Interrupted

I recently finished reading Interrupted by Jen Hatmaker [and forcing it into Loverboy's hands/ears every couple chapters or so] and it is kinda bad-good. I got the book a few years back for free and it has sat on my bookshelf ever since. It's moved with me from place to place, been shuffled around, but always just sitting on my bookshelf. Staring at me. Because I knew what it was about, and I didn't want to read it. I knew it was going to challenge and convict me and I guess I just haven't been in a place where I want to be smacked upside the head until recently. 

So about a couple months ago I picked it up and put it on the desk. Then on the coffee table. Then in my purse. One step closer to me actually reading it. Then I actually started reading it. Then I finished it. And it's just what I expected. A good smack upside the head.

//via

But I'm not really sure what else to say about it. Except that we've been doing a lot of thinking and dreaming and talking and planning around here. And that the above quote decently describes the book and our thoughts.

Here's what one reviewer on Amazon said about the book. [I'm about to quote somebody who quotes somebody. Get ready.]

I feel sometimes like we are all just "playing church", and that can be a suffocating place at times (just being honest) because... well, here's the way Jen put it: "Why did I spend all my time blessing blessed people who should be on the giving side of the equation by now?" (p. 21) Answer: because its safe and because its comfortable. 

YES. Safe and comfortable. I am way too obsessed with being both of those things. But really, I'm tired of feeding the obese, clothing the fashionistas, giving medicine to the perfectly healthy, "blessing the blessed," as Jen puts it. 

I want to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, help heal the sick. I want to do the things that Jesus tells us to do. I want to rid myself of this obsession with safety and comfort. 

But it starts one small baby step at a time, I think. It starts with giving to the homeless Native American man who waves at me from the corner on my way to and from work. It starts with doing things I wouldn't normally do, with people I wouldn't normally do them with. It starts with noticing those who I don't usually notice. It starts small, but I know where my Jesus has called me. I know what He has asked of me.

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?  And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’  And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ —Matthew 25:35–40

Also, a few articles that have been wrecking lately, that I mentioned in my A Year in Blogging post: 

Dear World: Let's Stop Giving Our Crap to the Poor
# Blessed
Rich and Poor | The Question That Wrecked Us Both