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This is the third and final blog entry focusing on the Preface of Crazy Love. Before we dive into Chapter One, I want us to look at what Francis Chan finds to be the real problem for us…why we feel like we’re missing 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 has 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.” P. 22
There’s a lot to digest in these seven sentences, and Chan spends the next 10 chapters dissecting much, if not all, of what he says here. What I want to focus on today is the third sentence. It reads:
“We see Him as a benevolent Being who is satisfied when people manage to fit Him into their lives in some small way.”
Okay…be honest…a virtual show of hands, of those that have done just this. I should probably raise both of my hands because I felt an extra dose of conviction with this one. See if this sounds somewhat familiar:
‘The alarm clock wakes you up 15 minutes early so you can have your 'quiet time,' except you hit the snooze button because you didn’t sleep so well that night. Not a problem, you’ll fit in the quiet time between the gym and the kids getting up. Great plan…except you didn’t check it with the kiddos. They decided to get up early. NOT A PROBLEM. You can definitely get the quiet time in after lunch. You actually crack open the Bible and start to read, but then the phone rings. You decide to let the answering machine get it, but it’s an important call. Okay, quiet time….definitely after dinner. Do you see the pattern? Next thing you know, it’s 10:00 and your quiet time, if you even start it, ends by minute four because you fall asleep.”
Sound familiar? This is pretty much an everyday occurrence for me…and it’s COMPLETELY embarrassing to admit. But here’s the thing...I disagree with Chan's reasoning. I don’t think we see God as being satisfied when we manage to fit Him into our lives. Honestly, that’s giving us too much credit...blaming our poor behavior on ignorance. Every Christian I know would readily admit that God is worth so much more...and expects so much more. So why aren’t we giving Him more? I'm sure there are as many reasons as there are people on the planet…but today, we’re just going to focus on one!
THE PUSH
“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 has 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.” P. 22
There’s a lot to digest in these seven sentences, and Chan spends the next 10 chapters dissecting much, if not all, of what he says here. What I want to focus on today is the third sentence. It reads:
“We see Him as a benevolent Being who is satisfied when people manage to fit Him into their lives in some small way.”
Okay…be honest…a virtual show of hands, of those that have done just this. I should probably raise both of my hands because I felt an extra dose of conviction with this one. See if this sounds somewhat familiar:
‘The alarm clock wakes you up 15 minutes early so you can have your 'quiet time,' except you hit the snooze button because you didn’t sleep so well that night. Not a problem, you’ll fit in the quiet time between the gym and the kids getting up. Great plan…except you didn’t check it with the kiddos. They decided to get up early. NOT A PROBLEM. You can definitely get the quiet time in after lunch. You actually crack open the Bible and start to read, but then the phone rings. You decide to let the answering machine get it, but it’s an important call. Okay, quiet time….definitely after dinner. Do you see the pattern? Next thing you know, it’s 10:00 and your quiet time, if you even start it, ends by minute four because you fall asleep.”
Sound familiar? This is pretty much an everyday occurrence for me…and it’s COMPLETELY embarrassing to admit. But here’s the thing...I disagree with Chan's reasoning. I don’t think we see God as being satisfied when we manage to fit Him into our lives. Honestly, that’s giving us too much credit...blaming our poor behavior on ignorance. Every Christian I know would readily admit that God is worth so much more...and expects so much more. So why aren’t we giving Him more? I'm sure there are as many reasons as there are people on the planet…but today, we’re just going to focus on one!
THE PUSH
So…here’s one of my theories. We live in an age of instant everything. Last night, my family watched the BBC’s 2009 release of Emma. (Which I highly recommend!) One thing that really struck me was how much time people spent writing letters and visiting one another back then. People’s lives revolved around relationships…probably because there wasn’t much else to do. Well, that’s not the case anymore. We now live in the age of instant messaging and text messaging, Facebook and, my personal ‘favorite’ Twitter. Our relationships, and by default, our lives, have been reduced to 200 character blurbs. This is how we communicate with one another and how we have conditioned ourselves to talk to God. He deserves so much better…and so do we. So, your homework is to turn it off for one day. If at all possible, turn it all off… the cell phone, the computer, the TV, whatever your vice is. When you feel the urge to turn it on, turn to God.
For those of you that are interested in how my last homework assignment went, check out the comment section for that day!
For those of you that are interested in how my last homework assignment went, check out the comment section for that day!
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