Crazy Love

One of my favorite preachers is Francis Chan from Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, CA. I first heard Francis at Catalyst last fall and was blown away. His sermon had me weeping and when he was done his message received a standing ovation that lasted about 5 minutes or so.

Crazy Love is Francis's first book and it's well worth the read. What I love about him and this book is that he calls Christians to apply God's Word to their lives - unfiltered. This is so hard because whether we realize it or not, we have a tendancy to filter everything we read in the Bible. We say, "Yes, I know Jesus says to live like this, but how do I apply that to my life as an upper-middle class American Christian?" or "...how does Jesus teaching fit into my theology?" One of the things I've really been trying to do lately is remove the filters and interpret and follow God's Word for what it says - not for how it can fit into my existing lifestyle. Crazy Love definitely helped me in that direction. This is another book that isn't always comfortable to read, but is extremely valuable.

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Somebody commented to me the other day on the amount of books I've been reviewing since I started here at Living Hope. I haven't been spending more work hours reading necessarily. I've actually been trying to discipline myself to read when I'm bored or when nothing I love is on TV. My normal pattern is to channel surf until something catches my attention and then spend evening hours watching shows I'm really not that interested in. I'm trying to watch only shows I TiVo so I watch less TV and spend more time reading. I'm also trying to discipline myself into reading the books I buy. I've always read quite a bit. But it's not uncommon for me to have 20-30 books on the shelf unread. I'm trying to bring that down. Plus, I really love reading!