A Book to Top the Summer Reading List

Chances are, a good majority of you are totally ahead of me on this one.

But in case you, like me, hadn't read Francis Chan's "Crazy Love" as soon as it was fresh off the press and entered the conversation in churches and colleges countrywide, know that this book is well-deserving of making it onto your summer reading list. It was at the top of my list, and it so got my summer-reading- momentum rolling, as I was able to place a check mark beside it after just a couple sittings- it's really that simple and engaging of a read.

Sound too good to be true? Ok, here's the thing- what isn't so quick and easy about this read is processing its content. After scribbling in my journal and highlighting the heck out of the book, I'm still left thinking. Thinking, thinking, thinking.

And here's the other thing- this book doesn't just move around the "furniture" inside my head. It asks me to rearrange the furniture in my life.

To make more room for giving.

To make more room for touching the unlovely, the unseen.

To make more room for loving not the lovable people in my life, but the unlovable.

Moving my furniture around is hard, because it's heavy and set in place, and I've become accustomed to where things are. Hardest of all, my current arrangement is most comfortable.

But I have to ask myself, who is it most comfortable for? For me.

We are taught to think that our lives should seek to establish personal comfort above all else. And I want that. The problem is, when I read my Bible, when I read the "Crazy Love" book, when I read through Jesus' stories and teachings, I don't see "personal comfort" as the main piece in the arrangement- I see generosity, service, sacrifice, love.

So as you might guess, I have a sofa or two to move around.

Now you're probably thinking that you like your furniture where it is too, and relatedly, are thinking of picking up any other book than "Crazy Love." But opening the pages of "Crazy Love" opens you to a fresh and profound understanding of God's love, His crazy love, for you. And comprehending that love makes you want to get off the couch and give it a shove.