Fruit Inspection

Not long after Christmas, I saw a quote that my friend posted on Facebook. “In a typical year, the United States spends about $16 billion in foreign aid and $276 billion on advertising. — Jen Hatmaker in Seven.”

Wow. Let those numbers sink in. Advertising. The tool that steers us towards discontent and drives our desire to want for more and more. Versus aid to people who have nearly nothing. It’s sickening.

I knew immediately that I wanted to get my hands on a copy of that book. I was also interested to learn more about the author, Jen Hatmaker. I had never heard of her before, but quickly found her blog online and began reading. I came across this post and sent it to my BFF Amy with the subject line “I think I just found our summer bible study”.

Amy’s reply? “Um…no. I think we need to start this study right now!”

So we talked to our church about purchasing the study (which they agreed… Yay!) and invited some other gals to join us on a crazy, 9 week journey to stage our own mutiny against excess.

Last Wednesday night we watched the introduction and discussed what we hoped to gain from the study. Some of my favorite quotes from the video segment were:

~”Our possessions are what steer our hearts.”
~”Is what you own, owning you?”
~”It’s an injustice that I have so much and others have so little.”

Those are just teeny, tiny nuggets compared to the eye opening Truths I’ve read over the past 7 days in the study portion during my quiet times. Ya know the story of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16-22? And ya know how, after the guy walked away sadly, Jesus told his disciples that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”?

Well, chances are, if you are reading this blog, you have access to the internet and a computer (or smart phone), and YOU, my friend are one of the rich folks Jesus was referring to.

Little bit shocking, right? I felt that way too. But I need a little shock factor in my life sometimes to move shove me in the right direction.

So as we begin the meat of the mutiny tonight, I’m looking forward to having less of me and more of God. A fast that creates margin for God to move. As Jen puts it, to “simplify for justice”.