Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Jesus Drives Me Crazy!: Lose Your Mind, Find Your Soul
    Jesus Drives Me Crazy!: Lose Your Mind, Find Your Soul
    Jesus Drives Me Crazy!: Lose Your Mind, Find Your Soul
    Ebook206 pages2 hours

    Jesus Drives Me Crazy!: Lose Your Mind, Find Your Soul

    By Leonard Sweet

    2.5/5

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The gospel presents a life-changing NUTS wisdom that conflicts with normal ways of making sense of the world. There is the World According to Normal. There is the World According to NUTS . . . where NUTS is an acronym for Never Underestimate the Spirit. The wisdom of Jesus is a NUTS wisdom.—From the book All people are different, but some are more different than others. Christians are meant to be the most different of all. Yet we often “normalize” God. We judge what is a successful Christian and a successful church by the world according to Normal, not the world according to NUTS, the wisdom of Jesus.In Jesus Drives Me Crazy!, Leonard Sweet reminds us of the “crazy wisdom” of Christ and how our lives and our churches can and should be different from the way “normal” people live. He says, “Jesus wants to drive you crazy . . . crazy in love with God, with life.” Jesus Drives Me Crazy! challenges you to make the upside-down wisdom of God your own, inspiring you to live an extraordinary Christian life that does not conform to the world, but transforms the world.When you truly grasp the freeing truth that we do not have to conform to this world, then you can become the crazy, zany, unpredictable, but powerful force for Jesus you were intended to be. Jesus Drives Me Crazy! shows how, by losing your mind, you can find your soul.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateDec 15, 2009
    ISBN9780310862697
    Author

    Leonard Sweet

    Leonard Sweet is an author of many books, professor (Drew University, George Fox University, Tabor College), creator of preachthestory.com, and a popular speaker throughout North America and the world. His “Napkin Scribbles” podcasts are available on leonardsweet.com    

    Read more from Leonard Sweet

    Related to Jesus Drives Me Crazy!

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      Sarah Wilson Goes To The Edge

      Nov 5, 2020

      Sarah Wilson Goes To The Edge
      23 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Dr. Anouk Aimée Shambrook

      Sep 19, 2023

      I’M A BLACK BUDDHIST teacher in a troubled America. I was raised in a conservative white town in Southern California. My Haitian mother and Irish father raised my siblings and me Catholic. They also introduced us to Buddhist philosophy. Maman would l

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      An Apex of Babble

      Mar 6, 2019

      An Apex of Babble
      13 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Dec 29, 2023

      D ear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to k

      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Why 'The Guy' From The Office Wants A Spiritual Revolution

      Aug 13, 2023

      Rainn Wilson's book calls for a spiritual revolution in America. And even though he himself is a very funny guy, he is not joking about this at all.

      8 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Dark World

      Sep 17, 2020

      The Dark World
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Secret Life of Grief

      Dec 3, 2013

      The Secret Life of Grief
      12 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Long Life Lived For All

      May 21, 2024

      A Long Life Lived For All
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Figuring Out How To Mourn In The Age Of Skype

      Jul 10, 2014

      On my final day in the United Kingdom, I took one last walk through the courtyards of my college at Cambridge. Its walls were the remains of a medieval abbey, some of the oldest operational buildings on campus. At its center, a green courtyard filled

      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Dark Side of Awe

      Jan 29, 2024

      The Dark Side of Awe
      10 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Nun’s Guide To Isolation

      Jun 30, 2021

      An assortment of people have asked me what difference lockdown made to life in the monastery where I live. Precious little, in that we live almost entirely inside an admittedly generous enclosure. Trips to the outside world are kept to a minimum and

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Death Defining

      Feb 12, 2021

      Death Defining
      11 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Death Defining

      Feb 12, 2021

      Death Defining
      11 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      WALKING in THE LIGHT

      Oct 20, 2019

      WALKING in THE LIGHT
      10 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Sep 29, 2023

      D ear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to k

      8 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Death During The Times Of Covid

