{"id":59,"date":"2012-05-29T21:21:48","date_gmt":"2012-05-29T21:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/curtaustin.com\/bookshelf\/?p=59"},"modified":"2023-11-24T12:57:38","modified_gmt":"2023-11-24T12:57:38","slug":"7-an-experimental-mutiny-against-excess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/curtaustin.com\/bookshelf\/2012\/05\/29\/7-an-experimental-mutiny-against-excess\/","title":{"rendered":"7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Our small group is reading the book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess. I thought it was a wonderful idea when we decided to study this book over the summer. But now I\u2019m actually reading the chapters and my mind, heart, and soul are in conflict\u2026Every area of my being is having a hard time with the truth written on the pages.<\/p>\n

The author, Jen Hatmaker is over-dramatic, self-indulgent, witty, nutty, moving, insightful and spot on. I just finished the third chapter of this fantastic book and am already analyzing my plan of action in response to the challenge.<\/p>\n

As a nation, as a state, as a city (and unfortunately, as a family) we have more than we need. Not more than we want, there\u2019s plenty more that we want. But our homes \u201chouse\u201d so much more than we need. Hatmaker\u2019s challenge is to re-examine our lives and determine what we can do without, in turn, freeing us up to see God more clearly.<\/p>\n

People around the globe, even in our own cities, are hungry every day of their lives. They go to bed cold or wet or . They need shelter. They need clothing. They need to know that they are loved and have value. Obviously, giving away our \u201cstuff\u201d and eating less doesn\u2019t increase another person\u2019s value but it does awaken our souls to their plight and leads us closer to being the Hands and Feet to those who need it most.<\/p>\n

As I write this, I\u2019m sitting in my \u201cnew\u201d office with walls painted a soothing Sea Foam Green\/Blue to stimulate my creativity. I\u2019m sitting in a plush office chair, surrounded wall hangings of family photos, my diplomas and Ordination certificates and personal artwork. It is all illuminated by the warm glow of a beautiful lamp on the coffee table snugly positioned between two fantastic black sitting chairs. It is the perfect setting to tell you about this book and how it will change your life when you give up stuff, food, clothes, media, etc.<\/p>\n

That is, it WOULD be the perfect setting if it weren\u2019t for the four boxes stacked behind the door, filled with old journals, Bibles and birding books. If it weren\u2019t for the closet filled with enough clothes to outfit me for three weeks without breaking a sweat. If it weren\u2019t for the freshly brewed coffee in the hand-made mug and the plate of artisan bread and local honey beside my laptop that I snack on to keep my energy going while I type. If it weren\u2019t for the syncing IPod that has interrupted my thought process three times because I want to have more music on my device than the meager 8 G device can hold.<\/p>\n

Oh ya. I have a lot of work to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our small group is reading the book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess. I thought it was a wonderful idea … More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-59","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-bookshelf","8":"","10":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/curtaustin.com\/bookshelf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/09\/seven.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9aBd1-X","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/curtaustin.com\/bookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/curtaustin.com\/bookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/curtaustin.com\/bookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/curtaustin.com\/bookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/curtaustin.com\/bookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/curtaustin.com\/bookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61,"href":"https:\/\/curtaustin.com\/bookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions\/61"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/curtaustin.com\/bookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/curtaustin.com\/bookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/curtaustin.com\/bookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/curtaustin.com\/bookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}