Obsessed

Good evening! I hope you had a fantastic weekend! Doesn't it always seem like weekends go too fast? However, since the weekend went so quickly, I am even closer to traveling to Knoxville to see my little brother run track next Saturday. Every semester while he has been in college, I have tried to see him run. This semester, I have not been able to yet. I eagerly await cheering for him obnoxiously in 6 days. (I have no idea how I will survive if my future children play sports. I get so nervous!!!)
This evening, my husband and I hosted bible study at our house. Our LifeGroup has been studying Francis Chan's book Crazy Love. If you have not read the book...please, go out and find a copy. It is so convicting! And so moving. Crazy Love is geared to exposing the lie that you can be a lukewarm Christian. You can't. As a Christian, you are supposed to be compelled to be more like Christ. If you have asked Him to come into your heart, your life, then you have asked Him to change you. To break you and mold you into the person He wants you to be. And dear friends, He does not want us to be lukewarm. I would go as far as saying it disgusts Him. If we call ourselves Christians, how could we be lukewarm? Doesn't it make more sense to ask, how could we not be completely obsessed with Christ?
We are taught to be consumed with Christ and to live out His words. We are taught to love people, even those who hate us. Who hurt us. We are commanded to give without expecting anything in return. To forgive, even if an apology has not been offered. Umm. I am not really good at that. In fact, even after someone apologizes, I am not the best at forgiving. That is so sad for me to say. After all Christ went through, for me, how could I withold forgiveness. From anyone. No matter what they did. Francis Chan says in chapter 8 that "obsessed people care more about God's kingdom coming to this earth than their own lives being shielded from pain or distress."
Friends, you may be the only person who shows Jesus to someone. I am praying for God to make me radically obsessed with Him. I can honestly tell you that after the experience my husband and I had on I-285 the other day, I am enormously aware of God's presence in my life. I just want to live for Him! I don't want anything to come into my life that could preoccupy me. I want God to be my everything. For no one to even meet me, or even look at me, without catching a glimpse of Jesus. Does that seem crazy to you? I firmly believe that there are people who are so intimate with Jesus that you cannot speak to them without hearing His name. In fact, I have met people like that. I want Christ to do more in my heart than that. I want people to not be able to have a conversation with me without speaking to Jesus. Oh, how great it would be if God drew me so close to Himself that only He could speak through me. That my words would be so few, He would guide my every sound.
I just want to leave you with a question. I hope you desire to be obsessed with Jesus. I know it won't be the most comfortable experience, or even the easiest decision. But America needs to see Christians who are obsessed, instead of people who say they believe in Jesus and then live as if they never heard good news. Have a blessed week, and ponder this:
"If one person 'wastes' away his day by spending hours connecting with God, and the other person believes he is too busy or has better things to do than worship the Creator and Sustainer, who is the crazy one?"