7
Written by Jen Hatmaker
Narrated by Rebecca Gallagher
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Do you feel trapped in the machine of excess? Jen Hatmaker was. Her friends were. And some might say that our culture is. Jen once considered herself unmotivated by the lure of prosperity, but upon being called "rich" by an undeniably poor child, evidence to the contrary mounted, and a social experiment turned spiritual journey was born. 7 is the true story of how Jen took seven months, identified seven areas of excess, and made seven simple choices to fight back against the modern-day diseases of greed, materialism, and overindulgence. Food. Clothes. Spending. Media. Possessions. Waste. Stress. Jen and her family would spend 30 days on each topic, boiling it down to the number seven. Only eat seven foods, wear seven articles of clothing, and spend money in seven places. Eliminate use of seven media types, give away seven things each day for one month, adopt seven green habits, and observe "seven sacred pauses." So, what's the payoff from living a deeply reduced life? It's the discovery of a greatly increased God - a call toward Christ-like simplicity and generosity that transcends a social experiment to become a radically better existence. 7 is funny, raw, and not a guilt trip in the making, so come along and consider what Jesus' version of rich, blessed, and generous might look like in your life.
Jen Hatmaker
Jen Hatmaker is the author of the New York Times bestsellers For the Love and Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire. Jen hosts the award-winning For the Love podcast, is the delighted curator of the Jen Hatmaker Book Club, and she leads a tightly knit online community where she reaches millions of people each week. Jen is a co-founder of Legacy Collective, a giving community that grants millions of dollars around the world. She is a mom to five kids and lives happily just outside Austin, Texas in a 1908 farmhouse with questionable plumbing.
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Reviews for 7
121 ratings11 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Thank you so much for this book, this book is close to my heart.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I wish I could give this 5 stars and it truly isn't the author's fault. When she narrates her own books they are awesome. Jen Hatmaker is lively, funny, she can make you laugh out loud or bring tears to your eyes. I have immensely enjoyed every single one of her books and she is one of my favorite authors. I couldn't even finish this one because of the narrator. So bad, completely misses the mark on the tone of the book. Even when she is trying her voice is mostly monotone. Jen is a true storyteller and I adore her. I will never again get one of her books that is narrated by someone else.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm not a Christian, but I loved the concept and gave me hope that there are people out there like Jen. I might try some of these challenges although my lifestyle makes these much easier to achieve than hers.
The narrator was really bad though. Thick Midwestern accent(just like mine), pronounced words wrong . Would have been cool to have been read by a Texan. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I did not love this book.... that is not to say there are not some things I gleaned from it because there were. I just did not like the tone throughout the book. It is like reading a blog or online journal in many ways. It was not super deep throughout much of it. It even seemed shallow and trite at times. Her tone was one that poked fun at herself but it also poked fun at other things, too, and sometimes it was a bit uncomfortable like when you are in a group and someone says something a little bit inappropriate and you think, "Hmmmm... that was uncomfortable." There were some parts that grabbed me... the adoption story was beautiful and the media chapter spoke to me pretty strongly. I picked this book up on recommendation but I am not sure I would have chosen it on my own. There were times I was thinking that she was giving up many things that I have already given up because we don't have the luxury to do many of the things she was laying aside. I am also not a huge fan of the mystic/contemplative movement so some of the authors she referred to are not people I would read. Maybe I have become jaded to some degree in this realm but I am very picky about Christian books because I think many are misleading in this mystic spiritual realm. I don't think she, in particular, really said anything that I questioned but I have questioned many of the authors she reads regularly. Interesting read.... thought provoking to a some degree but not deep and theological by any stretch of the imagination. This is certainly not C.S. Lewis or Tozer. If you want to read something a little more impacting from modern Christianity I would recommend David Platt or Francis Chan.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5For 7 months, Jen Hatmaker wages a war against excess. She experiments by eating only 7 foods, wearing only 7 articles of clothing, giving away 7 items each day, and praying 7 times a day. Although Hatmaker's experiments are extreme, she raises awareness of the excesses present in our homes and our lives.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Reading this book left me convicted and conflicted. Plusses and minuses from my point of view:+:- Relatable author: At her best, she writes with an engaging, approachable and authentically imperfect voice. I could see myself sharing coffee and an actual conversation with Jen. Compare that to many other strong Christian female writers (Beth Moore cough, cough) who I respect, but cannot imagine hanging out with. + Relevant perspective: I also personally wrestle with most of the seven areas that she addresses in her book. Reading how she approached these challenges is what drew me to the book.+ Easy read: Sometimes, Christian-authored books can be densely written. Or, they're boring. Or, they're overly academic. Not this one and I mean that as a compliment.On the conflicted side, this book danced close to some issues that I am uncomfortable with from a Biblical perspective. The less-than-plusses:- It reads as a social experiment. Early into the book, the author gives props to her husband who shows solidarity with her by giving up something alongside her and she exclaims admiringly that 'he's not even getting paid to do this.' The implication of that stuck with me throughout the rest of the book. - The actions she takes and things she chooses to forgo are arbitrary choices, temporarily-made. It's hard to see these as substantive sacrifices or get a sense of their potential impact to her life and relationships over time.