Caged Christian

In his book, "Wild Goose Chase," Mark Batterson hit the nail on the head concerning my spirituality and what I kept seeing all around me. I was a caged Christian. You could pretty much replace "he" in the following except with my name:

"I'll tell you exactly what he is lacking: spiritual adventure. His life was too easy, too predictable, and too comfortable. He kept all the commandments, but those commandments felt like a religious cage....Listen, not breaking the prohibitive commandments is right and good. But simply not breaking the prohibitive commandments isn't spiritually satifying. It leaves us feeling caged. And I honestly think that is where many of us find ourselves." (8)

My deep unrest and unfulfillment nagged at me constantly. I would communicate it but since what I communicated didn't "fit in the box," I wouldn't get good reception and people didn't know how to handle me. I didn't know how to put what I felt and what I knew about God together. They didn't fit. But I couldn't stop the nagging. I couldn't stop the cry in my heart. This book opened the door to see how God and what I felt actually belonged exactly together. That what I was feeling was actually exactly from God to do more, to live bigger, to create a faith within me that was big enough for God to fit in!

"Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death."(171)

That is exactly what I was doing. I was trying earnestly to live the safe and "perfect" life that I had always been taught God called us to, that I thought matched a good Christian. Wasn't going to church, never doing anything bad, and becoming a great member of a church who gave back to the church what God called us to?? Mark Batterson said, "Heck no!" What?! I'd always felt this wasn't it but no one had ever affirmed it in me. This is the first I'd ever heard anyone else talk of this Christianity. "Live dangerously!" Mark Batterson encouraged. (6) When was the last time time we prayed to do this? We learn we have an enemy and that the world needs Jesus, and yet we want to play it safe.

Mark Batterson said, "You cannot simultaneously live by faith and be bored. Faith and boredom are antithetical." (7) He said, "Dont stop making mistakes!" (173) What?! Boredom is where I was at. And I was sick of being held to such a high standard that I couldn't just be human. But weren't mistakes anti-God?!! He explained it like this:

"We need more people who are more afraid of missing opportunities than making mistakes. People who are more afraid of lifelong regrets than temporary failure. People who dare to dream the unthinkable and attempt the impossible." (145)

Mark Batterson outlined a better life. A life that I could fit into, a life that pleased God more than this "prissy-perfect" life I worked so hard to fulfill but that left me feeling empty. And this new lifestyle being outlined resounded so clearly with what I was crying out for, what I always felt God would rather us live.

"If you think that one misstep, one mistake, one failure can frustrate the providential plans of Almighty God, then your God is WAY TOO SMALL!"*

Yes! God is so much bigger than our mess-up's. Enough assuming that God is so small and so rigid that we can't be human and pursue God with all life brings!

"Our assumptions keep many of us from chasing the Wild Goose...and we put eight foot ceilings on what God can do." (12)

This new life begins with challenging your assumptions and disrupting our routines. Mark Batterson says we make God in our own image and quotes A.W. Tozer saying this leave us with a god who "can never surprise us, never overwealm us, nor astonish us, nor transcend us." (71) So we need to check our assumptions. And our spiritual rituals too often become routines that loose their meaning and significance. This isn't to say that we can never have routines, but to disrupt them is healthy also. It gets us back into perspective.

Letting go of assumptions and routines aren't always easy...because assumptions and routines give us a sense of control. But living for God is like chasing the Wild Goose. It's an adventure! It's unknown. It's exciting and sometimes disorienting because it's unknown. "A part of us feels as if something is spiritual wrong with us when we experience circumstantial uncertainty. But that is precisely what Jesus promised us when we are born of the Spirit and start following Him. (John 3:8) Most of us will have no idea where we are going most of the time. And I know that is unsettling. But circumstantial uncertainty also goes by another name: adventure." (2)

The life God has called us to isn't set out clearly where we know we must just go to church, never rock the boat, and simply be great church members. Instead, it's an adventure because it's unknown. Because God has the controls, not us. Because we have no clue where God is taking us...but that's where it's holy, that's where it's right, that's where our lives become God's, not our own.

"Nothing is more unnerving or disorienting than passionately pursuing God. And the sooner we come to terms with that spiritual reality, the more we will enjoy the journey. I cannot, in good conscience, promise safety or certainty. But I can promise that chasing the Wild Goose will be anything but boring!" (3) Sign me up, I can learn to live by faith and have some uncertainties while knowing that my life is in Good Hands - any day - over living this boring, safe life where we just play church.

God has an adventure planned for each of us. They won't look the same and they don't fit some religious box. The passions and the personalities He gave each of us are integral parts of our purpose. When we pursue our passions, we're pursuing God.
Most of us live irresponsibly responsible lives (17)...in other words, we are SO responsible with life that we get lost in our responsibilities and don't pursue what God put in us to live and dream and pursue. We actually becomes IRresponible with God's purpose! Instead of being irresponsibly responsible, we need to be responsibly irresponsible: "Responsible irresponsiblity means refusing to allow your human responsiblities to get in the way of pursuing the passions God puts in your heart." (18)

THIS is the life I want to live. THIS is the life that you can sign me up for. A life that isn't marked out and that others can't clearly regulate, but a holy relationship with God that leads me on crazy turns and flips through life where my sole source is Him. A life where being perfect isn't the uttermost good - but rather living a life in full pursuit of Him through the passions He's given me. And whether this takes me on detours or gets me messed up a little here and there - I'd take this ANY DAY over simplistic, bored living where the only goal is to be good, live safely, and try talk others into joining this boring way.

*http://theaterchurch.com/media/transcript/cage-of-failure/