Our journey of 7 begins...

Today I began a journey that fills me with excitement while also filling me with anxiety and fear. I will reduce + simplify for 7 months. Yes, 7 months of purging excess. 

Recently a friend of mine approached me about embarking on a challenging 7 month experience. I know...seems radical. But sometimes radical is exactly what we need. The idea for this fast comes from the book 7 by Jen Hatmaker. Jen writes about how she is overwhelmed by the amount of excess in her life and how she decided to do something about it. She shares her family's experience battling against excess, specifically in 7 areas: food, clothing, possessions, media, waste, spending, and stress.

Each month she takes on one of these areas and fights against excess, ridding of all the mess that distracts her from God and from the point of our lives here, in this crazy world. She desired more of God and f-a-r less of herself.  

We have so much excess in our lives. I know I do, without a doubt. However, when I was asked to consider this journey...I'll be honest...I didn't exactly jump up and down screaming, "YES!" but I simply thought about it. I thought about it for days and days. As usual, there were many thoughts and emotions swimming around in my mind: oh, how inspiring. how daring, but what a challenge. wow, convicting, for sure. scary, oh so scary. 

...how can you say no to something like that? Ridding of junk in exchange for more of God, more room for the Holy Spirit to move. I was ALL in. 

So here I am embarking on this journey with some dear friends and pretty amazing people, I might add. We will encourage each other, pray for each other, and consult with each other on any gray areas.

Kirstin Cassell, thank you for being in my life and bringing all of this to my attention. I am so thrilled to start living with more simplicity and sacrifice. 

I intend to use this space to document my experiences during this journey. I so desperately desire to rid of distractions, to simplify, and to seek God more and more. More of Him and f-a-r less of me!

For the next 4 weeks I will be sticking with:

chicken, cheese, bread, eggs, apples, spinach, quinoa (keen-wah, for those of you, like me, who were unsure on exactly how to pronounce this)