Photo courtesy Daniel Fusco Crazy Happy Official Launch Team
Crazy Happy: Nine Surprising Ways to Live the Truly Beautiful Life by Daniel Fusco
What’s It About
In Crazy Happy, Daniel Fusco walks us through the Beatitudes and the fruit of the Spirit to help us learn about the happy, beautiful life Jesus wants us to live as we embrace the values of His Kingdom and become who He made us to be.
During some personal Bible study time on a family vacation, Pastor Daniel noticed the connection that there are nine Beatitudes in Matthew 5 and nine fruit of the Sprit in Galatians 5, and that the traits described in each of those teachings aligned with each other.
Crazy Happy explores the nine fruit of the spirit in conjunction with their corresponding Beatitude and how each applies to our lives: poverty of spirit/love, mourning/joy, meekness/peace, longing/patience, mercy/kindness, purity of heart/goodness, peacemaking/faithfulness, persecution/gentleness, suffering/self-control.
True to Daniel Fusco’s personality and teaching style, the book is filled with personal, engaging stories and funny comments in the footnotes that make his Bible teaching resonate with you even more. The Points to Ponder section of the book gives practical questions to help you process your take-aways from reading each chapter.
How It Impacted Me
Before Crazy Happy became a book, Daniel Fusco shared the fruit of the Spirit portion of the book’s content in a sermon series at Crossroads Community Church, where he pastors. I wrote a blog called Are You A Kind Christian? and shared how impactful the message on kindness was to me. The chapter on kindness in Crazy Happy had the same impact on my heart.
It’s so simple but mind-blowing to me to reflect on the Scriptures Pastor Daniel highlighted (Galatians 6:7-10 // Titus 3:1-2) and then remember that God is kind and we are called to be kind to others like He is–whether those people are our brothers and sisters in the faith or those who aren’t yet a part of the family of God.
Our culture, and unfortunately sometimes Christians as well, seems to have lost the art of kindness today. Because of that, I’m stirred up even more to be a Jesus follower marked by kindness and call my fellow Christians to the same.
God also really met me through the chapter on mourning. I agree with Pastor Daniel’s observations in that chapter: even though we all experience hurts and issues, losses and unmet expectations in life, we don’t always know how to acknowledge and process grief. Christians struggle with this too. I know I do.
As I’m in a season where God is helping me acknowledge and work through some unresolved pain in my own heart, it was life to my soul to be reminded through Crazy Happy that I can bring my brokenness to God and allow Him to heal it.
I can allow Him to meet me in my pain, comfort me, and give me joy. I can trust God, as Pastor Daniel says in the book, that He has a good plan to bring forth even from the places of pain and challenge in my life. And I can share the comfort He gives to me with others when they walk through similar things.
Favorite Quote
“What Jesus says about mourning and joy is revolutionary for the way we understand grief: in your life and in this world, there is so much brokenness.
Most of us expect joy to come through the absence of brokenness. But what Jesus teaches us is that joy comes from lives that allow God to meet us and work through brokenness.”
– Daniel Fusco, Crazy Happy
Why You Should Read It
We’re all looking for happiness but not necessarily looking for the true definition of happiness or for that happiness to come from the right places. I bet you might even have a hard time believing that God wants you to be happy, but He does.
In the book, Pastor Daniel shares an anecdote about how he searched for happiness in parties before he was a Christian and in self-righteous legalism after he became a Christian. And, interestingly enough, both approaches miss the point of what God has for us. Crazy Happy will help you understand that you don’t have to sacrifice godliness for happiness in life.
There is a godly value system and pathway in life that both honors God and fulfills us in the deepest places of our hearts. If you’ll take this journey with Daniel Fusco through Crazy Happy and lean into the Bible’s teaching on the Beatitudes and the fruit of the Spirit, God will lead you in some amazing foundational steps to experience what that life really is.
About Daniel Fusco
Daniel Fusco is a husband, father, musician and the pastor of Crossroads Community Church in Vancouver, Washington. He’s also the author of and Upward, Inward, Outward and has gained a Youtube following with his daily Two-Minute Message devotionals. His TV show, Real with Daniel Fusco, is broadcast nationally on the Hillsong Channel.
Connect with Pastor Daniel: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Website Read my review of Pastor Daniel’s previous book, Upward, Inward, Outward, here.
*Get your copy of Crazy Happy here
Let’s Talk: Have you read Crazy Happy? What impacted you most from the book? Discuss this post in the comments below.
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