate it up...but I also went home and didn't make any actual changes. Now, after reading Love Does and now almost immediately reading this book about how the Hatmakers' lives were flipped upside down and revolutionized, change is happening. Change is going to happen, and change is already happening. When I turned the last page in Love Does last week I felt the Holy Spirit beginning to stir something huge within me, I just didn't know what exactly it would look like. When I turned the last page of Interrupted...I was beginning to hear some pretty clear snippets of direction. Ideas and tangible - huge - changes are forming within me, and I cannot wait to get to the beach so I can kiss my husband hello and then immediately shove both of these books into his hands and then ignore him until he finishes reading them.
I could continue to go on and on about all the reasons why I loved this book, but I think sharing two little snippets that really summarize where my heart is right now would do the book greater justice. The first passage is actually written by Jen's husband Brandon; the second passage is written by Jen.
"For my entire Christian journey, I've felt one click away from full, one click away from true joy, one click away from contentment. Reluctant to admit it, I had a constant desire for more, a nagging hope to be 'fed' beyond what I was experiencing. I'm a pastor. How could that be?...If we've been in church for years yet aren't full, are we really hungry for more knowledge? In our busy lives, do we really need another program or event? Do we really need to be fed more of the Word, or are we simply undernourished from an absence of living the Word? Maybe we love God, but are we loving others? If our faith is about us, then we are not just hungry - our spirits are starving." (Brandon, pg. 160-161)
"Honestly, the last thing we need is another sermon. I couldn't count the sermons I've heard, yet almost none of my transformational moments took place in a church pew. Are you kidding me? I've been a believer for twenty-eight years - pastor's daughter, Baptist college student, pastor's wife, Bible teacher, Christian author, church/camp/conference/revival enthusiast, Christian poster child. I thought I was well beyond transformation. A little refining? Sanding some rough edges? Sure. But transformation?...When what to my pious eyes should appear? Transformation that interrupted my entire life. Not in the form of a brilliant teacher showing me the original language treasures of the Word. Not in the form of another Bible study that finally cured my spiritual glitches. Not through writing another book or reading someone else's. Not from speaking at a women's conference and meeting exceptional believers all over the country. Not from a single second spent on a church campus.
Transformation came in the form of dirty homeless men and abandoned orphans. It came through abused women and foster kids. It came through lost 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." (Jen, pg. 162-163)
If you want more of an idea of what the book is actually about, I just recommend reading it. My copies of both Love Does and Interrupted are highlighted all the way through. Notes are written, smiley faces are drawn, stars and arrows point, and whole paragraphs are boxed in. These books have really, really made me think. And have really, really stirred my heart in a way that no book has in a long time. And I cannot wait to see where it leads our family.
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