      Mar 3, 2021

      THAT the world, as we know it, fundamentally changed with Covid, is not seriously debatable. It was often said in jest between relatives and friends, that they found time to see one another only at weddings and funerals. Now, with grandiose weddings

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Impelled By Curiosity

      Aug 30, 2023

      EVERYTHING photojournalist Don Fuchs does is “driven by curiosity”. In the case of the Aussie Camino (page 84), he simply wanted to know, “Who goes on a pilgrimage and what motivates them?” A long-time AG contributor, Don quickly realised this was go

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Death Defining

      Feb 12, 2021

      Death Defining
      11 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Adult Nonfiction

      Nov 6, 2024

      Defy: The Power of No in a World That Demands Yes. By Sunita Sah. Jan. 2025. 320p. Oneworld, $30 (9780593445778). 158. The author’s definition of defy is “to act in accordance with your true values when there is pressure to do otherwise.” We’ve been

      55 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Jesus Drives Me Crazy!

    2.5/5

    11 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Jesus Drives Me Crazy! - Leonard Sweet

      Resources by Leonard Sweet

      11 Genetic Gateways to Spiritual Awakening

      A Is for Abductive (coauthor)

      Aqua Church

      Carpe Manana

      Communication and Change in American Religious

      History (editor)

      A Cup of Coffee at the SoulCafe

      The Evangelical Tradition in America

      FaithQuakes

      Health and Medicine in the Evangelical Tradition

      The Jesus Prescription for a Healthy life

      New Life in the Spirit Postmodern Pilgrims Quantum Spirituality SoulSalsa

      SoulSalsa audio SoulTsunami SoulTsunami audio

      Strong in the Broken Places

      Learn about these resources at

      www.zondervan.com/author/sweetl

      ZONDERVAN

      Jesus Drives Me Crazy!

      Copyright © 2003 by Leonard I. Sweet

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

      ePub Edition June 2009 ISBN: 0-310-86269-8

      Requests for information should be addressed to:

      Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Sweet, Leonard I.

      Jesus drives me crazy! : lose your mind, find your soul / Leonard Sweet—1st ed.

      p. cm.

      Includes bibliographical references.

      ISBN 0-310-23224-4

      1. Spiritual life—Christianity. I. Title.

      BV4501.3.S94 2003

      248.4—dc21

      2003003992

      All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

      The website addresses recommended throughout this book are offered as a resource to you. These websites are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement on the part of Zondervan, nor do we vouch for their content for the life of this book.

      Interior design by Beth Shagene

      For

      Egil Waterman Sweet

      Who never forgets to invite me

      to come over

      Contents

      Title Page

      Copyright Page

      Acknowledgments

      Introduction: NUTS Wisdom

      part 1: Incarnational Discipleship—Be There

      chapter one:

      You’re a Known Nutcase: BE

      chapter two:

      In a Nutshell: THERE

      part 2: Relational Discipleship—With All

      chapter three:

      It’s a Nuthouse: WITH

      chapter four:

      Absolutely Nutty: ALL

      Notes

      About the Publisher

      Share Your Thoughts

      Acknowledgments

      The idea of the book was first presented publicly at Woodman Valley Chapel in Colorado Springs, where the talented worship team introduced me to the Nicole Nordman song Fool for You. While I have played much music for NUTS while writing this book (Blessid Union of Souls’ I Wanna Be There, Jessica Andrews’ That’s Who I Am, Keith Green’s Your Face Is All I Seek, Lenny LeBlanc’s Rainbow Song), it’s the Fool for You song that has danced the most with the tapping of my keyboard.

      One of my online courses at Drew University helped me see that crazy wisdom was another, more postmodern way of talking about excellence. The asynchronous chats among these colleagues (David E. Benson, Lark C. Brown, Bart A. Fletcher, Pamela H. Ford, Keith E. Griswold, Corey G. Miller, Steven G. Redmond, Frank Jeske, and Daren I. Flinck) and our synchronous CU-SeeMe sessions helped me become a better student of NUTS wisdom.

