Anyway, Mark Batterson has been a friend since we lived in Baltimore. When we were at a real low point in ministry, he was nice enough to take me to lunch and talk through some things with me, give me some wisdom. It was incredibly helpful. We handed out his last book to all the men in our church last year on Father’s day, so I was more than happy to review his latest book: Wild Goose Chase before it came out, but it came out today so my review is just in time.
The book is right up my alley as far as theology on following Jesus, but it brings up a topic often skipped over in Christianity, the Holy Spirit. So much controversy surrounds the Holy Spirit, how it works, how to be more in sync with the Spirit, etc. Without the Holy Spirit though, following Jesus would be rather mundane. Which is where most people sitting in church find themselves every week. Enter Mark’s book. He describes 6 cages that keep us from following after what God wants: the cage of…responsibility, routine, assumptions, guilt, failure and fear.
I loved chapter 3, where he talked about routine and putting monuments in our lives to remember moments and places that God has spoken. One of the things I have done in my journey is that when God does show up or something happens that is huge in my walk with God, I have something in my office to remind me. I am missing one that Mark brought up that I am going to have to go back to the place and get.
Here are a few things I highlighted:
- Nothing is more unnerving or disorienting than passionately pursuing God.
- I wonder if churches do to people what zoos do to animals.
- You cannot simultaneously live by faith and be bored.
- I’m not convinced that your date of death is the date carved on your tombstone. Most people die long before that. We start dying when we have nothing worth living for. And we don’t really start living until we find something worth dying for. Ironically, discovering something worth dying for is what makes life worth living.
- When God puts a passion in your heart, whether it be relieving starvation in Africa or educating children in the inner city or making movies with redemptive messages, that God-ordained passion becomes your responsibility.
- The will of God is difficult to discern because it often involves making a decision that seems irresponsible.
- One of the great mistakes we make is asking God to do for us what God wants us to do for him.
- If Christians believe that God is in every person, why don’t we act like that? Why do we turn our eyes from the poor, the widows, the orphans, and the prostitutes? Although prayer is necessary and helps bring comfort, it’s not enough to truly alleviate suffering. God didn’t send His son to pray for us but rather to act for us.
- Change of place + change of pace = change of perspective
- We make God in our image and we’re left with a god who can never surprise us, never overwhelm us, nor astonish us, nor transcend us. (A.W. Tozer)
- We make far too many assumptions about what is and what is not possible in the physical universe. We do the same thing spiritually. And those assumptions become eight-foot ceilings that limit our lives.
- Faith is not logical. But it isn’t illogical either. Faith is theological. It does not ignore reality; it just adds God into the equation.
- How we handle the shipwrecks in our lives will determine whether our lives become a tragedy or comedy.
Mark also put some great quotes on his blog from the book: here, here, here, here, here (this might be my favorite), and here.
For me, my wild goose chase (my God-ordained calling) is to build a church that makes it hard to go to hell from Tucson. That has been my driving passion and calling since I knew God wanted me to be a pastor back when I was 18. It has not changed, it is what keeps me going. What’s yours?
I am so grateful that more authors are grabbing a hold of this idea that following Jesus is supposed to be about risk, faith, adventure. It is not supposed to be boring or mundane. If you need some other books along this topic, check out Mark’s other book, or books by John Eldredge and Erwin McManus.
Mark Batterson: http://markbatterson.com/
Wild Goose Chase: http://www.chasethegoose.com/
The book releases today and is avaliable at http://www.amazon.com.
