Crazy Love Blog Series- Chapter 2

Here are the notes (and video) for Chapter 2 of Crazy Love:

Crazy Love

You Might Not Finish This Chapter

You could die before reading the end of this chapter, today, at any moment, but it's easy to think about today as just another day. An average day where you go about life’s concerns with your to-do-list preoccupied by appointments, focused on family, thinking about your desires and needs. On the average day we live caught up in ourselves. On the average day we don’t consider God very much. On the average day we forget that our life truly is a vapor, but there is nothing normal about today. Just think about everything that must function properly just for you to survive… The majority of us take for granted our liver, kidneys, lungs, and other internal organs that we’re dependent upon to continue living.

It’s crazy that we think today is just a normal day to do whatever we want with. 

“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."   -  James  4:13-14

Do you really believe you could vanish at any minute? That perhaps today you will die? Or do you instead feel, somehow, invincible?

Frederick Buechner wrote: “Intellectually we all know that we will die, but we do not really know it in the sense that the knowledge becomes a part of us. We do not really know it in the sense of living as though it were true. On the contrary, we tend to live as though our lives would go on forever.”

Philippians 4:4 and 6:

“Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: Rejoice”

“Do not be anxious about anything…”

When I am consumed by my problems, stress out about my life, my family and my job, I actually convey the belief that I think the circumstances are more important than God’s command to always rejoice. In other words, that I have a right to disobey God, because of the magnitude of my responsibility. 

Worry implies that we don’t quite trust, that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what’s happening in our lives. Stress says that the things we’re involved in are more important, to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control. 

Basically these two behaviors communicate that’s its OK to sin, and not trust God, because the stuff in my life is somehow exceptional. Both worry and stress reek of arrogance. They declare our tendency to forget that we’ve been forgiven, that our lives here are brief, that we are headed to a place where we won’t be lonely, afraid or hurt ever again. And that in the context of God’s strength our problems are small indeed.

Why are we so quick to forget God? Who do we think we are?

“So weather you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
-1 Corinthians 10:31

So what does that mean for you? Frankly, you need to get over yourself. It might sound harsh, but that’s seriously what it means.

It’s easy to become disillusioned with the circumstances of our lives, compared to others, but in the presents of God, He gives us a deeper peace, and joy that transcends it all. To be brutally honest it doesn’t really matter what place you find yourself in right now, your part is to bring Him glory.

The point of your life is to point to Him. Whatever you are doing God wants to be glorified, because this whole thing is His… It is His world.

We still forget that we are not in control. (We need to) acknowledge our lack of control and reach out for God’s help. If life were stable I’d never need God’s help. Since it’s not, I reach out for him regularly.

Are you ready?

It’s good to think about death.

“It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man .The living should take this to heart.”  -  Ecclesiastes 7:2

The truth is some people waste their lives.

All that matters is the reality of who we are before God.

You could be the next person in your family to die. I could be the next person at my church to die. We have to realize it, we have to believe it enough that it changes how we live.

We need to stop living shellfish lives, forgetful of our God. Our lives here are short, often unexpectedly so, and we can all stand to be reminded of it from time to time.

That’s why I wrote this chapter. To help us remember that in the movie of life, nothing matters except our King and God. Don’t let yourself forget. Soak it in and keep remembering that it is true. He is everything. 

Chapter 2 video: 

For more on the book visit: www.crazylovebook.com

*Quotes from Crazy Love by Francis Chan

*Photos by me