Crazy Love
| Francis Chan
Overwhelmed By a Relentless God
This is one of the most enlightening and convicting books I have read about discerning the will of God for our lives. We are all the same, we are all trying to find our purpose and as Christians we often see Gods plans as a mystery that we are supposed to decode. That is the problem, throughout this book Chan tries to lift our eyes from ourselves and see Christ and the example he set for us and follow in the faithful footsteps of the early disciples. He attempts to focus our eyes not on the mystery of Gods will but on His revealed will to display selfless, crazy love to all. As I read this book I found myself memorising the words of Christ, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35.
Throughout the book, we read of the marvelous work of Christians who have dedicated their lives to Christ and displaying His love in different ways; and what caught me off guard is that right after chapter 9, which is entirely comprised of these testimonies; he warns us that we should be careful not to turn others’ lives into a mold for our own. We should allow God to be as creative with us as he is with all creation. The first read these words it was so timely and it will always remain as important as the first time.
What Chan does so brilliantly throughout the book is that he calls us to examine ourselves and to go against the grain of the current Christian and secular culture in living radical and sacrificial lives. I appreciated the fact that there was an obvious commitment to teach Biblical principles straight from the Bible; and that it invites you to verify what he is teaching from those same Scriptures rather than teaching principles from the experience of others.
Overall, it is an easily read book that leaves a trail of tears and a call to action and its only drawback is that it finishes far too quickly and probably is not going to be as beneficial for brand new Christians. That being said, I would recommend this to every Christian I come across and it is best read and utilized in a cell/connect group where Christians can study, pray and apply these biblical principals in community.
TYB rating: This is probably the only book I will give a 5/5
The book also has a number of accompanying resources like Videos and an Interactive Workbook for Individual or Small-Group Study for you to check out.