Wild Goose Chase, School, Wonder

While I was volunteering at the high school today (they needed proctors for testing) I was able to read Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson. It was a really fast read and really touching. I really encourage anybody/everybody to read it! Many parts of it were completely applicable to what is going on in my life right now.



The most interesting part of the whole experience to me this morning at the school was the Spirit really confirming to me to be thankful for all God has done in my life since high school. I felt Him comforting me that I was not the same person I was in high school (thank you God) and reminded me just how much healing has taken place in such a short time. Even though it wasn't my high school I visited... walking through the halls - the smells were the same, noises and expressions on the faces all the same.... it brought back many memories of who I was in high school and the mistakes I made and others made to me. All I could do was thank God for getting me out of high school mostly unharmed/un-scarred for life. I thank Him so much for how He has changed me and is changing me.


I was reading in passages in Wild Goose Chase that were all about letting God out of the boxes we put Him in:....we are so trapped by our own logic...we limit everything in life, including God to what we can comprehend in our cerebral cortex, so we have cages of assumptions..... The more assumptions we have, the smaller our cages are...The TRUTH is, the smartest people are actually the ones who make the FEWEST assumptions.... One of the most dangerous assumptions we can make, is assuming we know more than we really do..... At some point in life, we stop asking questions & start making assumptions.

Faith is not logical. It's not illogical - it's theological. It does not ignore reality, it just adds God into the equation. Faith is not mindless ignorance; it simply refuses to limit God to the logical constraints of the left brain. Logic questions God. Faith questions assumptions. Faith is trusting God more than you trust your own assumptions.


and the whole time, I'm thinking God has such a sense of humor!! Because here I am reading all these passages and letting my mind & heart & Spirit expand and be open and I'm sitting in the very place that I believe is the major cause of thinking that is limited, logical only & predictable.

As I read, I thought to myself.... when do we change? What takes us from believing in limitless possibilities when we are chidren to thinking with only logical constraints? What takes us from wonder to concrete answers only? and then I almost busted out laughing (good thing I didn't get the giggles like I used to) when I looked around and realized I was in the very place that is one of the primary tools society uses to socialize our children to move from childlike faith to predictable logic. I really believe our schools are the primary teaching of this trained thinking of logic, limited possibilities, concrete answers. Learning to think in those ways are important too. It's a skill that is good to learn..... BUT there is no balance in our curriculum. There are no classes to help us protect our heart. There are no classes that help us have childlike faith. There are very few classes that open our minds & hearts to possibilities.


One of the biggest blessings, best gifts God has given me is childlike wonder, excitement and curiosity. I'm a dreamer. I'm an eternal optimistic. I had to tame all of those qualities down to succeed in school. I had to push all that down to fit into adulthood... but as I sat there today, I just chuckled inside at how I've come full circle. Now that I am out of formal education --- I feel like I can finally start growing and learning what life is really about.

Some of my high school friends dedicated the song, "I hope you dance" to me as 'my song'... and one of the lyrics is, "may you never lose your sense of wonder". whenever I see this picture of Raymond running full steam to the ocean one morning at the beach --- that's what I think of.

May we never cease to wonder at all God has done, has created, is doing, is creating, will do and will create. May we never forget the first time we came in contact with the Spirit. May we always remember the first time we felt the full brunt, pain, humiliation, shame, guilt of our own sin... and then the freedom as it was cast from our shoulders to our Savior's.