“Crazy Love” by Francis Chan, David C. Cook, Colorado Springs, CO: 2008.
Review by Steve Hyde
I was offered by David C. Cook the rights to publish this book in Cambodia, however, I never had a chance to read it until my Mother sent it to me for my 40th birthday. I was kind of hoping for a motorcycle, but I guess the book was a more realistic book! Anyway, since I live outside American church circles I was not sure who Francis Chan was. I did a quick internet check on him and found out he is very active in missions, so I decided the book was worth a shot of reading.
The title, Crazy Love, drew me, but I wondered what it was about. I enjoyed the book and found his arguments not only thought provoking, but I found myself agreeing with nearly everything he says. In fact, currently there is a huge amount of teaching and publishing based on the idea that we need to get back to the Love of the Father. It is the current trend in the Christians circles. It is funny to me that everyone thinks they have a corner on this new theological concept; the Baptist, the Charismatics, the Independent mega-churches, the Lutherans. . . but they are all saying the same thing. We need the Father’s Love and we need to be led and driven by his love. “Experience the Father Heart of God”, is one way it is expressed. Not only that, the Father desires to love us and lead us, so we need to draw closer to him. They all are saying the same thing, only from different perspectives. “Crazy Love” is Francis Chan’s perspective and well done.
As a good American writer, he does a good job of making a shocking statement and then explaining it. The titles of the chapters make you want to read more. They include: “Stop Praying”; “You Might Not Finish This Chapter”; and “Serving Leftovers to a Holy God” to name a few. I think for me the best thing I got out of it was in regards to prayer.
In the first chapter he talks about when we pray to visualize God. To visualize the character and majesty of God, rather than just saying those common words you always pray. Immediately I examined my own prayer habits and found I was praying to a distant God. Yet, God, our Loving Father, is real and I was not visualizing who he really was, but just praying by habit.
If I can learn anything from a book; just one thing; it is worth a read to me. In Francis Chan’s book I learned 3 things. . .so I would recommend it to you as well! Happy reading!
