For the Love

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Hello book reading friends — Just finished this book and I immediately wanted to tell you all about it.  In fact, I wish I were rich enough (and had your address, of course) so I could send you all a copy.  I loved it that much.

Jen Hatmaker, in her hilarious manor of addressing serious (and not so serious) topics, sets out to talk about what it means to be a Christian woman.  She addresses turning 40, fashion concerns and surviving back to school with your kids.  I pretty much chuckled my way through those parts.

But she also talks about things that really matter to me.  Here’s a few…

On the close circle of women friends:
“I see you, cheering each other on and calling forth the best in one another, and it slays me.  This is the stuff.  This is what we were made for.  This is how to live well.  If we prefer each other as Jesus told us us to, there’s nothing our community of women cannot handle. Give it to us: injustices, struggles, sufferings, loss, heartbreaks, obstacles, life. We got this, together. Within this community, we strengthen each other to love our families and neighbors and cities and world.  We point each other to God and call out our blessedness… I am so grateful to be a woman, here, with you, in our generation.  Cup overflowing.  This is it. This is our one life.  Let’s go for it together.”

On sharing meals with friends:
“A shared table is the supreme expression of hospitality in every culture on earth.  When your worn-out kitchen table hosts good people and good conversation, when it provides a safe place to break bread and share wine, your house becomes a sanitary, holy as a cathedral”

On the life in the church:
“We should be grabbing each others hands, throwing our heads back, and laughing that God saved us all, because surely this is the messiest family ever and He loves us anyway.  Our shared redemption should keep us grateful and kind, because what other response even makes sense?”

I could just keep typing excerpts, because I really want to read the whole book to you.  It’s divided into four parts– about –you,  your family,  other people and the church.  So I’m thinking of inviting some younger friends for dinner over 4 weeks to read and talk it through together.  It’s so worthwhile.

And I think you’d love it too, because after about 3 pages, you’ll be wishing that Jen Hatmaker lived next door and could be your best friend.  And you’ll think again about all your hold dear, your faith and the people you love…

 

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