- She sometimes comes across as overly apologetic about the US-born wealth and privilege and as part of that, there are incidences of humble-bragging. She's rightly proud of and excited to be going through an international adoption at time of writing. Reading all that is not only inescapable, but there are some really cringeworthy comments in relation to it.- To a Christian, the issue of being saved by faith rather than through works is a big deal. Faith without works is dead, but works without faith doesn't cut it. Jen knows that, but sometimes gets swept up in works. It would be relatively easy for someone to take away the wrong message.Would I recommend this particular book? No. I hope it's not representative of her body of work. However, I think she has potential. I'm curious to sample another more recent Jen Hatmaker book to see how she's matured in both her faith and her writing while (hopefully) keeping it real. This one is one for completers only.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5More. In America we live with a mentality that we always need more. We need more food, clothes, toys, bigger homes, bigger cars, etc. It’s a hard thought process to avoid when we’re constantly berated by commercials and ads for all of these things. As I mentioned in my One LittleWord Post, I’m already trying to get away from that this year. Someone recommended I read this and though it’s not one I would normally gravitate towards, I picked it up.The book chronicles the author’s own attempt to get rid of the excess in her life. Each month she picked one category and worked on that. She limited herself to seven items in each category. For example, in the food month she was only allowed to each meals created from the seven foods she’d picked. In the spending month she only spent money at seven locations.Jen's voice is so frank and funny that I think it makes the whole concept escape the condescending tone that this experiment might have in another author voice. You understand her earnestness and want her to succeed. She pokes fun at her own dependence on certain things without chiding the reader at the same time.She challenges you to look at your own life and priorities in more detail while still being honest and open about her own failings. Her struggle to minimize her life comes from a place of earnestness, not self-righteousness and that makes all the difference. Her goal is also rooted in her faith, so the experiment might not be for everyone. But I have to say, the base goal would apply to almost any life that’s driven to simplify and refocus on the things that truly matter.While her experiment was obviously extreme, there were so many aspects of it that I really loved and like to try to incorporate into my own life. At the very least you gain an appreciation for the excess of wealth that pretty much anyone in the middle class enjoys. Since she was able to restrict her diet to seven ingredients and her wardrobe to seven items, it makes you look at your own pantry and closet with new eyes. When I think about how many items of clothing I had to choose from every day it blows my mind. When I think about all the tiny things that I spend money on a dollar at a Redbox kiosk, picking up a bottle of wine at Trader Joe's, dinner out at our favorite Mexican place with my husband, I just have so much to be thankful for.I love the active elements that she added into the book. Instead of just denying herself the things she wanted, she and her entire family, including their young kids, got involved in the local community in a dozen different ways. They served meals to the homeless and donated items of clothing. Those are the ways that we give back, the ways that we teach our children and the next-generation to serve more than just ourselves. I love that they learn how to garden and how to live off less than what they were used to.BOTTOM LINE: I loved the ways this book challenged me to look at the excess in my own life. Read it if you’re already feeling convicted about scaling back your life and want to see practical ways that someone else did it.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I read this as part of a small group and we took it upon ourselves to try and follow the same guidelines as Hatmaker did. Some of us in the group did all the months and some of us only did some of them. The overall premise is quite good. Although there are a couple of months where I think Hatmaker got a little side-tracked. The author came across as pretty full of herself at times as well, which distracted from the objective, I think, of the book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I was first put off by this author's admitted biases. The wife of a minister of a large Christian church, the author described herself in the beginning as a conservative Christian who very much bought into the prosperity doctrine, exemplifying a belief system that embraced consumerism, materialism, and seeing environmental issues as "not our thing". But slowly a transformation unfolds, as the author begins questioning the waste, the self-absorption, and the entitlement attitude of her past beliefs and practices. Each month for seven months the author chooses a different area of her life on which to focus, determined to whittle away the excesses, and to really live a life of service to "the least" among us, and to "love your neighbor as yourself". She begins to explore what it means to see the earth as God's creation, to be cared for and protected. While this author is not a terrifically accomplished author, this book is very readable, written as a blog during those seven months, and I found it absorbing. I thoroughly enjoyed her recounting of this journey, and especially liked hearing from someone on the inside who could offer an analysis into her past beliefs.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I like it but, I felt she was a little pretentious and that distracted me from it's whole purpose of wanting us to want less and have less. I think it has a good idea behind it and It's convicting and makes you really think. I found it very interesting because it's like a daily journal of her life.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Much to think about in this book. Can't imagine some of the stages, but some of them are percolating in my head