Is This It?

To just read the Bible, attend church, and avoid "big" sins - is this passionate, wholehearted love for God?

Francois Fenelon, The Seeking Heart

Are We Missing It?

Recently I've been looking for a good book to challenge me again. I randomly just decided to buy Francis Chan's "Crazy Love" without knowing anything about the book. (I just love the Chan man!) The book is coming in the mail tomorrow so I decided to go on the book's website (http://www.crazylovebook.com/) today and actually find out what I'm getting myself into.

Just the book description itself calls my name and rings soo true to what's been going on in me, and has got me wanting to quote it:

Have you ever wondered if we're missing it?

It's crazy, if you think about it. The God of the universe -the Creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and E-minor - loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. And what is our typical response? We go to church, sing songs and try not to cuss.

Whether you've verbalized it yet or not ... we all know something's wrong.

Does something deep inside your heart long to break free from the status quo? Are you hungry for an authentic faith that addresses the problems of our world with tangible, even radical, solutions? God is calling you to a passionate relationship with Himself. Because the answer to religious complacency isn't working harder at a list of do's and don'ts - it's falling in love with God. And once you've encountered His love, as Francis describes it, you will never be the same.

Because when you're wildly in love with someone, it changes everything.

*Chan, Francis. Crazy Love: Overwelmed by a Relentless God. Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2008.

Caged Christian

In his book, "Wild Goose Chase," Mark Batterson hit the nail on the head concerning my spirituality and what I kept seeing all around me. I was a caged Christian. You could pretty much replace "he" in the following except with my name:

"I'll tell you exactly what he is lacking: spiritual adventure. His life was too easy, too predictable, and too comfortable. He kept all the commandments, but those commandments felt like a religious cage....Listen, not breaking the prohibitive commandments is right and good. But simply not breaking the prohibitive commandments isn't spiritually satifying. It leaves us feeling caged. And I honestly think that is where many of us find ourselves." (8)

My deep unrest and unfulfillment nagged at me constantly. I would communicate it but since what I communicated didn't "fit in the box," I wouldn't get good reception and people didn't know how to handle me. I didn't know how to put what I felt and what I knew about God together. They didn't fit. But I couldn't stop the nagging. I couldn't stop the cry in my heart. This book opened the door to see how God and what I felt actually belonged exactly together. That what I was feeling was actually exactly from God to do more, to live bigger, to create a faith within me that was big enough for God to fit in!

"Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death."(171)

That is exactly what I was doing.

Determined to Redefine My Christianity

I want to BREAK FREE!!! I've lived in the box my whole life because I've been trying to "please God." But it's starting to BORE ME to DEATH!! The more I think about it, the more I realize this isn't what God has called us to...

God is Wild @ Heart, Adventurous & Creative!! Why have we put Him in this bland box?! He can never be contained!! And He calls us to a life of passion, unpredictability & adventure so why do we live in the box?!!

We've reduced...

...the Holy Spirit to emotions,
...God to a systematic theology,
...and the Body of Christ to an institution!

I think we've got it all wrong!!

God must be bored to tears with our predictable Christian lives! I've spent the 24 years of my life trying to fit into this perfect Christian world we've created but I think it's killing me! This is not what God has designed us for!!