Crazy Love by Francis Chan

I actually found a copy of Crazy Love by Francis Chan at one of the little neighborhood libraries around. I'm so glad I did. It's one of those, "I really need to read that book someday" kind of book. That day finally arrived!

I've loved Francis Chan for a long time, ever since watching this video. (see 13:01 "If Jesus had a church in Simi Valley, mine would be bigger.") He's like an Old Testament prophet calling us to repentance. Calling the church to repentance. He has amazing insight and he put his money where his mouth is; he gave up his church and rearranged his life to live much more intentionally as a follower of Christ. 

His book definitely challenged me. 

The title and the arrows indicate that God has a crazy love for us, and that that should foster a crazy love for Him from us. He starts off telling the church the ways in which we might be doing it wrong. We seem to have missed the essential picture of who God is as we go about our "normal" Christian lives. 

But it's the fourth chapter, "Profile of the Lukewarm" that really stopped me in my tracks. He states, 

LUKEWARM PEOPLE do not live by faith; their lives are structured so they never have to. They don't have to trust God if something unexpected happens —they have their savings account. They don't need God to help them — they have their retirement plan in place. They don't genuinely seek out what life God would have them live — they have life figured and mapped out. They don't depend on God on a daily basis— their refrigerators are full and, for the most part, they are in good health. The truth is, their lives wouldn't look much different if they suddenly stopped believing in God. (p. 79)

He makes it very clear that lukewarm people are not Christians. Wow! What a claim. But he defends it well. He cites Revelation 3:16, saying that God literally wants to vomit when it comes to the lukewarm. Chan also warns us against assuming we are the good soil in the parable of the sower, or even thinking that the rocky soil is not that bad. Chan says Jesus has called us to "pick up [our] cross" and His version of Christianity is not for the faint of heart. People who are not marked by the fruit of the Spirit, are not Christians; they are deceived. 

He then moves onto the devastating 1 John 2:3-4: "We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him." Holy cow! How many of us claim the title of "Christian," but commit frivolous sins thinking, "It's no big deal." If so, we make Christ's death by torture "no big deal." Obviously I must turn the mirror on myself here, but I couldn't help thinking of my students. So many of them cheat and it's no big deal to them. They make zero connection between professing Christ and using AI to write a paper. But Scripture says that student "is a liar, and the truth is not in him." He is NOT a Christian! Another bold and frightening claim. Ouch!

Finally, Chan reminds us that 

21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ (Matt. 7:21-23)

Who is this talking to if not those who call themselves Christians, but are not?!?  I definitely want to address all of this when I talk to my students about cheating. I think they will be shocked. 

Chan then describes the ways in which genuine Christians live: they are "obsessed." This means, they "love those who hate them and who can never love them back." (p. 130) They "care more about God's kingdom coming to this earth than their own lives being shielded from pain or distress." (p. 131) They "live lives that connect them with the poor in some way or another" believing it was "really important to" Jesus. (p. 133 They "will do things that don't always make sense in therms of success or wealth on this earth." (p. 134) They "know that you can never be humble enough." (p. 136) They "take joy in loving God by loving His people." (p. 136) They "genuinely think that others matter as much as they do." (p. 1328) They "orient their lives around eternity." (p. 139) They are "characterized by committed, settled, passionate love for God, and above and before every other thing and every other being." (p. 140) They "do not attempt to mask the ugliness of their sins or their failures." (p. 141 They "are nourished by God's Word throughout the day." (p. 142 They "know that true joy doesn't depend on circumstances or environment; it is a gift that must be chosen and cultivated, a gift that ultimately comes from God." (p. 143) The revel "in [their] role as child and friend of God." (p. 144)

He finishes up with stories of saints living the committed life. He asks us to pray and seek discernment for what exactly God is asking of us (not necessarily "calling"). Then we must respond or it's all for naught. He gives an update of the ways he is personally living this out. (He left his megachurch to become a missionary to the outcasts of San Francisco.) 

Finally, he discusses some resources he is developing to help Christians fulfill the Great Commission and make disciples: multiplymovement.com. I'll have to check it out! This is exciting, but sobering.

The Age of Mirth by Edith Wharton

I have been wanting to read The Age of Mirth by Edith Wharton for forever. But I could never seem to get my hands on it. Finally, I got a copy from the Wake County Library. Hallelujah! It's fantastic!

Wharton tells the story of Lily Bart, a beautiful, yet poor, member of New York's upper crust in the late 19th century. Her father died, leaving she and her mother in debt. Before she died, her mother impressed upon Lily the absolute necessity of  using her looks to cement a place in society. Realizing she has just one shot to use her only currency, Lily lets a few opportunities slip away as she watches much plainer women marry into comfort. 

