lent, vessels and the very rare book

If you've been around for a while, you know about the only thing I make time to read is the Bible and the occasional Oswald Chambers and a billion toddler books largely about bears, how exciting it is to use the potty, and sharing.

But I'm married to a man who is always in at least 10 books, most of them humongous and pictureless, ranging from (today's bed-side table) Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia, Answering Islam, and Lectures in Old Testament Theology.  

Hmmm.  

Then Sarah moved in next door, and she's as big of a book dork as Matt is....The Secret Keeper, Wolf Hall, The Big Truck that Went by: How the World came to save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster...and at least 6 more.  All of which she is excited to tears about, such is her passion for good books.

So when she talked to me about reading a book together for Lent (which reminded me that it WAS the season of Lent...my heavens, time...), I knew if I said yes, I'd actually have to read something besides blogs and the occasional article, because, as you also know if you've been around for a while, I'm a people pleaser.  

AND as you absolutely know if you've been around for a while, I don't know how to say no.  

So I said yes.  

And she picked Seven. 

And I've followed Jen Hatmaker's blog for a while now, so I'd heard of it...a book of  Jen's "experimental mutiny against excess" in which she spends "seven months, identified seven areas of excess, and made seven simple choices to fight back against the modern-day diseases of greed, materialism, and overindulgence. In the spirit of a fast, they pursued a deeply reduced life in order to find a greatly increased God." 

But frankly, when I first read about Seven, I thought, "I'm PRETTY sure Haiti has worked that excess out of me.  Overindulgence?  I don't even have that option. Book I don't need to read: check."

But again.  

Can't say no.  

So, Matt showed me how to do the Kindle thing (ok, Matt just did the Kindle thing for me...really, there's no point in showing me), and then after Sarah asked me three times if I'd started, I started. 

And of course, now I can't put the thing down.  

As Jen and her family work through excess in food, clothes, possessions, media, waste, spending and stress, I've been captivated not only by her humor and the epiphany moments God's brought her to, but most by this idea:  Jesus, may there be less of me and my junk and more of You and Your kingdom.  

It's true, Jen's commitment for a full month of eating only seven foods might seem a lot less crazy to me than it does to you...since most days it feels like all we've eaten for 6 years (minus Labadee Day!) are rice, beans, corn mush, chunks of cow and chicken legs.  And thanks to a few dear friends, this month we can add conversation hearts to our seven.

And maybe wearing only seven articles of clothing for a full month is easier to imagine when there is no Target, no magazines, no TV commercials, and everyone we knows wears rotations of the same three outfits.  

But that doesn't mean there's no room in my life to make more room for Him.

What I love, and what I am "lenting" through this this season is the taking a step back, and yes, looking in my fridge, in my wallet, in my closet, in my rare clutches at "free time", but most, looking at my vessel.  Looking, intentionally, at my heart and life.  

As Jen says, "When the jars of clay remember they are jars of clay, the treasure within gets all the glory, which somehow seems more fitting.  Maybe our occupation with clothes and food and entertainment detracts from the point: a fixation on Jesus."

How's that going to unpack in MY life?  I'm not totally sure yet...I'm only on page 63.  But this lent, I'm remembering that I'm His vessel, made to be bent on and representing only ONE thing...Him. 

Wanna be more deliberate on being all His?  On reducing your life in search of an increased God?  Reading/studying something else this season?  Fill me in...