The other day I came home from work and noticed a book sitting on the counter I'd never seen before. It was a paperback with a bright red cover entitled "Crazy Love", written by Francis Chan. (Francis Chan is a relatively young pastor of a large church in Southern California, Simi Valley, called Cornerstone Church. I first heard about Francis Chan from Austin, Annie and Meagan who heard him speak at one of the Passion Conference's they attended.) When I asked Victoria where she found the book, she explained that she read about it from one of the blogs she follows on a regular basis (called "The Journey", reflections from Amazima ministry; a link to which is posted in the right hand column of our blog). She bought two copies of the book at a bargain basement price thinking that it might be nice to read it together. Victoria also knows that I'm prone to steal books that she's in the middle of reading because her enthusiasm about a book tempts me to grab it from her when she's not looking so I see what it is that's so enthralling. She finds my bad habit to be fairly irritating, so this time I guess she was going to head it off at the pass.
By yesterday morning I was already into Chapter 3 and captivated by this pastor's simple love for Jesus, spelled out in terms and a language that's fresh and refreshing. Chapter 3 is entitled "Crazy Love", obviously the title of the book. But what's so crazy about it? And what love is he talking about? Well, last but not first, it's God's love over us, but it's also our love over Him. And it's crazy because His love toward us is, as Francis terms it, "insane" (incomprehensible), and likewise our love over Him should be crazy and "insane". He likens God's love toward us much as that of a father over his own children in the sense that he'd do anything for them, even die, to keep them resting in the security of their father. In fact, Francis has a web link that highlights his book wherein one can watch and hear him speak about each chapter, and on this particular chapter (#3) he has one of his little boys resting in his arms while comfortably seated on a couch, presumably in his home. This scene demonstrates in a very tangible way the very love God has over His children.
This struck me because I know I feel that same way about my own children (all five of them) and I know it's the way my parents feel about me, but I don't often think of God's love over me in that way. While it's not a perfect comparison or analogy, I think it's about the best one I can identify with on a personal level. There's a part of me that says to myself, "This is pretty basic, Tom. I mean, you're just now coming to this realization after all these years?" Yes, and no. Sometimes you just need another angle to view what you've seen and known all along to focus anew on what was always there. I've read before from one of my favorite (but now gone to be with the Lord) Christian writers, A. W. Tozer, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us..., and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like." I'm hopeful that revisiting God's Word through the lens of Francis Chan's book will help me see God's love, among other things, much like an earthly father's love over his own.
Desiring Crazy Love,
Tom
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