This is a follow up of sorts to my Kings of the Wild Frontier post from a few days ago. In addition to the one line of that song that unexpectedly affected me one day last year, there are a couple of other lines in the song that weren't written at all from a "Christian" perspective, but I think can relate to the Christian life.
The song starts out with a kind of rally cry: "A new royal family, a wild nobility, we are the family!"
A new royal family - How many times does the Bible mention the family of God as royalty! As children of the King, we are "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ" (Rom 8:17). God has adopted us - He has taken away from us the bondage of the status of "servant" and "slave" and has made us full-fledged sons and daughters (Gal 4:1-7). Read those verses if you want to really know who you are!
A wild nobility - "Wild" is not a bad word! A friend of mine has borrowed (permanently, I think) my "Wild at Heart" book by John Eldredge. I may have to get a new copy, because so often I want to refer to Eldredge's descriptions of our "wild" God. I do remember that in the book he borrowed one description from a friend of my father. Walter Brueggeman's description of God: "wild, dangerous, unfettered and free." I'll just say this. When you read the Bible, pay attention to the things God does. And pay attention to the things that man, created in His image, does.
Also look around you at the things that little boys do in their expressions of their God-given wild hearts. Watch them as they grow, and watch the world as it tries to tame them! We Christians seem to be the best at quenching God-given wildness. It's sad. You know I'm not talking about flagrant sin. I'm talking about the true nature that God has given us. I don't believe that God created us to walk in the fleshly desires that we have. But I also don't believe that God created us for puritanism and religion! He created us with love. He created us with passion. He created us to live! We're not all the same, and His 'wildness' won't be expressed in us all in the same way, but we are all created in His image, not in the image of religion!
This is good stuff, Joel! I can especially relate to the picture of little boys with God-given wild hearts - I have four of them, and often people are overwhelmed by the craziness, but I am learning to laugh more and more at all of it! He definetly created us to live with passion!!
ReplyDeleteYep... passion is a great word! We tend to keep ourselves, and God, in a small box. Christians are good at trying to be "tame," when in reality we have a wild, passionate God who created us to be like Himself!
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