R. J. Foster says, “God is wild and free and comes at will.”
This idea of God being wild, both offends me and delights me. The offense hits me first, The idea of a wild God or a wild anything conjures images of out of control, rabid and rebellious. It’s a negative term when we place it within the framework of words such a civilized, polite, controlled, clean and all other things modern and affluent, wild becomes, well the opposite of sophistication. We assume with all the privileges modern society affords us , that anything opposite is simply , wrong. Who would want a wild and barbaric “god?” better to have a god that resembles us, in all our victories and accomplishments and progress over the course of history . A wild God will eat my liver, drink my blood, leave a mess and disobey the established order and we cannot have that by all means.
The part of a wild God which delights and intrigues me is a God who dances. A God who claps along with music and laughs and has joy, reckless, beautiful, silly joy. A God uncontrolled as the ocean water displaying both power and fearlessness. I am delighted in the wildness of God who is confident, strong and well assured of who He is and what he is capable of, do his own will at every moment because He knows every inch of his universe. A God who transgresses boxes and boundaries and walks through walls. A God who can go beyond my imagination and will to do what i cannot do. A God who is bold in his ideas and creativity. The wild that delights me is the sort of wildness humans appreciate about animals in their natural habitat. Wild doesn’t have to mean foaming at the mouth to maul and destroy. There is a sophistication, grace and beauty about creatures untamed, uncontrolled by man but infinitely in control of themselves. We watch them , we sit for hours observing them, we set up cameras to see them record them to understand their nature, but only in the wild can we truly understand them while they are , totally free and doing virtually whatever they please, this is where we can see the full scope of their abilities. A cheetah running, the acrobatics of a hummingbird, the eyesight of the eagle, the homing device of a salmon the incredible hunting skills of a lion. These cannot be observed in captivity. we want to see the power in a cheetah’s legs, clock him at his fastest, but we cannot simultaneously keep him caged. With God we have a similar phenomenon. Men want to experience and see God’s power in their lives
A God small enough to control and tame is not big enough to control our future, the world or eternity. A God that can be tamed, well, that’s just an idol. A god that does all what we want, when we want and how we want him to do it, is a well trained monkey. It may be somewhat appealing to have infinite power on a leash but it is an absolute contradiction. a tame God cannot do all of anything, his chains would prevent him first and second an all powerful God would not permit himself to ever be tamed and that is what we have an untamed and wild God. Even Christ in his captivity by flesh and blood , and his imprisonment to the cross by nails was by his own free will.
I guess this idea of a wild God helps me understand and accept why God doesn’t give me what i want and why i probably wouldn’t want him to. A wild God shows me why he doesn’t always answer or show up or perform signs and wonders when I pray. This idea of God being wild, if i can peel myself away from the initial offense of being different than me, actually boosts my faith a little. He is not imprisoned by me or in me, He chooses to dwell around me because of love not chains and bars. He is able to do all things and therefore could never be trapped or limited by the smallness of my image and likeness. He doesn’t do as i please, he does as he pleases which ultimately will please all who observe Him.
my faith place 