I recently completed reading the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan. This book challenged me, not that it was a difficult read, but in that it kind of left me feeling exposed, as if I was not all I was supposed to be, as if I didn't fully measure up. One chapter in particular was the root of my uneasiness; it focussed on the characteristics of a lukewarm Christian. After reading the material closely, I did not want to just press on to the next chapter. I felt some immediacy to face these issues in my life head on. Frankly, I wanted to see where I really stood, at least from my own biased point of view. I kind of think that this is a good exercise for all of us. This should definitely not be seen as keeping a running tally, a scorecard of us. It should be approached as an opportunity to make course corrections in your life. I don't know about you, but oftentimes I am completely blind to my own failings and shortcomings until I sit down and think about them. To give you an example of how you could consider thinking about this, I have prepared a document that lists Chan's traits of the lukewarm Christian and how I feel about my position in the different areas. Now I have more work to do. (Thanks to Rob Shepherd and Brian Miller for recommending this book to me.)
