Crazy Love Read online

  Heavenly Father, thank You for Your grace.

  Your forgiveness is SO good that I struggle with believing it at times. Thank You for rescuing me from myself and giving me Your Holy Spirit. Your love is better than life.

  To my best friend, Lisa,

  for being a godly, gorgeous, excellent wife and mother

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks to …

  Danae Yankoski for all of the effort and heart you put into this book.

  Don and Jenni at DC Jacobson and Associates for your encouragement and help.

  Todd and Joshua for serving the church and college God has given us to lead.

  My assistant, Sandy, for being a great helper and a cool old lady.

  The members of Cornerstone Church for passionately pursuing God with me.

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Foreword by Chris Tomlin

  Preface to the Updated Edition

  Preface

  Chapter 1: Stop Praying

  Chapter 2: You Might Not Finish This Chapter

  Chapter 3: Crazy Love

  Chapter 4: Profile of the Lukewarm

  Chapter 5: Serving Leftovers to a Holy God

  Chapter 6: When You’re in Love

  Chapter 7: Your Best Life … Later

  Chapter 8: Profile of the Obsessed

  Chapter 9: Who Really Lives That Way?

  Chapter 10: The Crux of the Matter

  Chapter 11: A Lot Should Change in Five Years

  A Conversation with Francis Chan

  About the Coauthor

  Excerpt from Multiply

  Extras

  FOREWORD

  It is with great excitement and honor that I get the opportunity to introduce you to my friend Francis Chan. Francis is one of those rare people you come across in life who leaves you wanting to be better. You know, a better friend, a better neighbor, a better athlete (well maybe not athlete … I can take Francis in most things involving competition). But most important, Francis leaves you wanting more of Jesus. If you are around Francis for more than thirty minutes, you soon realize that he is a man with great vision and resolve for the mission of Jesus. Some might say that Francis is a bit of an idealist in thinking that one life can really make a dent in the world. But I would say that Francis is the ultimate realist. Meaning, someone who believes that God is really who He says He is and that the true reality of this life is to follow Him wholeheartedly.

  The book you have in your hand, Crazy Love, may just be the most challenging book outside of God’s Word you will read this year. (And for a few years to come for that matter.) The status quo and norms of the so-called “Christian” life that so many of us are used to experiencing are in for a shock! Isn’t it interesting that in Acts 11, at the end of verse 26, it says, “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.” What I find interesting is the simple thought that the Christians didn’t name themselves. But rather, they were called (or named) “Christians” by those watching their lives. I wonder if it would be the same today. Could someone look at your life or look at my life and name me a Christian? A humbling question for sure.

  Crazy Love is the perfect title for this book. When Jesus was asked, “What is the greatest commandment?” he responded with “Love.”

  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt. 22:37–40)

  As Francis so brilliantly illustrates, the life that Jesus calls us to is absolute craziness to the world. Sure, it’s fine and politically correct to believe in God, but to really love Him is a whole different story. Yeah, it’s nice and generous to give to the needy at Christmas or after some disaster, but to sacrifice your own comfort and welfare for another may look like madness to a safe and undisturbed world.

  I am challenged to the core by the pages you’re about to read. I am excited that you are diving into this much-needed book. I encourage you to face up to the convictions of Crazy Love. I know your heart and spirit will be stirred again for your First Love.

  —Chris Tomlin,

  songwriter and worship leader of Passion Conferences

  PREFACE TO THE UPDATED EDITION

  I write this preface in January of 2013, and as of now Crazy Love has sold more than two million copies. To say that the response to the book surprised me is a huge understatement.

  When I wrote Crazy Love, I assumed I was only appealing to a small segment of the population. I hoped to encourage those who were confused by the church system—those who had been made to feel crazy because of their desire to follow Scripture simply and literally. I had no idea that it would resonate with so many people.

  I have seen some positive developments in the American church since 2008. I see a greater awareness of the suffering of those in our hometowns and those around the world. More people now question what it really means to “follow Jesus” and actively evaluate their lifestyles. Some have recognized their need to surrender and have repented of their ways. And in those individuals and churches that are pursuing these things, I see more joy and vitality.

  I love the church, and I am encouraged as I travel around the country and around the world and see groups of people living as God intended His church to live. I see the Spirit working— as He always is —and I am encouraged to see a larger group within the American church taking Scripture seriously and following the Spirit’s leading.

  But this is no reason to settle in. We will always find ourselves in trouble when we get comfortable with things as they are.

