Whoever Finds His Life Will Be - Interrupted

Jen Hatmaker recently edited and re-released her favorite book baby, Interrupted. I don't know how to label it in terms the every day American evangelical can grasp. It has the same vibe as Radical by David Platt, except not so globally minded. Jen was leading a life of comfortable Christianity until Jesus showed her that He was serious when He said things like

Deny yourself

Be a servant

Care for the least of these

Be last

Lose your life


This caused her to drop everything she knew and plant a church that would be intentional, missional, and the hands and feet of Jesus. She never claims to get it all right, but she rightly questions all of her motives behind her desires and ideas.

I think a lot about this kind of thing. I see in myself all kinds of entitlement when it comes to how I spend my time, my money, my relationships. I frequently spend my resources on myself, or on others who are similarily blessed, because I feel like I deserve it or because it's easy.

And when I do spend what I have on others, it's not always with all joy.

Now I'm not saying that you can never be kind to people like you, or that they never need it; I'm also not saying you have to live like the poorest in this world or spend all your free time volunteering. There is merit to holy, furious, sabbath rest, for example.

But I think Jen was onto something in this book -

It won't suffice to claim good intentions. Saying "I meant well" is not going to cut it. Not with God screaming, begging, pleading, urging us to love mercy and justice, to feed the poor and the orphaned, to care for the last and least in nearly every book of the Bible. It will not be enough one day to stand before Jesus and say, "Oh? Were You serious about all that?" 

Coming up in my reading list is Taking God at His Word  by Kevin DeYoung. I'm excited to read it in the context of Interrupted because when we claim to believe that the Bible is the true and instructive Word of God, if we take that seriously, we will have to do something about it.

She challenges,

If the gospel is good news to all, then it's not just an idea to consider, a time slot on a Sunday, or a task assigned to a select few - it's a life to live. And it's bigger than all of us. 

Or if you want to hear it from Jesus,

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  Matthew 10:39