Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan & Danae Yankoski & Chris Tomlin

Author:Francis Chan & Danae Yankoski & Chris Tomlin [Chan, Francis & Yankoski, Danae & Tomlin, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: lukewarm, leftovers, sacrifice, humble, servers, praying
ISBN: 9781434768513
Publisher: David C. Cook
Published: 2008-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

2 Mark Buchanan, The Rest of God (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2007), 158.

3 Henri Nouwen, With Open Hands (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2006), 65.

CHAPTER SIX

O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, “Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.” Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.1

Have you ever met someone who was utterly and desperately in love with Jesus? I have. My wife’s grandma Clara.

I spoke recently at Grandma Clara’s funeral, and I could honestly tell the mourners gathered that I had never known anyone more excited to see Jesus. Every morning Clara would kneel by her bed and spend precious hours with her Savior and Lover; later in the day, just the sight of that corner of her bed would bring joy-filled tears and a deep anticipation of the next morning spent kneeling in His presence.

Grandma Clara acted toward God the way we act toward people we’re madly in love with.

When you are truly in love, you go to great lengths to be with the one you love. You’ll drive for hours to be together, even if it’s only for a short while. You don’t mind staying up late to talk. Walking in the rain is romantic, not annoying. You’ll willingly spend a small fortune on the one you’re crazy about. When you are apart from each other, it’s painful, even miserable. He or she is all you think about; you jump at any chance to be together.

In his book God Is the Gospel, John Piper essentially asks whether we are in love with God:

The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?2

How many of you will read those words and say, “You know, I just might be okay with that”? If you are as deeply in love with God as Grandma Clara was, you know you could never be satisfied in a heaven without Christ.

Don’t Try so Hard

My fear in writing the previous chapter is that it only evokes in you fear and guilt. Personal experience has

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