Can somebody please say "STOP IT!"?

I know that I can't deal with many more doses of worldwide "reality" right now, right? So last p.m., my husband takes me on a date for my b'day to Texas de Brazil (he found a 25% coupon! LOL) and we're sitting there remembering our last visit to this restaurant with 20 people from the hood. I still wish I had a video tape of that whole experience. Anyway, he thought we should go see "Slumdog Millionaire". It's a foreign film that was nominated for Academy awards and he knew it was about people in poverty, but he said he'd heard it had a happy ending (which it did, but...). Okay, it was a great movie, but INCREDIBLY sad. It was about these orphans from the slums in India. Too realistic, too hard. I'm done with these movies for a while. I was just mad at God last p.m. Sorry, it's my blog, and I'm just being honest.
So on to another topic. I'm now reading this book called Crazy Love by Francis Chan. You know, I realize that it must sound like that all I do is sit around and read all day, but really I don't. I just grab 10 minutes here and there - really I promise. I only sit around reading and eating my bons-bons 3 days a week! :) The chapter I read this a.m. is called "Profile of a Lukewarm Christian." It kicked my you-know-what! Here are a few quotes:
"In the United States, numbers impress us. We gauge the success of an event by how many people attend or come forward. We measure churches by how many members they boast. We are wowed by big crowds.
Jesus questioned the authenticity of this kind of record keeping. According to the account in Luke chapter 8, when a crowd started following Him, Jesus began speaking in parables--"so that" those who weren't genuinely listening wouldn't get it.
When crowds gather today, speakers are extraconscious of communicating in a way that is accessible to everyone. Speakers don't use Jesus' tactic to eliminate people who are not sincere seekers.
The fact is, He just wasn't interested in whose who fake it...."

There's more:
"[after reading a section of the parable of the sower] My caution to you is this: Do not assume you are good soil.
I think most American churchgoers are the soil that chokes the seed because of all the thorns. Thorns are anything that distracts us from God. When we want God and a bunch of other stuff, then that means we have thorns in our soil. A relationship with God simply cannot grow when money, sins, activities, favorite sports teams, addictions, or commitments are piled on top of it.
Most of us have too much in our lives. As David Goetz writes, 'Too much of the good life ends up being toxic, deforming us spiritually.' A lot of things are good by themselves, but all of it together keeps us from living healthy, fruitful lives for God."

"Are you satisfied being 'godly enough' to get yourself to heaven, or to look good in comparison to others? Or can you say with Paul that you 'want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death' (Phil 3:10)?
For a long time this verse had just too much Jesus for me. In my opinion, the verse should have ended after the word resurrection, so I could have an appealing popular Jesus who didn't suffer. The feedback I received from other Christians reassured me that this was a fine perspective, and it gave me little reason to strive to know Christ more deeply. I was told I was good enough, 'godly enough'.
But this went against everything I was reading in the Bible, so I eventually rejected what the majority said and began to compare all aspects of my life to Scripture. I quickly found that the American church is a difficult place to fit in if you want to live out New Testament Christianity. The goals of American Christianity are often a nice marriage, children who don't swear, and good church attendance. Taking the words of Christ literally and seriously is rarely considered. That's for the 'radicals' who are 'unbalanced' and 'overboard.' Most of us want a balanced life that we can control, that is safe, and that does not involve suffering."

Yeah. Convicting and true. If you want to watch something really encouraging go to this guy's website crazylovebook.com and watch the "Awe Factor of God". He IS amazing and His love IS really CRAZY! I'm asking God to awaken me again to the utter strangeness of this story that He's put us in! The rest of this particular chapter is a "list" of what would qualify us as lukewarm along with scripture after scripture of Jesus' words. Being lukewarm is really making me tired. I'm ready to WAKE UP and be FEARLESS!