The book opens in her 29th year. Time is getting short. She has confided in her friend Lawrence Selden that she has set her sights on Percy Gryce. His obsession with "Americana" and his puritanical instincts notwithstanding, he is rich enough and Lily feels confident she can snag him. Selden, who is only middle class himself, but manages to live an "amphibious" existence in both worlds, chides Lily for her materialistic attitude. She makes it clear to Lawrence that men have far more options than women do. She must parlay her looks into a suitable marriage if she wants any kind of stable life. It's clear that Lawrence would marry her, but she leaves him no hope as he simply cannot cement her place in high society. 

Unfortunately, Percy is not so easily caught and the games Lily plays to pique his interest backfire. Eventually he announces his engagement to another wealthy socialite. 

Despite her very limited funds, Lily has insisted on keeping up appearances. But after Percy's departure, she takes a hard look at her finances. The husband of her best friend, Gus Tenor, offers to "invest" her meager savings, saying he gets "tips" from the barely tolerated, rich, Jewish banker Sim Rosedale. He quickly turns her mere hundreds of dollars into thousands. Lily, feeling confident that she has found the secret to economic freedom, carelessly spends almost all the money immediately. Once the money is gone, her source, Trenor, makes clear that the money was his and she "owes" him for his trouble. Aghast, she races off with a "frenemy" on a months-long cruise of the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, rumors swirl about her involvment with Trenor.

Although she is a hit in Europe, it becomes apparent that she was only invited to distract her friend's husband while she pursues an affair with another guest. Once she is discovered, she turns the tables and accuses Lily of having an affair with her husband. Since Lily will not accept the husband should he leave his wife, he feels he must return to his wife and accept the libel on Lily. This new tawdry rumor, combined with the prior allegations, make it back to the aunt who has supported Lily since her mother's death. The news apparently kills her, but not before she disinherits Lily. 

Lily returns from Europe, having lost all her friends due to the rumors and all her expectations due to being written out of the will. All she can expect is enough to pay back her original debt to Trenor. But that will take a year to go through probate. In the meantime, she relies on Lawrence and his poor relation, Gertie for survival. She finds work (barely) and moves to a boarding house. But her health suffers and she experiences night after night of sleeplessness. 

She has one opportunity in which to recapture it all, but it involves an act she considers immoral; she can blackmail her "frenemy" and mary Sim Rosedale. In a final display of determination, she destroys the incriminating evidence. She visits Lawrence, convinced that she has thrown away all hope of his love. And she goes home. 

I'll end the summary here. It's too sad. I hate that it ended the way it did. 

It seems that Wharton considered, and then abandoned, the idea that people can live lives of contentment far from the spotlight of "society." We do it everyday. But the book is not about how to live a contented life, it's about the false temptation of a "life worth living." She demolishes that, kind of. Although Lily won't resurrect her former life using immoral (or that immoral) means, we sense she would welcome it back if it was handed to her. She never quite seems to get it. Lawrence has been preaching it (sort of), and she seems to realize that, but in the end, she is incapable of "settling" for a merely happy life. She is stuck. She is an ornamental creature created for one purpose: to look good and attract a man to establish her in society. Maybe that is Wharton's point. Wharton gets it. It's just that Lily (nor anyone else in the story) never quite does. What a tragedy.

Rebel by Bernard Cornwell

One of my favorite historical fiction authors is Bernard Cornwell, so I decided to jump into his Nathaniel Starbuck Chronicles with Rebel, which takes place during the Civil War.

It's an easy read about an unlikely confederate: Nathaniel Starbuck is the son of a Northern abolitionist preacher. Although he was destined for the ministry himself, Starbuck makes a series of bad choices that land him desperate and destitute in Virginia just as Fort Sumter is fired upon. 

He must choose a side. 

And as so often happens, that choice depends on a girl. 

Once he has chosen to abandon his family and his family's values, he leads a ragtag, amateur bunch of hopped up Virginians in the Battle of Bull Run... where they flee in defeat. But that battle is just beginning and Starbuck will live to see the Southeventually defeat the North soundly in that first major battle. 

Now I have to read the next one!

At first, I was a bit disappointed that Starbuck saw his religious family and its values as worthy of rejection. Obviously, I heartily disagree. I also don't love that he's fighting for slavery and the right to own people. 

But it's Cornwell. I think he relishes making religion, specifically Christianity, look hypocritical and soul-crushing. It's more fun to rebel against the True, Good, and Beautiful. I should have expected nothing less. In Cornwell's world up is down and good is bad and morality is how you define it. I guess that works in fiction, but I know enough to know it's a fools errand. 

But it is awfully fun to read and to relive history that way!