Crazy Love: The Book Review

I’m not a bandwagon girl.

I’m more of a if-everyone-likes-something-then-maybe-I-won’t-like-it-just-to-be-different girl.

(I’m not saying that’s a good thing.  It probably isn’t.)

That tendency, however, explains the reason why I am just now finishing Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love.

It was really popular.  Last year. So I didn’t want to read it last year.

I think there’s a reason why I read it now, instead of then.

The full title is Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God.

And I have been discovering something about God’s pursuit.

Because God works like that – you know?

I had to plow through the first sixty pages or so before I was involved in the message Chan was sharing.

But then it got good.

I think his point is to remind us of the fact that God’s love is, well, not like our love.  It is crazy.

One point he makes is how even nature tells us the story of a redemptive, sacrificial God who risks everything.  For us. A God who does that and then says “Be like me”.

I was convicted by loads of statements in this book.  Like when Chan talks about the arrogance of both worry and stress.  He says, “Basically these two behaviors communicate that it’s okay to sin and not trust God because the stuff in my life is somehow exceptional.”

Or this . . . “But we need to realize that how we spend our time, what our money goes toward, and where we will invest our energy is equivalent to choosing God or rejecting Him.”

And this one . . . “When I look at my relationship with God as a chore, a sacrifice, then I am getting the glory – not God.  I keep saying, ‘Look what I have sacrificed for God….’  . . . .  when we work for Christ out of obligation, it feels like work.  But when we truly love Christ, our work is a manifestation of that love, and it feels like love.”

Or how about this . . . “We like finding refuge in what we already have rather than in what we hope God will provide.”  Yeah, that one really hits home for me.

I could on quoting forever.

But one of the many things that struck me while reading was my own love of security.  My own fear of losing it.

So I was paying close attention when Chan wrote, “We are consumed by safety.  Obsessed with it, actually.  Now, I’m not saying it is wrong to pray for God’s protection, but I am questioning how we’ve made safety our highest priority.  We’ve elevated safety to the neglect of whatever God’s best is, whatever would bring God the most glory, or whatever would accomplish His purposes in our lives and in the world.”

Guilty. I am.

And as God allows portions of my life to be revealed to me as they have always been – out of my control – I am becoming more aware of how tightly I have held on to certain ideas and plans.

Chan says we, as Christians, are quick to claim verses such as “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” and we quote “Trust in the Lord with all your heart” but “then we live and plan like we don’t believe God even exists.  We try to set our lives up so everything will be fine even if God doesn’t come through.  But true faith means holding nothing back.  It means putting every hope in God’s fidelity to His promises.”

I don’t think the writing in Crazy Love is exactly profound, but the message is.

One of the final points Chan makes is one I have often thought of before.  He talks about this elusive idea of “God’s will” and how to discover it.

I’ve had a lot of conversations with a lot of people about “God’s will for my life” and how you can discover it and how you can know it.  I bet you have too.  And those conversations always seemed a little . . . self-centered, I guess.  A little preoccupied.  A lot me-centered.  (You know, my pursuit of God, not His for me.)

I like how Chan wraps his head around that.  “. . . I believe part of the desire to ‘know God’s will for my life’ is birthed in fear and results in paralysis.  We are scared to make mistakes, so we fret over figuring out God’s will.  We wonder what living according to His will would actually look and feel like, and we are scared to find out.  We forget that we were never promised a twenty-year plan of action: instead, God promises multiple times in Scripture never to leave or forsake us.    God wants us to listen to His Spirit on a daily basis, and even throughout the day, as difficult and stretching moments arise, and in the midst of the mundane.  . . . Instead of searching for ‘God’s will for my life’ [we should] learn to seek hard after ‘the Spirit’s leading in my life today.’  May we learn to pray for an open and willing heart, to surrender to the Spirit’s leading with that friend, child, spouse or decision in our lives right now.”

Yeah, I think you should read this book for yourself.

Don’t wait for next year.

Unless that’s when you’re supposed to read it, you know?