Week 1: Introduction — Are You Crazy Enough?

1.Michael Todd opens by pointing out that things we now consider normal—Wi-Fi, the electric light bulb, the smartphone—were once called crazy ideas. What does this observation do to your instinct to dismiss something as 'too far-fetched' or impossible?

2.The book's opening premise is that our 'see-it-to-believe-it generation' has an especially hard time with genuine faith. Do you agree? Why do you think visual proof has become so central to how people—including Christians—decide what to trust?

3.Todd introduces a spectrum of faith: baby faith, maybe faith, lazy faith, hazy faith, and crazy faith. Before reading any further, where would you honestly place yourself on that spectrum right now? What is the evidence from your actual life—not your theology—that supports that placement?

4.Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as 'the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' How does Michael Todd's framing of 'crazy faith' expand or challenge how you have previously understood this verse?

5.James 2:17 says faith without works is dead. Todd argues that faith is not just a feeling you wait for but a decision and an action. What is the difference between working to earn God's favor and taking action as an expression of trust? How do you keep those two things distinct?

6.Todd holds up Noah, Moses, and Mary as examples of people who looked absolutely crazy to their contemporaries. Which of these three figures resonates most with you personally right now, and why?

7.The introduction ends with the challenge: 'God's not looking for somebody to give Him all the reasons why His plans can't happen. He's looking for somebody to believe they will happen.' Is there an area of your life right now where you have been giving God a list of reasons why something can't happen? What would it look like to flip that script?

8.How does the gospel—God sending His Son into a broken world to die and rise again—itself qualify as an act of crazy faith from a human perspective? How does anchoring your trust in that historical event give you a foundation for trusting God in your own impossible situations?