Crazy Love

Last week an amazing group of friends threw a "Thirtysomething" birthday party for myself and another birthday girl who celebrates today. The fellowship and love from this group of women is amazing and I am so thankful for all of them.

One of those great women gave me this book as a gift. I am halfway done and I just can't get enough of it. It is the most convicting book I have ever read (besides the book of Revelation) and I know that if I had read it at another time in my life, I would have put it down after the first or second chapter. But right now this is where I am. And that is really scary and exhilarating at the same time. I am overwhelmed by all that this author has made me think about. Because I have not completed the book, I am not ready to recommend it yet and I certainly don't think that everyone will be spoken to in the same way through the author. It is definitely not "Christian light" or "fluffy feel good Christianity". A few months back, Joe began a great conversation with some friends of ours about the dangers of certain types of preaching, namely the controversial Joel Osteen. Joe and I continued the conversation and it was really good for us to really think about what these friends had to say. This book has taken that thinking to a whole new level.

There is so much more going through my mind that I want to write about, but I'm keeping most of that in the journal my friend gave me along with the book. There is one part that I read last night and I absolutely have to share it. It really spoke to me.

In a chapter called "Serving Leftovers to a Holy God" (I'm telling you this book is CONVICTING!) the author writes that God's word tells us what matters most: Love. He writes, "God measures our lives by how we love". He quotes Paul, even if "I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing" (1 Cor. 13:2-3).

He then writes how God defines love.

If we've ever been to a wedding, we've heard this before:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

(1 Cor. 13:4-8)

He goes on to write about a "challenging exercise" with these verses. In this challenge, try substituting your name for the word love.

Last night I read those verses out loud, "Nicci is patient, Nicci is kind..."

As he writes in the book, by the end I felt like a big liar. These are the kind of convicting and challenging things in this book, but the author does not intend to make the reader feel guilty and give up (as I would have, had I read it at another time and the guilt is still there even though I wish it wasn't).

My intention is just to share this as a part of my journey. I don't know if I'll post more about this book or not. As I've mentioned I'm not finished yet and so far it has taken me on a roller coaster ride of emotions that I am not able to articulate well. I know God used my friend to reach me with this book at this time and I know He can use this post to reach someone else in ways that only He understands.

Crazy love. It is "radical". It is a narrow path. It is not an easy journey and a lot of the time I want to run in the other direction, but this is where I am right now and there's a reason even if I don't have a clue.