Q:  Where did the idea for Crazy Love come from? Was there a specific event or thought that propelled you to write?

A:  I had sensed the Lord wanting me to write down many of the lessons He had been teaching me.  Most of my thoughts were recorded through preaching. Nevertheless, I believed I was supposed to have my thoughts documented in book form. 

Q:  Did you have any idea that Crazy Love would be as popular as it is? Why do you think that is?

A:  I honestly did not expect Crazy Love to be as popular as it is.  My hope was to encourage those who were already living radical lives for Jesus.  While many discourage that type of living, I wanted to show them biblically that it was the only way to live.  They were not the crazy ones- everyone else was crazy. 

The Spirit of God was stirring more people around our country than I realized.  Many people are not at peace with this watered down version of following Jesus.  Something in their soul craves more.  While I had felt this way for years, I wasn’t aware that it was true of so many others.

Q:  How do you think your own life experiences have helped prepare you to give the message of Crazy Love?

A:  Crazy Love is all about the intertwining of scriptures and my life experiences.  We get into trouble when we’re all about merely educating ourselves in scriptures and not fleshing it out in life.  And it’s a severe danger to depend on personal experience apart from the Word of God. 

Q:  Early in the book you remind your readers of their mortality. What is your purpose in doing this?

A:  It is another way to open our eyes to the greatness of God.  He alone is immortal.  We exist only as long as He allows us to.  Because of my life experiences, I’m consistently aware of the brevity of life on earth.  For that reason, it often comes out in my teaching.

Q:  On page 84 you state, “…churchgoers who are “lukewarm” are not Christians. We will not see them in heaven.” How do we balance a statement like this with the knowledge of God’s grace?

A: It’s by God’s grace that He puts His Holy Spirit in us.  It’s because of His grace that He stands at the door and knocks, willing to come into us in order to change us. 

Q:  Can you mention some other practical ways we can give our best to God and how to become ‘givers,’ rather than ‘takers?’

A:  It all boils down to love.  As we love others, we’ll find all sorts of ways to give to them.  Our problem is that we don’t love enough, so once again, we need to pray that God would give us a greater love for those who are hurting.  There are no shortages of people who need our love expressed through action. 

Q:  How do we integrate being “obsessed” with Jesus into our daily life, job, family, etc?

A:  We need to look at everything from an eternal perspective.  We love our families knowing that our main job is to prepare them for eternity.  We work hard at our jobs but for the sake of storing treasures in Heaven.

We also need to be constantly aware of His presence.  Just taking a moment to think about His awareness of our lives has a huge affect on our actions.  Try it now.  Think about Him being aware of your thoughts and actions at this moment.  Humbling?  Motivating?

Q:  What role does the Holy Spirit play in helping us receive and give God’s crazy love?

A:  I have WAY too much to say about that.  That’s why I wrote a second book.  It’s all about the Holy Spirit. 

Q:  Is there anything you’d like to say to your readers in closing?

A:  I’m a very simple person.  You’ll see that nothing in this book is rocket science.  My interpretation of the scriptures is not confusing.  I think they are the conclusions any 12 year old would come to through simply reading these passages.  In our quest to be intelligent, we sometimes miss the obvious.  I believe I mentioned this in the book, but I don’t believe our biggest need is for deeper truth.  Our biggest need is a deeper commitment to the obvious truths of scripture.