7 White Shirts

I came across Jen Hatmaker's book, 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess, on someone's blog around October. I asked for it for Christmas, and I ended up getting it a few days early. This book has drastically changed my way of thinking about things. Jen (we'd be friends in real life, so I'm going to call her by her first name) embarks on a journey with her family trying to get rid of the excess in her life. She identifies 7 areas of excess in her life and takes 7 months (one area per month) to do something about it.

For example, she takes one month where she only eats 7 foods. Another month is spent only wearing 7 items of clothing. One month she gets rid of 7 things a day. The list goes on. Ultimately, the goal is to see that the STUFF of this world is not worth it and totally materialistic. It's only STUFF. She journals her feelings about each month and she writes a conclusion about what she learned after each month. Add in her hilarious writing style, and this book is such a good read.

I knew that after I read the first chapter I was in. Some of it sounds a little absurd, but the ultimate goal is to draw closer to the Lord and get rid of my junk. I'm not bringing any of my clothes with me to heaven, so why do I idolize them so much? I was going to do the 7 foods first, because I thought that would be a good way to start off the new year. BUT, I was putting some clothes up and I could barely shut my drawers. Y'all, I have a problem. I have SEVEN short sleeve white shirts. SEVEN. Who needs that many? I can justify one v-neck and one crew neck, but SEVEN. Honestly.

So, this month I'm literally getting rid of my crap. I have more stuff than I need, more clothes than I can ever wear, etc. I've been piling a few things already, but I'm going to go through everything tonight. My goal is to get rid of 7 things a day, which would end up being 210 things total. I'm not sure that I'll meet that goal, although Jen had this goal for her family of 5 and ended up exceeding it. I also want to be able to give this stuff that I have to some organization that is local and makes a difference in our community, not just Goodwill. So I'm going to be researching that and going through my stuff for the next month. If you know of anything, let me know please! I highly encourage you to grab this book and let it influence your way of thinking!