Book Review: “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan

So, I’ve been reading Francis Chan’s book, “Crazy Love” for quite some time now.  I’ll be honest, I read the first 80% of it within a week or so, and then the last 20% took me forever to finish.  Part of that was life getting hectic, and I don’t know what the rest was.

But, it is now finished, and I have much to say about it.  However, I will first remind everyone what I mean when I say the word “review”.  It’s not meant to be objective in any way.  This is entirely subjective (which, I believe, is the point of reviews…you find someone you tend to agree with, and then trust their opinions on various media suggestions) and moreso, is definitely very much about where my head and heart are right now.  So, as with everything I say, take this with a grain of salt, a swig of your favorite beverage, and hopefully a munch of something tasty.  That said, here we go:

“Crazy Love” is definitely the most interesting book I’ve read in the last five years.  No, it’s not the most “gripping”.  It’s not very exciting at all, actually.  Mostly, I have a hard time reading non-fiction.  So, if it doesn’t have a story and characters and twists, and whatever…it doesn’t get read (all the way, at least).  But, Crazy Love called to me in the bookstore.  No joke, I believe God placed this book in my hands.

Francis Chan has a simple premise here-that we’re not living as we should.  That we’re not living the lives we profess.  That we are sapping our own vitality here, and potentially endangering our very souls by doing so.

See, Pastor Chan (of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California) believes that we need to be sold out for Jesus.  And we, as Christians nod in agreement, and say “Of course, man!  Amen!”  But Francis doesn’t let us off the hook there.  He says, “Well?  How about it then?  Where is your faith?  Where are you walking where only God can catch you if you fall?”

Confess, Re-Dedicate, Pray, Repeat.

Here’s the deal.  I’m going to lay it out for you all right now, and in the open for all to see.  Because it’s what needs to happen.  Frankly, it needs to happen for everyone that calls themselves sons or daughters of God.  It needs to happen before you go to youth group, before you go to church, before you go to bible study, or really we should do it again and again, before we lay down before bed, and before we get up out of bed for our days to begin, and probably throughout our day as well…

So what the heck am I talking about.  I’m talking about confession, re-dedication, and prayer.  I hate talking like this, but I’m going to add one more preface here:  This isn’t about being public so people will see me.  And it’s not about “earning God” because nothing I can do is worthy of God.  And anything in public that I do, is probably worth even that little bit less.  But it’s late at night, my wife is in bed, and I’ve got no one to share with.  So it’s going to be you.  Sorry about that.

So yeah, let’s start with confession.

Doctor Octoroc Needs Your Help!

Hey there, readers!  Well, this is the kind of thing I have to admit, that I absolutely love the blogosphere (which is different from the Blagosphere)…when one blogger notices a problem with another blogger, and reaches out to help.

Ein - Doctor Octoroc's puppy

So, any of you who checked out or downloaded Doctor Octoroc’s Christmastime “8-Bit Jesus” over at his site, Doc needs some assistance.  His six month old puppy, Ein, has gallstones (kidney or bladder stones?  I an not a doctor.  Good thing Octoroc is…) that are too large for him to pass, and therefore requires surgery.  No, Doc Oc is not asking for you to pay for the surgery.  Instead, he’s asking that if you liked the album, and if you were considering buying the physical copy, that he needs you to pay in advance, instead of when it comes out.  See, he doesn’t have the cash to create the CDs, but will with your contribution of $15.  So, it’s giving, yes.  And it’s giving during the holidays, in a sense of cameraderie and fellowship, but it’s also a two-fer, because on top of the sense of giving, you’ll also get the physical CD (with more tracks than listed on the site) of “8-Bit Jesus.”  You can read more about this situation and learn how to donate, by clicking this sentence.

So, let’s help a brother out, and take some pity on his dog, eh?  I can’t do it right now, but I plan on doing it after Christmas, when I’ve got a little more cash to spend.  Let’s support some cool chiptune interesting-ness (of course it’s a word!) and help someone out in the community as well!