Crazy Love - Chapter Three

This was a chapter that would seem hard to comprehend if you weren't a parent, but I love how Francis explains it. This whole chapter is about seeing God as your father. He talks about the bad relationship he had with his father built on fear. And a lot of the times we think we have the same relationship with God - don't make dad mad.

But everything changed when Francis had his first child:

"For the first time I got a taste of what I believe God feels toward us. I thought about my daughter often. I prayed for her while she slept at night. I showed her picture to anyone who would look. I wanted to give her the world."

That's EXACTLY how God feels about us! He's our dad! He's always thinking about us, He's always praying for us, He's running around to all of the angels saying "did you see what they did! Those are MY kids! Look at them!" Just beaming with pride!

I think we have to unpack the concept of "reverent fear" (but that would be a whole different post entirely) and understand it's place, but NEVER forget this image of a loving father.

"My own love and desire for my kids’ love is so strong that it opened my eyes to how much God desires and loves us. My daughter’s expression of love for me and her desire to be with me is the most amazing thing. Nothing compares to being truly, exuberantly wanted by your children.

Through this experience, I came to understand that my desire for my children is only a faint echo of God’s great love for me and for every person He made. I am just an earthly, sinful father, and I love my kids so much it hurts. How could I not trust a heavenly, perfect Father who loves me infinitely more than I will ever love my kids? "

And there we go again focusing on how it makes us feel to have such a loving father, but think about how it makes God feel! How amazing it is as a parent to feel wanted by your children. And again, we're talking about God here, THE CREATOR OF EVERYTHING! He actually longs to feel wanted by His children!

"God knew you and me before we existed [Jeremiah 1:4-5]. When I first digested this, all of my other relationships seemed trivial by comparison. God has been with me from the start - in fact well BEFORE the start."

That's all well and good Craig but He's still God, he can't care THAT much. Read Jeremiah 1:6-10. Go ahead go do it now. You look it up and come back here...

"When Jeremiah voices his hesitation and fear, God – the God of the galaxies – reaches out and touches his mouth. It’s a gentle and affectionate gesture, something a loving parent would do. Through this illustration I realize I don’t have to worry about not meeting His expectations. This is the God we serve, the God who knew us before He made us. The God who promises to remain with us and rescue us. The God who loves us and longs for us to love Him back."

You're right He is God. He doesn't need us. But he WANTS us!

“The very fact that a holy, eternal, all-knowing, all-powerful, merciful, fair and just God love you and me is nothing short of astonishing. The wildest part is that Jesus doesn’t have to love us. His being is utterly complete and perfect, apart from humanity. He doesn’t need me or you. Yet He wants us, chooses us, even considers us His inheritance (see Eph. 1:18). The greatest knowledge we can ever have is knowing God treasures us.

That really is amazing beyond description. The holy Creator sees you as His “glorious inheritance.”

Do you get it yet? Do you see how much God loves YOU! That's the crazy part in crazy love. But how do we respond. The absolute minimum. We think going to church or having a quiet time is an equivalent amount of love in exchange for this amazing, crazy love God shows us.

"Most Christians have been taught in church or by their parents to set aside a daily time for prayer and Scripture reading. It's what we are supposed to do, and so for a long time it's what I valiantly attempted. When I didn't, I felt guilty.

Over time I realized that when we love God, we naturally run to Him-frequently and zealously. Jesus didn't command that we have a regular time with Him each day. Rather, He tells us to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. He called this the first and greatest commandment (Matt. 22:37-38). The results are intimate prayer and study of His Word. Our motivation changes from guilt to love.

This is how God longs for us to respond to His extravagant, unending love: not with a cursory quiet time plagued by guilt, but with true love expressed through our lives. Like my little girl running out to the driveway to hug me each night because she loves me."

Yes, this is what conviction feels like. The all-mighty, all-powerful, creator of all things doesn't need us. No. He wants us, He longs for us! We can't even wrap our tiny minds around that! Doesn't that deserve a crazy love on our part?! More than a church service, more than a quiet time, heck more than insanely awesome prayer life. That kind of love deserves nothing less than the same from US!

*mind blown*

Go dwell on that... preferably with Him...

SIDE-TOPIC:

Hopefully you took some time to worship God for His love for us. But I just had to share this last thought from Francis. He talks about a student that asked him why he should love a God that forces us to love Him (with the threat of hell and punishment if we don't)

"Now that I've had time to think about it, I would tell that student that if God is truly the greatest good on this earth, would He be loving us if He didn’t draw us toward what is best for us (even if that happens to be God himself)? Doesn’t His courting, luring, pushing, calling, and even “threatening” demonstrate His love? If He didn’t do all of that, wouldn’t we accuse Him of being unloving in the end, when all things are revealed?

OK so let's say God JUST gives us all these amazing things that we love (and He does) as His way of showing love to us:

"Are we in love with God or just His stuff? Imagine how awful it would feel to have your child say to you, 'I don't really love you or want your love, but I would like my allowance, please.' Conversely, what a beautiful gift it is to have the one you love look you in the eye and say, 'I love you. Not your beauty, your money, your family, or your car. Just you.'"

Harsh truth'd