Several weeks ago we sat across the table from the President of Promise 686*, and he congratulated us on officially committing to the “crazy” that is the path of adoption.
The phrase struck me as he said it, confirming an idea that had long been bouncing around my heart.
I’ve always joked with my husband that we are a little crazy.
We lived in Ukraine for a year. We join church plants. We move across the country away from friends and families at God’s promptings. And now we adopt. We make lots of several every day choices that others don’t get. We feel a bit out of place in the suburban American life that we live in. We’ve even had several people flat out tell us that we were crazy for some of the choices we have made.
As I was contemplating his exact phrasing and how it lined up with much of how we had joked about our lives so far, a song came on, and I found myself singing the lyrics.
“I don’t want easy, I want crazy.”
Clearly God had a theme for the day that He was pressing on my heart.
Several years ago I read the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan, and it resonated deeply within me. This fire I’d had inside of me for so long, finally had confirmation. I WAS crazy! And that is exactly what following hard after God should look like…crazy.
Unfortunately, in my experience, being crazy for Jesus is abnormal, even within the church. In his book “Crazy Love” Chan says:
“Sometimes I feel like when I make decisions that are remotely biblical, people who call themselves Christians are the first to criticize and say I’m crazy, that tI’m taking the Bible too literally, or that I’m not thinking about my family’s well-being….If one person invests her or his resources in the poor-which, according to Matthew 25, is giving to Jesus himself- and the other extravagantly remodels a temporary dwelling that will not last beyond his few years on earth, who is the crazy one?…When people gladly sacrifice their time or comfort or home, it is obvious that they trust in the promises of God. Why is it that the story of someone who has actually done what Jesus commands resonates deeply with us, but we then assume we could never do anything so radical or intense? Or why do we call it radical when, to Jesus, it is simply the way it is? The way it should be?”
Living in suburban America, I have to fight not to look like everyone else. It literally is a battle to not get pulled into all the needs, wants, and expectations that come living immersed in this environment. I fear more often than not I blend in. It seems silly, but one of the things I’m looking forward to about getting our girl home is that our family will look different going forward. We won’t blend in quite as much…there will be something visibly different about us. I hope that there has been something visibly different about us before now, but I’m fearful that there may not have been.
If you are a follower of Jesus, you should be a little crazy. You should do things that don’t make sense to others. When the world questions our decisions, or says we are crazy, I’m choosing to view it as a confirmation that we are doing EXACTLY what we should be doing.
I DON’T want easy, I want crazy.
*This organization is SO great! There’s more info about them coming, but suffice it to say if you have a heart for adoption/foster care, you NEED to check them out. There are also some great service opportunities in the ATL area through them. And if you are actually in process for adoption/foster care, they have an incredible support system and community. Check it!