I just finished reading Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan. Amy gave me this book for my birthday (thank-you!) and I’m glad because I have heard so much about it. My overall impression of the book is that it is really good, but not necessarily life-changing.
I have decided my “less-than-over-the-top” reaction to the book stems more from unrealistic expectations of what it was going to be like rather than from any shortcoming on Francis Chan’s part. I had heard this was a life-transforming book, and it might be for some, but personally I have been wrestling with these same issues for quite a long time now (at least since I first received my call to ministry in the early 90's) so mostly what I found myself doing as I read was nodding my head thinking, “Yes, that’s right” instead of shaking it in amazement and saying, “Wow! I never thought of that,” or “Really?”
Chan describes why he wrote the book on page 168, “I wrote this book because much of our talk doesn’t match our lives. We say things like, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,’ and ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart.’ Then we live and plan like we don’t even believe God 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 could not agree more. As a pastor I see this all the time. In fact, as a pastor (and as a Christian) I do it myself. I often find myself planning “exit strategies” in case God doesn’t show up, which I realize demonstrates a definite lack of faith. I did it earlier this week when the Elders and I were wrestling with whether or not to proceed with buying a piece of land for the church to eventually build on. It is a huge financial commitment for us. As I prayed through the issue I kept thinking in terms of "What if it isn't God's will" instead of boldly claiming the land, "by faith." I wish I didn’t do that. Truth is, the father's cry in Mark 9 of, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24) often could be used to sum up my spiritual journey. I do believe, but then by my actions I prove I don’t really have faith.
My main criticism of the book is I don’t think Chan really provides an answer to this problem. He sees the problem is we don’t love God enough so the answer is we should love God more, but love can’t be forced, can it? Isn’t that the nature of love? The reason we don’t love God enough, according to the author, is because our understanding of God is deficient (page 22) so he proceeds to write three chapters to show us who God really is and why he is worthy of our love. He expects us to be convinced and then expects we’ll be driven to our knees in worship, which ultimately equates to love in Chan’s vocabulary. I don’t blame him for not being able to explain "how," I struggle with the same issue myself and in my church.
In the next seven chapters Chan examines what he perceives to be the sorry state of the church (apparently mainly thinking about the church in America, and in particular in Southern California). His conclusion is that we are lukewarm Christians who attend lukewarm churches spending our time striving for a life with God characterized by control, safety and an absence of suffering.
Are we “missing it?” as Chan contends? Are we even “good soil” (saved) as he asks? Do we offer God our “leftovers” instead of our best? Perhaps… probably...maybe. To the extent that we ask ourselves these questions and wrestle with the answers, the book is helpful. When it comes to the answer to the big question, yes, God is definitely the answer, and yes, God is love, but I’m not sure I’m any wiser for having been retold this so many times; mostly I just feel guilty.
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