Book Review - Crazy Love by Francis Chan

I and a group of friends have just finished reading and discussing Crazy Love by Francis Chan, and I do believe that we would all recommend it to others to read.

In Crazy Love, Chan points the reader to Christ and His love for us, and challenges the reader to live wholeheartedly for Him, returning the Savior's love for us.  To the world, this relationship will, indeed, look like Crazy Love.

Crazy Love is chock full of challenges and personal examples of what living out that love might look like for each believer.  One challenge to our group as mothers of young children was what we would do if faced with the opportunity to take a complete stranger(and family) into our own homes for an indefinite time.  This sparked a lot of discussion and provoked a lot of thought as to why we had the feelings we had...and whether some of those feelings needed to change.    The book also challenged us to look at our own lives and how we are living(type of home, vehicle we drive, money we spend...) and see how we can change for the glory of God.

This book is a wonderful tool for a book discussion group, with plenty to explore and talk about late into the night and ponder for weeks to come. I would even venture to say that I will be re-reading(and re-marking/highlighting) and pondering this book yet again.

I want to share a few things  that really jumped out at me:

1. Awe Factor Video - Never forget Who God is--our very Creator!

2. The point of your life is to point to Him...all that matters is the reality of who we are before God.

3. God will ensure my success in accordance with His plan, not mine. (What man defines as "success" is rarely the same as what God would label Success).

4. Lukewarm people are continually concerned with playing it safe....slaves to the god of control.  Yeah, still working on that one...

5. If life is a river, pursuing Christ requires swimming upstream. When we stop swimming, we automatically begin to be swept downsteam. To pursue Christ is to follow Him deliberately, not passively.

6. Jesus didn't die only to save us from hell; He also died to save us from our bondage to sin as we live our lives on this earth.

7. What matters is how we use what we've been given, not how much we make or do compared to someone else.  What matters is that we Spend Ourselves.

8. Are you driven by fear...or love? Do you obey out of wanting to please and serve Him. Are you OBSESSED with Him?

9. Read about followers of Christ who have gone on before us, and see how they lived, completely relying on and obsessed with Christ. Ex. Rachel Saint, Rich Mulling, George Mueller just to name a few...

10. Ask yourself, "Is this the most loving way to do life? Am I loving my neighbor and my God by living where I live, by driving what I drive, by talking how I talk?"...Is this what I want to be doing when Christ comes back?


I challenge you to read this book (even better--read it with a friend or group of friends and discuss!). You will be challenged in your faith and your life will be changed as you seek to deliberately live for Christ.