Crazy Love

Sometimes reading a book cuts to the heart of things you hadn't really considered. Everyone learns and processes information differently. I prefer to ponder.

Some people make connections quickly when they hear things. I tend to like to take some time and quietly process things on my own. In reading the latest book from Francis Chan, "Crazy Love," I feel like that's the process I've had to use.

Chan has a wonderful way of making you consider and explore these enormous topics in a really personal way. Like in chapter three, when he broaches the topic of God's love.

Chan correctly points out that God's love is this enormous concept that it can be hard to wrap our mind around. Sometimes I think that's where the disconnect between intellectual knowledge and real knowledge are different. You can know something in your mind that isn't real to you. Sometimes, you don't even realize it isn't real to you in a tangible way.

I think that can happen with the concept of God's love. We know God loves us, but sometimes that seems like such an abstract concept. But if you're lucky, there will be ways in which you process that idea in a new way. Sometimes it comes at the most unexpected time.

For me, that often comes through images in film or lines in songs. I remember one time when the vividness of God's love hit me when I was listening to the song "Call My Name" by Third Day. The song, which is sung from God's point-of-view, really captures the idea of God's love for us in a tangible way.

One of my favorite lines is the chorus, which goes, "Call My name say it now; I want you to never doubt; The love I have for you is so alive." It's powerful in the song, but it's even more powerful when you consider that is what God wants to tell us.

I think that's what Chan is driving at. So I guess the question is, how have you experienced the idea of God's love?