      I wrote this book before I read two resources I wish had been available to me from the beginning. The first is Jon Spayde’s The Way of the Wacko: Rediscovering Ancient Wisdom in Which the Truth Is Nothing Less Than Crazy, Utne Reader, May–June 2002, 64–71 (www.utne.com/crazywisdom). The second is Michael Frost’s Jesus the Fool (Sydney: Albatross Books, 1994), which I only discovered while reading a review copy of his wonderful The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson, 2002), co-written with Alan Hirsch. Jesus the Fool was a book way ahead of its time. Many bookstores refused to stock it. Some reviewers denounced it as blasphemy. Like Frost, I needed to write this book, although whether I should have written it and listened to the don’t bother people voices is another matter. I confess this would have been a much better book if Frost and Spayde had gotten under my skin.

      Two graduate students at Drew University, Chris Anderson and Andy Tyler, tracked down many of the obscure books and articles I requested without ever resorting to the Laurel and Hardy refrain of another fine mess you’ve gotten me into. Joe Myers tutored me in the biblical image of the rainbow, and just when I was about to abandon the crazy wisdom metaphor, Chris Hughes backstopped this word crazy, a word that too easily gives up its severity to become facile.

      Lyn Stuntebeck protected stray days and spare moments on my calendar as well as injecting natural buoyancy into my floundering spirit. Landrum Leavell III gave the manuscript his customary naïve gaze and trained eye.

      The bibliographic work for this book occurred during multiple eye surgeries for my research assistant, Betty O’Brien, who never complained about any of my e-mail packages even though many of them must have been about as welcome as a wrapped drum under the Christmas tree. My wife, Elizabeth Rennie, enabled me to keep heavy-lifting the luggage of language amidst life’s enigmatic scrib- blings and scramblings, not to mention the household refrain of Are There Nuts in the House?

      I dedicate this book to my youngest son, Egil Waterman Sweet. His presence in my life cannot be better described than in my version of Luke 1:78: The loving kindness of the heart of our God who visits us like the dawn from on high. Thank you, Egil, for the dawn from on high you bring to and bring out in me.

      introduction

      NUTS Wisdom

      Man’s insanity is heaven’s

      sense; and wandering from all

      mortal reason, man comes at

      last to that celestial thought.

      —Novelist Herman Melville¹

      Warehouse 242 is a faith community in Charlotte, North Carolina. Its mission is to reach those who live and move and have false being, those the church usually names lost, unsaved, pre-Christian, seeker, unbeliever, unchurched, worldly, unconverted—or more blatantly, pagan, heathen, infidel. Except Ware-house 242, being aware of the way power works through language and taking a cue from the recovery movement, prefers to call those for whom their church exists the normal people.²

      There is a world and wisdom according to normal. There is a world and wisdom according to Jesus. The world according to normal is the world that is. The wisdom of the world is normal. People who don’t know who Jesus is are the normal people. People for whom God is, to quote Edwin Muir, three angry letters in a book³ are the normal people.

      Jesus’ followers are the abnormal ones.

      Disciples of Jesus are deviations from the norm. They mess up the world as it is, drawing outside the lines, thinking outside the box, resisting off-the-shelf solutions. Christians simply can’t do normal. Once you become a disciple of Jesus, normal isn’t good enough anymore. Christians are part of the wisdom of the world that is to come.

      In his recent book An Hour before Daylight, former President Jimmy Carter reflects on his childhood in rural Georgia, his relationship with his parents, and his infamous brother Billy. He writes, Mama always said that Billy was the smartest of her children, and none of us argued with her.

