Happily Ever After...: (in)courage

9.24.2012

(in)courage

I have some fun news to share with you this morning...I've been keeping a little secret from you but today I'm letting you in on it. Remember my tweets, my instagrams and my posts this summer about the book Seven by Jen Hatmaker? I picked it up after hearing so much about it and before I knew it I was completely sold on it. Sold, as in I couldn't stop thinking about it, talking about it or engaging in social media about it. The heart of the book just resonated with me in a big way, for a variety of reasons, and also it just flat out made me laugh. You probably grew tired of me mentioning it but here I am again, bringing it back up :)

You're welcome.

A couple of months ago, I responded to a tweet (insert reflective pause *here*...who knew that would be a phrase we'd ever utter with conviction a few years ago??) about the in(courage) bloom book club. They announced that they were choosing to read Seven for the month of September and that they were looking for some guest posts to accompany the videos and to my delight, they asked me if I would be willing to write one?? Ummmm, YES!!! I'd recently written about the impact it had on me in relation to the homeless ministry that we serve in so I was assuming I'd hop in on a chapter regarding clothes or possessions or maybe food? But to my surprise they asked for a post on chapter 5, waste. Yes, I said WASTE. Probably the one chapter that didn't necessarily echo my current lifestyle choices! Ha ha!!

But as the Lord likes to do, He had greater things in store for me and almost more than any other chapter in the book He really challenged my thinking and my beliefs about waste in my life. The issue of stewardship kept coming up and hasn't left me since.

So on Wednesday, a little post I wrote about chapter 5 will be appearing on the in(courage) blog! Yay! But here is the fun part....

If you haven't read the book, (DO IT!!) don't worry you can still follow along! This is the 5th week of the series and each week two of my fave bloggers are posting an interview on that chapter with Jen Hatmaker. If you have no idea what the book is about and or what the big deal is, watch them. You will laugh and hear her heart and be challenged. In a good, convicting way not in a guilt-inducing way! Also, Jen is hilarious. You will love her. We've never met, except through twitter a few weeks ago, but she is like my psuedo girlfriend in Texas. A fellow Pastor's wife who I hope to meet in real life someday!

So, watch this video from today and get caught up on chapter 5 and the topic of Waste. Then look for my guest post on Wednesday, which will make more sense to you after you watch the video and certainly if you've read the book. You can also go back and watch the previous 4 videos on Seven. The chapters they've covered so far are: Food, Clothes, Possessions and Media. Umm, ouch. You probably have some excess in every one of those ares like I do, right??