Crazy Love.

I'm reading a book by Francis Chan called Crazy Love, and the most recent chapter I read was about being a lukewarm Christian. I'm pretty ashamed to say that many of the descriptions Chan described were me. I am a lukewarm Christian in many ways in my life...and I don't like this about me.

Two of the major ways I feel like my family is pretty lukewarm is in giving and faith. Can I explain?

1. Matthew and I give to our church, but we could always do MORE. Like the widow who gave her meager two coins, we need to give way more than we do. We don't because we want to save for our future, for our children, for our life's plans. This indeed is being lukewarm towards Christ. He asks that we give up everything and follow him. We are giving, but certainly not everything, or even close to everything.

2. We are also lukewarm in our faith, and this one plays into the first one. We like to plan for our future. We want to make sure our son and future children will be able to go to good schools, we want to pay off our house, we want to invest, we want to travel when we're older, etc. We want to save now so we can ensure our family has the things they need later on. This is where we become lukewarm. We are not trusting that God will take care of us. We are planning for our futures, storing up our earthly things, where instead, we should be giving of ourselves, time, and money now. We need to trust and have faith that God will provide later on.

Jesus says that it is almost impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven because they are so trapped by their earthly things. I don't want to be trapped by my earthly things here. I want to be able to give of myself, my family, my time, and my money freely, trusting God will always provide for my family.

This really is a great book, and it has been challenging for me to read, much like Shane Claiborne's Irresistable Revolution. I guess in admitting this to you, I am admitting it to myself as well. I hope I hold myself accountable and CHANGE how I show Jesus I love and trust Him. Go read it, and let me know what you take away from it!

 Can you tell this was a little while ago? He has four teeth on top now!!