Crazy Love

I want to discuss with you a book that I am currently reading, it is Crazy Love and you can check it out at www.crazylovebook.com . I mention this because if you are like me, wondering if there is more to our Christian walk then this, then this is a book for you. I am only 38 pages into it, mostly because I can't get further then just a few pages when I have to put it down and truly evaluate my heart and mind. Sometimes I wonder if I have ever truly known and worshipped God with the acknowledgement of who He really is. It alternates between reading the book, watching a video, and a lot of time, and I mean a LOT of time, evaluating God and how you think of Him. With this introduction made, I have to share with you some of these question. Ask yourself these question, honestly.

Who is God? We know in Exodus that God tells Moses his name is "I AM THAT I AM" in Hebrew it is YHWH (we pronounce it Yahweh) It is the most holy word in the Jewish language, One they take very seriously. Do we? When we say God do we crouch down, humble ourselves, knowing that we are nothing compared to Him? This is a God who made over 3 billion galaxies, made a caterpillar with over 200 muscles in its head alone, made crickets with the ability to produce music that breaks through our brick homes with only 2 legs less then an inch long, He made hair with the ability of growing, He MADE EVERYTHING, including us. He SEES everything, even our secret sin. He KNOWS everything, even the depths of our hearts. He is magnitude personified (so to speak, He is not merely personified), yet we barely see past the ends of our noses or beyond our own circumstances. When we pray, when we speak to God, when we worship Him, do we really acknowledge who HE IS? I don't think we do, as a matter of fact I am almost positive we don't. Francis Chan in this book actually started off by telling us to stop praying. I was stunned when I read that, almost offended, until I read on. Then I found out why. He proposes that we don't pray TO God anymore, that more often then not we talk AT God. I had to stop and think on that one, and I found him to be correct. Our prayers are so consumed with our needs, our desires, our interpretation of what is important, and rarely accompanied with praise of exactly who HE IS. Does this mean that we shouldn't bother God with what we need? No, of course not. He tells us to go to Him for everything. But when you pray, do you spend a majority of your time thanking God for His creation and gifts, do you speak of how amazed and marveled you are at Him and what He has done, or do you give him thanks then get right down to the nitty gritty? It is no different then when you give your child a gift and you immediately get a response of, "that isn't the color I wanted" or "Thanks Mom and Dad, I love it. Can I have _____ now?" It irritates us when our children take for granted that we spent all day cleaning their rooms, washing their cloths, cooking their favorite meal only to be bombarded with "you never let me _____" or my personal favorite "you never give me anything I want." That response is usually followed by me taking them to the basement to either bag up and throw away all the "nothings" I have given them, or asking them to find the "nothing" in this room. How are we different with our approach towards God? We are minuscule compared to God, we are inherently evil trying to praise ourselves for passing up the "big" sins, and only stumbling upon the "little" sins. Jesus even told us "If you who are evil can give good gifts to your children, how much better is your Father's, who is in heaven, gifts" Do we honestly treat God with the same regard we expect from our children? Think about that for a moment, because I believe that on most days we don't, and what is worst, He doesn't deserve the same regard from us as we do from our children, He DESERVES MORE.

For the past 2 days I have truly been trying to see everything in nature, hear everything in nature, get more familiar with all of the Creation my God created. I counted the stars and though about Abraham and wondered if it amazed him to count the stars trying to figure out how many his descendants would be. I ask God if it was something Abraham ever really comprehended. I giggled as I marveled at it, and funnier yet, every time I would count an area, as I stared at the area I kept finding more and more stars. It was almost like God was expanding my eyes, my mind to see more. I was listening to the crickets, truly contemplating the fact that a tiny bug makes that much noise, then I remember the verse that stated that even the rocks cry out to God. It got to the point that I was getting irritated when a car drove past and interrupted the sounds of nature. Then I had to remember to be slow to anger. I didn't ask for anything. I didn't verbalize how afraid I was of our situation. I just looked and listened and asked God to forgive me and reveal Himself to me more. I learned that my mind is very unfocused and I was struggling to not let my mind wander off to "my little world and world view". Do I think that makes me better? Not on your life, if anything it makes me feel like I have been a pompous fool for most of my life. But what an experience. I wish that I could have focused my mind better, seen and heard even more, really gotten closer to God, rediscovering his magnitude. But then again, that is why He gives us the gift of another day, another chance, another opportunity.

Now, I want to challenge you to do the same. Just one time, forget your troubles, forget your petitions, and just try to look at the world around you and see if you can indeed see God in all of creation. He says we can. Worst case scenario is you end up praying twice instead of once. Once to just seek God and once to ask Him to meet your needs.

May God richly bless you as you seek Him
Ady