interrupted: when jesus wrecks your comfortable christianity

let it be known.

i love jen hatmaker {if you don't know who she is, go here and educate yourself}.

i love her blog, i love her new hgtv show, i love her books.

i love it all.

so much so that i may have spent an afternoon watching any youtube video connected to her.

i know, slightly weird, but i couldn't help myself.

my sister shares my same love {obviously}, and so, a couple months back when jen sent out an email offering a free copy of her book interrupted to the first 250 bloggers who responded to the email, i was all in {now, my sister may have thought if you responded to the email you got to meet jen hatmaker, but that's neither here nor there}.

now just to let you know...

this is the kind of book that can mess you up.

it's the kind of book that may cause you to shout "AMEN" at your dog.

it's the kind of book that speaks to the core of who you are and makes you wonder if you've been doing things all wrong for your whole life.

it's also the kind of book that makes you sigh in relief and say, "thank God it's not just me."

it's the kind of book that sticks with you, and convicts you, and changes you.

 interrupted is a story of transformation. a story of how God called jen and her family to a life of service to the least. to creating a church where people didn't just go to church, but they were the church. 

and it was convicting, to put it mildly.

i think i was most powerfully struck as i read by the responsibility that comes when we say yes to God.
because if everything is true, if what i say i believe is what i actually believe, then that has to profoundly impact the way that i live.
it has to change the way i use my money, and the people i spend time with, and my desire to be comfortable, and all the ways i try to preserve my own ego.
it has to transform me in such a way that i stop waiting for a church, or an event, or a system to love my neighbor.
i have to just go out and do it.

because the truth is, people don't need another event, or another service, or a run in with the morality police.
people need relationships with other people who love God and who love them with honesty and sincerity.

one of the hardest parts for me in all this {minus the fact that it's all hard} is the redefining of who my neighbor is.
my neighbor is not just those who look like me and talk like me.
it's not just the ones who are easy to love and show appreciation.

it's the ones who would rank in the "least of these" category.
the ones i like to pretend i don't see.
the ones who make me feel uncomfortable but whose need is unmistakable.

if i'm honest, i know how much i fall short.
i am in constant need of God's grace and the ability to actually listen to what he is saying.
but i can't ignore the Bible when it says "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."

bottom line...
i want to try.
i want to ask.
i want to become.
i want to love.
in ways that follow Jesus, wherever he leads.
even if it's uncomfortable, or scary, or dark.
because that is where his light is needed the very most.

so i guess i say all that to say, if any of this rings true with you, read this book.
and ask God to help you to listen for what he has been saying since the very beginning.

my sister has called my copy first, but anyone is welcome to it after she's done:)