There’s Too Much To Care About: A Review of “7” by Jen Hatmaker

There are so many things that Christians are “supposed” to care about that sometimes, I confess, it’s hard. I mean we’re supposed to protest abortion, care about creation, feed the hungry, love the homeless, clothe the poor, adopt orphans, boycott bad business practices, decry the technocracy that threatens to undue real relationships, and countless other things. There aren’t enough hours in the day, honestly, to be invested fully in all these activities and more. It’s hard enough to function between going to work and counseling my people, and coming home and playing with my family. It seems like Jen Hatmaker understands this dilemma, but she isn’t satisfied with the status quo. In her new book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess she attempts one month of reformed living regarding a host of cultural concerns. In the process of reading the book I have found my own motivation to reform renewed, if in perhaps a more long-term manner.

This book is clearly written primarily from one place: repentance. “The day I am unaware of my privileges,” writes Hatmaker, “and unmoved by my greed is the day that something has to change” (3). Like most of us reading this blog, I presume, Jen lived/lives in luxury. “I reside in the top percentage of wealth in the world? (You probably do too: make $35, 000 a year? Top 4 percent. $50, 000? Top 1 percent)”. But all this wealth, all this comfort and success, Hatmaker points out, has often turned out to be harmful to our culture, our families, and us. “We have too much, and it is ruining us. It was certainly ruining me.” So, her solution? To take 7 months, 7 areas of her life, and reduce them to seven simple choices. Her areas of life included: food, clothes, possessions, media, waste, spending, and stress. In each case she is limiting her intake, output, or focus so that she can reorient herself towards God, others, and the world as a whole.

Hatmaker is a gifted communicator. Her wit and humor canvas the entire book and readers can’t help but chuckle at her asides, sarcasm, and pure jocularity. The format of the book can be a bit frustrating at times, as it often has the feel of blog entries. It is written as a near day-to-day account of each months antics. There is often lacking an overarching narrative to help us grasp the lessons learned and I definitely wanted more of that. But each month does conclude with a summation. It is helpful to see the “mutinies” lived out in an actual person’s life, and that concreteness gives us some actual things to consider about our own lives. Overall the book is worth reading.

It’s easy to get consumed with our business, and with the pressures of life and therefore to simply go along with the status quo. It’s easy to let injustice roll on, and self-absorption continue. It is too easy to forget to recycle, to ignore the homeless, to consume without thought or regard…because, after all, there’s just too many causes and we can’t address them all. But one thing that this book helps us to see is that while we may not be able to make huge dents in these areas alone, we can do several important things by changing our habits and considering these causes. (1) We can do our little part. We won’t single-handedly end homelessness, save the planet, or turn back the technocratic monopoly of culture. But we can show where our value lies, and resist the tide of selfishness. (2) We can encourage others to join the small-scale revolution. 7 gives us insight into the draw that this mutiny has. Jen had a council and a family who joined her on this experiment, and repeatedly she tells us of others who wanted to join in.

There is too much to care about. I get that. But by not making any changes because it’s hard and impossible to change it all we simply align ourselves with the status quo. I might like for more lasting and durable changes than what Jen writes about in here book. After all picking 7 clothing items to wear for a month, maybe funny but it doesn’t seem to have any real staying-power. But even still, the book encourages us to do something! And regardless of where you start, the important thing is that we all rally to support the mutiny against excess.