Who's read it?

Ok, who's read Crazy Love?  My friend Heather recommended it and I've seen it around, so I picked it up today at Lifeway. 

Wow.  I'm only on p.42 and I've got to share this passage. 

Worry implies that we don't quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what's happening in our lives.

Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control.

Basically, these two behaviors communicate that it's okay to sin and not trust God because the stuff in my life is somehow exceptional.  Both worry and stress reek of arrogance.  They declare our tendency to forget that we've been forgiven, that our lives here are brief, that we are headed to a place where we won't be lonely, afraid, or hurt ever again, and that in the context of God's strength, our problems are small, indeed.

Why are we so quick to forget God?  Who do we think we are?

I find myself relearning this lesson often.  Even though I glimpse God's holiness, I am still dumb enough to forget that life is all about God and not about me at all. ------Francis Chan, Crazy Love

How good is that?  I mean I know that worry is wrong.  The Bible specifically says "Do not worry."  But I've never thought of stress in that way. 

Really, how often do we use stress as an excuse for our behavior?  "I know I yelled at the kids, but I'm just so stressed!"  We wear our stress almost as a badge that reads, "Hey, look at me!  I'm stressed out!"  Like it's a competition to see who can be the most stressed.  Like it makes us seem so busy and so important and like we have so many things going on. 

But doesn't stress, along with worry, do just what Francis Chan says?  Don't they just say that we don't trust God with our stuff?  That our stuff is too big for God?  That because we have so much to deal with (usually alone, right?) it's okay that we act ugly toward our spouse.  Or snap impatiently at the kids.  Or retreat into ourselves and not reach out to others who may need our encouragement because we've just got too much on our plates. 

Oh that we could and would surrender it all, palms up, to the only One who IS big enough to handle all our stuff.  All our mess.  Oh that we would keep in mind that this is not our home and that we're not SUPPOSED to feel comfortable here. 

It's all about Him.  And stress and worry makes it all about me. 

I'll let you know how the rest of the book turns out.....