For the Love Favorites

So, y'all may have heard me talk about this little book by Jen Hatmaker called For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards, out next Tuesday. It's no big deal. I mean, seriously, it's not like I can't stop talking about it. Oh wait...

Being on the launch team for this book has been such a blessing this year. The #500 started as an online community who love Jen Hatmaker, but became a real life community who believe in the mission of this book. And we have loved, supported and cheered each other along in the midst of our every day lives. Also, we have watched a LOT of Gilmore Girls.

Full disclosure: this book is a game changer. It is hilarious, full of real life, and abounding in grace - for ourselves and each other. I should have guessed this would happen, but I fell in love with these words. And to give you just a glimpse, below are five of my favorite quotes.

 "This is why we live and breathe: for the love of Jesus, for the love of our own souls, for the love of our families and people, for the love of our neighbors and this world. This is all that will last. Honestly, it is all that matters. Because as Paul basically said: We can have our junk together in a thousand areas, but if we don't have love, we are totally bankrupt. Get this right and everything else follows. Get it wrong, and life becomes bitter, fear-based, and lonely. Dear ones, it doesn't have to be. Love really is the most excellent way."

 "I approach this one gently, because you are my beloved sisters, but I call to the witness stand high-waisted jeans. They were bad the first time and are now repeat offenders. (Watch early episodes of Friends if you need to be reminded.) I can't get behind a sixteen-inch rise. Three more inches and it's a strapless pantsuit. Heaven help if you have even a tiny pouch of belly flesh; high-rise jeans are basically a display case for your butterball. Sure, your waist looks tiny up in your rib cage, but your butt is half the length of your body. It looks like my Grandma King's backside, and all due respect to Grandma and may she rest in peace, but that is not a compliment. (Grandma, you had a great rack. We all have different strengths.)"

"If a sermon promises health and wealth to the faithful, it isn't true, because that theology makes God an absolute monster who only blesses rich westerners and despises Christians in Africa, India, China, South America, Russia, rural Appalachia, inner-city America, and everywhere else a sincere believer remains poor. If it isn't also true for a poor single Christian mom in Haiti, it isn't true."



 "Instead of waiting around for church to assemble a perfect group dynamic of People Who Can Meet on Tuesdays, maybe just invite some folks over. 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 conversations, when it provides a safe place to break bread and share wine, your house becomes a sanctuary, holy as a cathedral. I've left a friend's table as sanctified and renewed as any church service. If you have a porch, then you have an altar to gather around."

"Be kind. Be you. Love Jesus."

If you read any book this year, For the Love should be it. And when you do read it, let me know. We'll go out for coffee and discuss.