Crazy Love, Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan with danae yankoski; 2008; 175 pages; 978-1-4347-6851-3; 6/15/09-6/17/09

Last Saturday I was in Sandy, (east of Portland) and visited our longtime friends Dennis and Cathy Simons and we got talking about books as we usually do.  They gave me a copy of the book Crazy Love and told me they had just ordered 10 copies to give away.  I started reading it during my commute on Tuesday and read it through.  It is really not a commuter book for a couple of reasons, 1) the author occasionally asks you to go to the computer and watch a video and 2) he asks you to meditate on a couple of things.  Both of these are difficult when fare inspectors are asking for your proof of payment,  the couple behind you are having a loud discussion and the guy on the cell phone thinks he needs to yell to be heard.  With all that said it is an extremely good book that I plan on rereading when I am off for a few days in the summer and can sit and think even more about some of the things that Mr. Chan brings out.  We need to break out of the traditional christian box, do this, this and this and don’t do this and you will be saved from a fiery eternity.  So many of us have entered into this contract with God without reading the terms and conditions of the agreement before accepting.  We know only what the salesman tells us, but don’t read the instructions, which are much more radical than the salesman let’s on.  We need to be obsessed with God and live more like Jesus than we do.  I need to be challenged with this message on a daily basis so that it will continue to sink in deeper and deeper and become a part of my DNA.  RRRR