A Love that is Crazy

As I was leaving for the southern baptist convention on Saturday I grabbed a book that I had read before but wanted to re-read called “Crazy Love” by a Pastor name Francis Chan. As I was reading this book once again, I was overly convicted by a passage that I would like to share with you:

“I think sometimes we assume that if we are nice, people will know we are Christians and want to know more about Jesus. But it really doesn’t work that way. I know a lot of people who don’t know Christ and are really nice people—nicer and more fun to be with, in fact, than a lot of Christians I know.

There has to be more to our faith than friendliness, politeness, and even kindness. Jesus teaches in Luke’s gospel:

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even “sinners” love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even “sinners” do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even “sinners” lend to “sinners,” expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
-Luke 6:32-36

True faith is loving a person after he has hurt you. True love makes you stand out.

In October 2006, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a man stormed an Amish school and killed several girls. The day after the shootings, many Amish people visited the shooters family to say they had forgiven him. That sort of forgiveness is incomprehensible to the world; because of it, people have even accused the families of being bad parents, of not dealing properly with their anger, of living in denial.

It is just this sort of love that is crazy to the world; true love, a kind found nowhere but through Christ.

We are commanded to love our enemies and do good to them. Who are you enemies? Or in terms we connect with better, who are the people you avoid or who avoid you? Who are the people who have hurt you or hurt your friends or hurt your kids? Are you willing to do good to those people? To reach out to them?

Oftentimes, my first response when someone does something to me—or worse, to my wife or to one of my kids—is retaliation. I don’t’ want to bless those who hurt me or people I love dearly. I wouldn’t want to forgive someone who walked into my daughter’s school and shot her and her friends.

But that is exactly what Christ asks us to do. He commands that we give without expecting anything in return.”

I hope you got as much out of this portion of this book as I did. Thank you Francis Chan.