As a kid, I enjoyed seeing wild animals up close. But as an adult and a Christian, I’ve started to question our obsession with taming the wild. Why are we so determined to domesticate what was never meant to be caged, especially in our spiritual lives?
The amazing American author and political activist, Helen Keller, once said: “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” I couldn’t agree with that statement more. Apparently, American author and pastor Mark Batterson agrees, too. In his book, Wild Goose Chase: Reclaim the Adventure of Pursuing God, Mark Batterson invites us to exchange our tamed, civilized, predictable, and controlled lives of Christian discipleship for a wild, “by-the-seat-of-our-pants” pursuit of the Holy Spirit known as An Geadh Glas, or “the Wild Goose” in Celtic Christianity. The Celtics saw and appreciated that the Holy Spirit is beautifully wild and unpredictable and calls us to follow wherever it leads. Learn more about An Geadh Glas (pronounced on-god-gloss)here and Celtic Christianity here:
The Wild Goose is always on the move: working, creating, and dreaming every second of every day in ways that completely transcend our boring, preconceived human notions, beliefs, and interpretations of what the Holy Spirit really is.
Pastor Batterson likens today’s churches to a zoo. In his book, he writes, “I love the church. I bleed the church. And I’m not saying that the way the church cages people is intentional. In fact, it may be well-intentioned. But too often we take people out of their natural habitat and try to tame them in the name of Christ. We try to remove the risk. We try to remove the danger. We try to remove the struggle. And what we end up with is a caged Christian.” Pursuing the Wild Goose means answering God’s call to undertake a life of spiritual adventure. It means giving up what we know we can control in our lives in order to find what we may be missing. It means having unbridled faith in the nudging of the Holy Spirit to do something we may have never pictured ourselves doing or even thinking about.
Jesus was always inviting people to pursue the Holy Spirit, aka the Wild Goose, in the Bible. In the Parable of the Rich Young Man (Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 19), a man asks Jesus, “Teacher, what good things must I do to get eternal life?” “If you want to enter eternal life,” Jesus tells him, “keep the commandments.” “Which ones”? The man inquired. Jesus replied, “You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not give false testimony; honor your father and mother; and love your neighbor as yourself.” “All of these I have kept,” the man said. “What do I still lack?” Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor and you will have treasures in heaven. Those last four words – “Come, follow me” – might as well be, “strap in and chase the Wild Goose”?
And the Holy Spirit? Aka The Wild Goose, it arrives in Acts 2: 1-4 – “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest of each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” How unexpected! How untamable and uncontrollable! How Wild Goose-like!
In his book, Pastor Batterson writes about something he calls “Inverted Christianity.” He says that results when Christians are “trapped” in “cages” (six different types of cages, to be exact). And being trapped in those cages prevents us from “roaming free with the Wild Goose and living the spiritual adventure God destined for us,” as Batterson puts it. You’ll have to get Batterson’s book to find out what the cages are and to see which ones you are trapped in, if any! This book is a wonderful, intriguing read and will inspire you to put aside every excuse you can think of to finally go undertake the adventure of a lifetime with the Wild Goose.
Let me ask: Do you believe in Guardian Angels? I do.
And I imagine one of their roles is to protect us from danger. But what kind of danger? From shampoo in the eyes? From stubbing our toes? From biting into a too-hot slice of pizza? So, from what kind of “danger” are our Guardian Angels guarding us? Friends! Our Guardian Angels are yawning! Let’s make them joyful and feel needed by inviting them to go on an excellent, life-giving adventure with us! As Pastor Batterson insists, “We have a primal longing to be uncaged. And the cage opens when we recognize that Jesus didn’t die on the cross to keep us safe. Jesus died to make us dangerous.”
I leave you with this poem entitled “An Geadh-Glas,” written by Sally Sheffield, a Methodist
minister, mother, grandmother, poet, photographer, swimmer, and novice artist who captures the stirring call of the Wild Goose perfectly:
I feel the beat of your wings stirring the air around me
Awakening my slumbering spirit, calling me to rise and follow.
I hear your call behind me and before me
The call of adventure, the call to fullness of life.
Free me, O Wild One, from these chains of complacency
And the shackles of comfort I have made.
Free me, O Wild One, for I choose to release my heart
And follow you again.
Stir me, call me, free me, release me. Come, O Wild One. Come.