  As I reflect on what I wrote here five years ago, there are some things that would probably come out a bit differently if I were writing them today. Some have said that I focused too much on needs overseas and didn’t focus enough on the person who is called to the workplace here in America. I didn’t emphasize the need to work hard at our jobs to the glory of God. Everything I wrote in Crazy Love —seeing God accurately, loving Him passionately, taking the Scriptures at face value, etc.—needs to be applied in every area of our lives.

  Crazy Love will never be the only message the church needs to hear, but I am thankful that it continues to speak to people. Five years later, we still need to be reminded that God is bigger than we think. We need to be awed by His unfathomable love for us. We need to be pushed away from the lukewarm equilibrium we keep coming back to. I still need these reminders, and the church does too.

  In this edition of Crazy Love, I have added an additional chapter to update readers on my ministry and my thought process. God continues to guide and teach me, and I wanted to share some of that. Aside from that additional chapter, the text remains almost identical to the 2008 edition. This means that there is a five-year gap between chapters 1–10 and chapter 11. I decided not to change the references in those original chapters to where I was living, how many children I had, and where and how I was ministering. I wanted to change those chapters as little as possible since people have been connecting with them so well over the years.

  As you read this new edition of Crazy Love, my prayer for you is the same as it was when I first wrote it. I want you to be challenged by God’s greatness and love. I want you to understand that the only sane response to His love is a wholehearted devotion to Jesus. And I want you to see that the crazy people in this world are those who experience God’s love and remain complacent, not those who let go of all they have and follow Him completely.

  PREFACE

  To just read the Bible, attend church, and avoid “big” sins—

  is this passionate, wholehearted love for God?

  —François Fénelon, The Seeking Heart

  We all know something’s wrong.

  At first I thought it was just me. Then I stood before twenty thousand Christian college students and asked, “How many of you have read the New Testament and wondered if we in the church are missing it?” When almost every hand went up, I felt comforted. At least I’m not crazy.

  In this book I am going to ask some hard questions. They will resonate with what a lot of us feel but are generally afraid to articulate and explore. Don’t worry—this isn’t another book written to bash churches. I think it’s far too easy to blame the American church without acknowledging that we are each part of the church and therefore responsible. But I think we all feel deeply, even if we haven’t voiced it, that the church in many ways is not doing well.

  I get nervous when I think of how we’ve missed who we are supposed to be, and sad when I think about how we’re missing out on all that God wants for the people He loved enough to die for.

  I haven’t always felt this way. I grew up believing in God without having a clue what He is like. I called myself a Christian, was pretty involved in church, and tried to stay away from all of the things that “good Christians” avoid—drinking, drugs, sex, swearing. Christianity was simple: Fight your desires in order to please God. Whenever I failed (which was often), I’d walk around feeling guilty and distant from God.

  In hindsight, I don’t think my church’s teachings were incorrect, just incomplete. My view of God was narrow and small.

  Now I am a husband, a father of four, and the pastor of a church in Southern California. Until just a few years ago I was quite happy with how God was working in me and in the churc
h. Then God began changing my heart. This took place largely during the times I spent reading His Word. The conviction I felt through the teachings of Scripture, coupled with several experiences in third-world countries, changed everything. Some serious paradigm shattering happened in my life, and consequently in our church.

  The result is that I’ve never felt more alive, and neither has Cornerstone Church. It’s exhilarating to be part of a group of believers who are willing to think biblically rather than conventionally, to be part of a body where radical living is becoming the norm.

  #xa0;

  This book is written for those who want more Jesus. It is for those who are bored with what American Christianity offers. It is for those who don’t want to plateau, those who would rather die before their convictions do.

  I hope reading this book will convince you of something: that by surrendering yourself totally to God’s purposes, He will bring you the most pleasure in this life and the next. I hope it affirms your desire for “more God”—even if you are surrounded by people who feel they have “enough God.” I hope it inspires confidence if you have questioned and doubted the commitment of the American church. I want to affirm your questioning, even while assuring you there is hope.

  God put me in Simi Valley, California, to lead a church of comfortable people into lives of risk and adventure. I believe He wants us to love others so much that we go to extremes to help them. I believe He wants us to be known for giving—of our time, our money, and our abilities—and to start a movement of “giving” churches. In so doing, we can alleviate the suffering in the world and change the reputation of His bride in America. Some people, even some at my church, have told me flat-out, “You’re crazy.” But I can’t imagine devoting my life to a greater vision.

  We need to stop giving people excuses not to believe in God. You’ve probably heard the expression “I believe in God, just not organized religion.” I don’t think people would say that if the church truly lived like we are called to live. The expression would change to “I can’t deny what the church does, but I don’t believe in their God.” At least then they’d address their rejection of God rather than use the church as a scapegoat.

