crazy love

Sometimes I am going about my daily life when I hear a random comment. It seems like a small thing at first, but after a few days have gone by, that comment is still leaping through my mind, bouncing off its walls, bringing itself continuously to my attention. This summer I aimed to embed those kinds of thoughts in my campers' minds--relevant thoughts about Christ that would grab hold of them and wouldn't leave them alone, that would prompt them to ask more questions and examine Christianity for themselves even after they left camp.

Lately my involuntary obsession has been with extravagant love. In my various roles as servant leader, I want to love those I serve with the same extravagance that God loved me. Like the father's prodigal love for his prodigal son--so unexpectedly lavish, so generous, and so completely and genuinely absorbed in joy for another. Like the love of the shepherd who left his ninety-nine sheep to look for the one who was lost--bold, perhaps seemingly imprudent in its unrestrained dedication. Like the God who gave up his son to save my soul--the most unexpected of all methods, the most self-sacrificial, the most extravagant. This year, I want to love that way.

While God was calling my attention to this aspect of his character and urging me to imitate it, a friend read one of the following quotes to me. I am convinced that I cannot love others extravagantly unless I love the Lord just as extravagantly. The following are mostly unrelated quotes from a book by Francis Chan called Crazy Love. If you can, take a bit of time to let these sink in.
I have taken the liberty of emphasizing certain phrases.

“What scares me most are the people who are lukewarm and just don't care. I think that if I did a poll of the readers of this book, many of you would say, ‘Yeah, I am definitely lukewarm at times, but I’m not really at a place to give more to God.’ Many of us believe we have as much of God as we want right now, a reasonable portion of God among all the other things in our lives. Most of our thoughts are centered on the money we want to make, the school we want to attend, the body we aspire to have, the spouse we want to marry, the kind of person we want to become. But the fact is that nothing should concern us more than our relationship with God; it's about eternity, and nothing compares with that. God is not someone who can be tacked on to our lives.”

“The average Christian in the United States spends ten minutes per day with God; meanwhile, the average American spends over four hours a day watching television. Perhaps TV is not your thing-maybe you don't even own one. But how about your time and your resources? How much of your money is spent on yourself, and how much is directed toward God's kingdom? How much of your time is dedicated to pursuing your life and your goals, and how much is focused on God's work and purposes?”


“Walking in genuine intimacy and full surrender to God requires great faith."
Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him”
“Back when I was in Bible College, a professor asked our class, ‘What are you doing right now that requires faith?’ That question affected me deeply because, at the time, I could think of nothing in my life that required faith. I probably wouldn't be living very differently if I didn't believe in God; my life was neither ordered nor affected by my faith - like I had assumed it was. Furthermore, when I looked around, I realized I was surrounded by people who lived the same way I did. Life is comfortable when you separate yourself from people who are different from you. That epitomizes what my life was like: characterized by comfort. But God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn't come through.”

end-of summer musings

I recently arrived back home after an incredible experience counseling teens at summer camp. In just eight weeks I learned so many lessons about the Lord, about childhood and adulthood, about self-sacrifice, about the heartrending brokenness of the world and about the power of Christ's healing and all-encompassing love for the searching and distraught. My faith was strengthened and my spirit encouraged through godly fellowship, and I was incredibly rewarded through pouring my heart out in ministry to scores of junior high- and high-schoolers. It was the best summer of my life.

As great as my summer was, it had to end at some point. When I returned home, I was blessed by meaningful time with my family and friends before heading back to school. Very soon, the day came when my family packed our things in the car and embarked on a four-day journey cross-country. Ah, the classic American road trip.

There is a certain wild and unexpected beauty to road trips that tugs at my faintly romantic and old-fashioned heart. While flying is convenient and dominant, traveling by car or by rail is often my preference. In my mind, any trip is just as much about the journey as it is about the destination. Consider this:

Day two of our cross-country road trip began with with a brief side trip through the Little Bighorn battlefield. How grave it was to behold land that had once been the scene of bloodshed! The ordinary-looking gullies and hills were inevitably cast in the light of battle, and each white or red stone in the blowing and sun-bathed grass marked the site where a man thought his final thoughts before he died--a man with a story, with struggles, with loves and dreams. A healthy imagination transformed a possibly mundane trip to college into a significant glimpse into two nations' histories.

My hours of road time logged with energetic campers this summer molded me into a treasure trove of riddles and minute mysteries and simple games that pass the time. We laughed and schemed for hours (occasionally pausing to remark on the psychological and historical significance of the thousands of Harleys en route to the Sturgis motorcycle rally) and discussed any and all odd topics that sprung to our minds. Despite the inevitable discomfort of hours in the car, I look back and remember lots of good-natured laughter and joking. Make the most of necessary down time--that's a lesson I learned well this summer.

In the afternoon we made another side trip--this time through the Badlands in South Dakota: a striking arid region that inspired much interesting conversation. We traveled small highways nearly as often as we traveled interstate, thus getting a flavor of every community we passed. It was an incredible way to tap into the nature of this expansive country of ours. Day three of the trip brought not only a powerful electrical storm and the most brilliant rainbows I have ever seen,


but also a check mark to my bucket list with my first ever sighting of lightning bugs! Each night, like a child, I am struck again by the magic of fireflies.

I am currently in the middle of RA training. Part of that involves diving into the job, welcoming incoming students and their families, getting them on their feet, answering questions, and helping them move in as efficiently and with as little stress as possible. I have carried more boxes and TVs and microwaves, dispensed more keys, and connected with more people in three days than I really imagined. And right now we only have a fraction of early-arrivals in the apartment building! Ah, for the two great move-in days when new transfers and returning upperclassmen arrive in one giant crash. Huzzah!

Tonight we run our timed mile as a volleyball team, kicking off our pre-season three-a-day practices. Soon I'll be training for campus ministries, leading freshmen through orientation, beginning my upper division English classes, working in the financial aid office, leading a couple different bible study groups, and intentionally ministering to the thirty girls on my floor. Whew--what a lot of things to accomplish! I guess that in life, as in road trips, it's better to think less about destinations; it's better to make a careful itinerary and then get caught up in the surprising blessings and joys that can be found while puttering along the way.