Crazy Love

Occasionally, I’ll read a book that, for whatever reason, has a profound impact on me.  Crazy Love by Francis Chan was one such book.

For the past several years I have not been able to spend adequate time reading and conversing with some of the great books that have been published lately.  It’s my fault, and I feel like I am playing catch-up.  So, I apologize if this book has already blown past your radar.  Maybe you read it.  Maybe you know people that have read it.  Maybe you forgot about.  If you forgot about it, then I suggest you read it again, because you might be on an adventure in missing the point.   I was and sadly still am.  But I have at least stopped, and I am beginning to look for a place to ask for directions.  Unfortunately, it seems, not enough people know the way…

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Francis lovingly prefaces his book by identifying that something is radically wrong with our American churches.  Without throwing punches, he points out how an American Dream mentality stands antithetical to the surprise of the Gospel, yet we still allow it to be the driving force in our lives.  For example, take a look at this commercial.  I wonder how many people in our churches feel uneasy when they watch it?

This commercial didn’t use to bug me.  I would just tell myself I was never going to retire because retirement isn’t Biblical. Blah, blah, blah.  Look at me, all self-righteous in my understanding of God’s view of work.  I don’t need a number.  I would go about my business, nothing internally changed, totally missing the point.

Now this commercial disturbs me.

Here’s the thing.  The problem with the American church is me.  I may never retire, but I am still living as though this number ING is talking about is important.  I have an inaccurate and inadequate view of God.  I want to be happy more than holy.  I want to have great schools for my kid, and a nice house in a safe suburban neighborhood.  I want to have money to travel.  I want to buy my wife nice things (and a lot of times for the wrong reasons, by the way).  I want God’s protection more than his provision.  I want to be entertained, comforted, and only slightly convicted.  I feel like Bob Wiley from the movie, What About Bob?  “I want!  I want!  I want!  I need!  I need!  I need!”

It’s sad, really.

For the first time in my life, I want to be disgusted by myself, and it has taken me far too long for me to ask God to do it.  Crazy Love has helped me take this honest look in the mirror.

The main point in Chan’s book is this:  If we are truly in love with Jesus, then our lives should not make sense to the rest of the unbelieving world.  The minute our lives appear “normal” we’ve got a problem.  His driving question being: Is this the most loving way to do [your] life?

Through ten chapters, Francis lays out who God is, who we are, and what the gap means.  And the deal is, if we love Jesus and love each other as much as we say we do during Sunday morning worship…if we are to love God and love others the way Jesus beckons us to… then we need to live in a way that does not make sense.  Some might even call it “Crazy.”  Indeed, at the conclusion of Chan’s book there should be change.  Not motivation for change.  Not inspiration for change.  But change itself.

As I interact with Chan’s book, I am slowly making changes.  God is opening my eyes in a way that is allowing me to see myself for what feels like the first time.  I am frightened.  I am energized.  And I still don’t know what all this is going to mean for our family.  But God has put us on a journey that I did not expect.  Our story has taken a turn, and some inciting events have sent us through doors that have locked behind us.  Yet, there is freedom in this type of story.  All I have to do is turn the page.