      When the international news media moved into our town during the 1976 presidential campaign, Billy became the center of attention. He drank more, talked more, and saw his deliberately outrageous statements quoted as serious comments…. He was always good for a delightful quote. When one of the reporters remarked that Billy was a little strange, he replied: "Look, my Mama was a seventy-year-old Peace Corps volunteer in India, one of my sisters goes all over the world as a holy-roller preacher, my oldest sister spends half her time on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, and my brother thinks he’s going to be President of the United States. Which one of our family do you think is normal?"⁴

      Christians don’t see the world as the world sees itself. Christians have an off-kilter, offbeat view of the world. Like everyone else, we may see things dimly, but we also see things differently. In a postmodern world that rejects meta-narratives, disciples of Jesus live by the Christ metanarrative.⁵

      The number one problem of the church today? It’s numbing normality.

      It is not enough to say that Jesus redefined what it means to be normal. Everything Jesus taught goes against how normal people see and function in the world. Turning the other cheek, going the second mile, giving the spare coat, washing underlings’ feet, heaping blessings on those who curse you, living without anger, laying down your life—all these things normal people have a hard time understanding, much less thinking and living.

      The truth is, Jesus stood normal wisdom on its head. Christians are called to see the world through Jesus’ eyes, not from a normal point of view.⁶ How do Christians see others—especially normals who are mean and hard-hearted, motivated by greed and self-gratification? Do we see them as reprobates and potential failures, or potential images of Christ who need to find their true selves?

      If the only thing Jesus had given us was his signature sermon, The Beatitudes, it would flip our world upside down the way a Sunday school teacher did philosopher Thomas Morris when he was three years old:

      My first experience inside a church did not at the time seem to bode well for my ecclesial future. The memory is still vivid. Pandemonium. I’m three years old, and a very large female Sunday school teacher is holding me upside down by my ankles and shaking me as the class gathers around us, shouting and shrieking. I’m choking on a for-bidden piece of hard candy, unable to breathe, and she is determined to shake it out of me. After a good deal of jostling and back whacking, it pops free. Breathing again, I’m restored to the upright position, and the crowd of onlookers is dispersed. In many ways, this little episode inside the Westwood Baptist Church of Durham, North Carolina, is a metaphor for the role of the Christian faith in a number of my more mature struggles, even without the expected observation that has on occasion turned my little world upside down.⁷

      Jesus’ Beatitudes are not the only vocabulary of aberrance. Whether we’re looking at the story mode of the gospels or the doctrine mode of Paul, Christianity invites us to live an intuitively counterintuitive life. There can be no logic of faith for a faith that doesn’t abide by the logics of philosophy.

      The Lifted Up One, the One who sits high and walks low, taught that the thoroughfare to God is full of bypaths and back roads.

      The way up is down.⁸

      The way in is out.

      The way first is last.

      The way of success is service.

      The way of attainment is relinquishment.

      The way of strength is weakness.

      The way of security is vulnerability.

      The way of protection is forgiveness (even seventy times seven).

      The way of life is the way of death—death to self, society, family.

      Know your strengths. Why? Because that’s the only way you can Lay Them Down!⁹

      God’s power is made perfect … where? In our weakness.

      Want to get the most? Go to where the least is.

      Want to be free? Give complete control to God.¹⁰

      Want to become great? Become least.

      Want to discover yourself? Forget your self.

      Want honor? Honor yourself with humility.¹¹

      Want to get even with enemies? Bless and love them.

      For Jesus, it wasn’t enough to turn the other cheek. One had to turn the hands and feet as well in doing good to that person. Friedrich Nietzsche said such love for enemies is an ethic for cowards, deserving of contempt, not respect.

      To a world obsessed with power, the gospel is nuts.

      To a world obsessed with success, Jesus’ teaching is nuts.

      The Fox and the Hen

      Barbara Brown Taylor notes Jesus’ contrast between Herod the fox and himself as the hen. Jesus

      likened himself to a brooding hen, whose chief purpose in life is to protect her young, with nothing much in the way of a beak and nothing at all in the way of talons. About all she can do is fluff herself up and sit on her chicks. She can also put herself between them and the fox, as ill equipped as she is. At the very least, she can hope that

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1
      pFad - Phonifier reborn

      Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

      Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


      Alternative Proxies:

      Alternative Proxy

      pFad Proxy

      pFad v3 Proxy

      pFad v4 Proxy