  We are going to look at how the Bible calls us to live our lives. It is important that we not measure our spiritual health by the people around us, who are pretty much like us. To begin this journey, we’ll first address our inaccurate view of God and, consequently, of ourselves.

  But before we look at what is wrong and address it, we need to understand something. The core problem isn’t the fact that we’re lukewarm, halfhearted, or stagnant Christians. The crux of it all is why we are this way, and it is because we have an inaccurate view of God. We see Him as a benevolent Being who is satisfied when people manage to fit Him into their lives in some small way. We forget that God never had an identity crisis. He knows that He’s great and deserves to be the center of our lives. Jesus came humbly as a servant, but He never begs us to give Him some small part of ourselves. He commands everything from His followers.

  The first three chapters are absolutely foundational to this book. Though parts of it may not be “new” material to you, allow these sacred truths to move you to worship. I pray that your reading of the next few pages will be interrupted by spontaneous and meaningful praise to God. Allow these words to communicate old truths to your heart in a fresh way.

  After the foundation has been laid in the first three chapters, the last seven chapters call us to examine ourselves. We will address life in light of the crux of who God is. We’ll discover what is wrong in our churches and, ultimately, in ourselves.

  Come with me on this journey. I don’t promise it will be painless. Change, as we all know, is uncomfortable. It’s up to you to respond to what you read. But you will have a choice: to adjust how you live daily or to stay the same.

  CHAPTER ONE

  What if I said, “Stop praying”? What if I told you to stop talking at God for a while, but instead to take a long, hard look at Him before you speak another word? Solomon warned us not to rush into God’s presence with words. That’s what fools do. And often, that’s what we do.

  We are a culture that relies on technology over community, a society in which spoken and written words are cheap, easy to come by, and excessive. Our culture says anything goes; fear of God is almost unheard of. We are slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to become angry.

  The wise man comes to God without saying a word and stands in awe of Him. It may seem a hopeless endeavor, to gaze at the invisible God. But Romans 1:20 tells us that through creation, we see His “invisible qualities” and “divine nature.”

  Let’s begin this book by gazing at God in silence. What I want you to do right now is to go online and look at the “Awe Factor” video at www.crazylovebook.com to get a taste of the awe factor of our God. Seriously—go do it.

  Speechless? Amazed? Humbled?

  When I first saw those images, I had to worship. I didn’t want to speak to or share it with anyone. I just wanted to sit quietly and admire the Creator.

  It’s wild to think that most of these galaxies have been discovered only in the past few years, thanks to the Hubble telescope. They’ve been in the universe for thousands of years without humans even knowing about them.

  Why would God create more than 350,000,000,000 galaxies (and this is a conservative estimate) that generations of people never saw or even knew existed? Do you think maybe it was to make us say, “Wow, God is unfathomably big”? Or perhaps God wanted us to see these pictures so that our response would be, “Who do I think I am?”

  R. C. Sproul writes, “Men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God.” 1

  Switch gears with me for a minute and think about the detailed intricacy of the other side of creation.

  Did you know that a caterpillar has 228 separate and distinct muscles in its head? That’s quite a few, for a bug. The average elm tree has approximately 6 million leaves on it. And your own heart generates enough pressure as it pumps blood throughout your body that it could squirt blood up to 30 feet. (I’ve never tried this, and I don’t recommend it.)

  Have you ever thought about how diverse and creative God is? He didn’t have to make hundreds of different kinds of bananas, but He did. He didn’t have to put 3,000 different species of trees within one square mile in the Amazon jungle, but He did. God didn’t have to create so many kinds of laughter. Think about the different sounds of your friends’ laughs—wheezes, snorts, silent, loud, obnoxious.

  How about the way plants defy gravity by drawing water upward from the ground into their stems and veins? Or did you know that spiders produce three kinds of silk? When they build their webs, they create sixty feet of silk in one hour, simultaneously producing special oil on their feet that prevents them from sticking to their own web. (Most of us hate spiders, but sixty feet an hour deserves some respect!) Coral plants are so sensitive that they can die if the water temperature varies by even one or two degrees.

  Did you know that when you get goose bumps, the hair in your follicles is actually helping you stay warmer by trapping body heat? Or what about the simple fact that plants take in carbon dioxide (which is harmful to us) and produce oxygen (which we need to survive)? I’m sure you knew that, but have you ever marveled at it? And these same poison-swallowing, life-giving plants came from tiny seeds that were placed in the dirt. Some were watered, some weren’t; but after a few days they poked through the soil and out into the warm sunlight.

  Whatever God’s reasons for such diversity, creativity, and sophistication in the universe, on earth, and in our own bodies, the point of it all is His glory. God’s art speaks of Himself, reflecting who He is and what He is like.

  The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.