A Wild and Untamed God

The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. Matthew 11:12. 

Man’s thought is always of the punishment that will come to him if he sins. But God’s thought is always of the glory man will miss if he sins. Watchman Nee, in The Normal Christian Life.

In my last blog post I mentioned that through a series of events I came to realize that my perception of God was distorted. I had viewed him as a rigid, repressive “Cosmic Cop”, ready to thwack me at every turn if I made a mistake or misbehaved. This perception was so real that I had begun to put distance between him and me. I didn’t turn my back on him but rather participated in a church with a more “liberal” theology where God could be, at least in my mind, more like what I wanted him to be.

Then about 10 years ago I became interested in a devout Christian woman who I knew wouldn’t be compatible with attending my church. Recognizing that I had distanced myself from God, I acknowledged that to him in a prayer. I told him I wanted to move toward him again but that I was afraid to move back into repression. I simply asked God to reveal himself to me in a new way and show me more of what he is truly like. That prayer began the dramatic “series of events” through which God began to dismantle, or destroy my incorrect perception of his nature and then rebuild it in ways that are still “wowing” me to this day.

There is a warrior in every man's heart.

Within a couple of years I read the book Wild at Heart by John Eldredge. That was the beginning of God’s answer to my prayer and it totally rocked my world! Through it I learned, among other things, that the model of being a Christian man was not to be “just a really nice guy” who doesn’t smoke, drink, or swear. In Wild at Heart, Eldredge described how most Christian men in the Western church are “bored”, whose highest aspiration is to be “dutiful” and perhaps, if they are really good, to reach the lofty goal of being an elder. I had occasionally heard in church that eternity in heaven will be a “never ending church service in the sky”. In truth, that didn’t sound fun to me. Eldredge boldly stated that that view of heaven sounds more like hell than heaven to him; and I agree.

The basis of Wild at Heart is that a man’s heart yearns for a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue. And that a man’s heart yearns for these things…passion, freedom, life…because God made it that way! Eldredge uses Scripture to illustrate that the God of Christianity is wild, untamed, and passionate about our rescue and restoration.

I will conclude with a couple of thoughts.

The first is that in this post I described how God answered a sincere prayer in a very personal and powerful way. I challenge you to ask God to reveal himself, his true nature to you. Then watch for his answer.

Second, God usually has to tear down some of the dysfunctional beliefs and habits we have built up around our lives before he can bring new life and restoration. Some of that may be painful, but I can attest that it is definitely worth it in the end. If any of you have seen the Narnia movie or read the book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (by C.S. Lewis), it is like when Aslan the lion tore the scales and skin off Edmund, who had been turned into a dragon because of his waywardness, to restore his humanity. As Edmund described it: “It hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt…but it was fun to see it coming away…then [Aslan] threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone…and then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again.” God can bring beauty from ashes. He does it all the time.