Some Thoughts on 7: Needing Simplicity

There are several things that I really love about the book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker. One of them is that she so clearly recognizes that when it comes down to hashing out the details and particulars of how we are trying to live our lives, so many things will be different for each person and for each family. Of course there are general truths that will be common for all, (such as "God wants us to share the gifts that He has given to us.") but fallen nature often causes us to muddle the distinction between that sort of thing and the particulars that will be unique to each person and family (such as "I think it's a good idea for my family to get regularly involved with our local soup kitchen.").

So, to a large extent, the way the author handles this is to simply tell her story (and her reasoning behind it) in a humorous and interesting way and allow her readers to draw out thoughts, ideas and inspirations that might be applicable to their own story. Part of what makes this delightful is that she's not afraid to be honest about the mistakes and stumbles she makes upon the way.

There were many particulars that don't apply particularly well to my own family. For example, in all honesty, I personally should probably aim for spending more time in the kitchen rather than less and we purchase at least 75% of our clothing, furniture and books used (and donate what we're done with), so some of the ramifications she talks about in her fight against consumerism don't apply to us 100%.

But if I stopped there, I would really be missing the point, which still comes through beautifully in her story and I think is quite universally applicable. And that is that most of us in the United States today (at least - many other parts of the world too) struggle to some degree with the abundance of goods and opportunities that are available to us and our families. I know I often feel like our family lives like kings off of the abundance of beautiful, good-quality used items that are available inexpensively in our area, but that it's easy to over-buy and get swamped with the stuff.

Of course it's not that having things and having enough to provide for your family is bad. It's not even that we're supposed to only have what we absolutely need. There is certainly room for a reasonable degree of beauty and comfort and joy and delight. It's more that it's a very healthy thing to give a good hard look at what is good for us to have and what's just getting in the way of peace of heart and more time to spend with our families and with God.

It's also true, of course, that having a family is a complicated thing and comes with a lot of necessary trappings that we need to get comfortable with, just as a mother of a new baby needs to bring a lot of stuff when she brings the baby anywhere - a car seat, a diaper bag, perhaps a change of clothes.

I don't write this because I have this all figured out, by any means. I think my family and I have made some progress in this general area, but still have a lot of room for improvement. Part of the solution, I think, is to re-think our societal conventions on what "things" are "necessary" to make us happy. Another part is simply that God has distributed his various gifts (temporal and spiritual) in an unequal way so that we have the opportunity to share them with each other. 

 I distribute the virtues quite diversely...and so I have given many gifts and graces, both spiritual and temporal, with such diversity that I have not given everything to one single person, so that you may be constrained to practice charity toward one another... I have willed that one should need another and that all should be my ministers in distributing the graces and gifts they have received from me.

- Dialogue of Our Lord to St. Catherine of Siena as quoted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church #1937

 And I do think that most people have experienced the joy and peace that comes from sharing their gifts with love. Making that deliberate, a regular part of our lives, an equation in how we order our lives, our finances and our households is an important part of our faith tradition.

Do you long for simplicity too? What have you implemented in your own family that has helped in this area?

7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker - Starting Point

This is a lovely book by a Christian author about her and her family's attempts to push back against consumerism and modern culture by temporarily simplifying their lives in seven different areas: food, clothing, possessions, media, waste, spending and stress.

This book was a particular influence for this new blog - especially in the author's recognition of the need for solidarity with the poor as an essential component of our beliefs and her wonderful tone that is humorous and inviting without ever descending to pressure or judgement. I think this is particularly important for those trying to apply the faith to their personal lives which will be such a different journey for each individual.

It's not a Catholic book, there are places where our perspectives don't completely line up, but on the whole I found it quite delightful and unexpectedly compatible with Catholic teaching. It even turns out (hope you don't mind the mini-spoiler) that the chapter on stress is really about bringing a regular cycle of prayer into her life and she turns to the Liturgy of the Hours to do this. Cool!!!

This book is available in print or as an e-book.

Here's a decent sample on the more serious side (but there's also a lot of laugh-out-loud stuff):

"Oh how we love our religious yokes, not for what they communicate about God, but what they say about us. This is the kind of people we are. We say 'no' when everyone else says 'yes'. We don't do that. We don't watch that. We don't vote that way. We don't go there. We don't include them.

But God's idea of a fast is less about what we're against and more about what we are for.

'Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter - when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? (Isa. 58:6-7)'

When we hear 'fast,' we put on a yoke of self-denial. When God said 'fast,' He meant to take off the yoke of oppression. The Isaiah 58 fast is not about the mechanics of abstinence; it is a fast from self-obsession, greed, apathy, and elitism. When it becomes more about me than the marginalized I've been charged to serve, I become the confused voice in this passage: 'Why have I fasted and you  have not seen it?'"