My first book for my year of 30 by 30 was The Holy Wild be Mark Buchanan. This book was recommended to me by my friend Ashley, and I must thank her for the recommendation as it was a lovely, encouraging, challenging and just plain good book! I read it rather quickly so that I can hand it off to a few friends, but I look forward to reading it again in the future and letting it soak in a little more.
Sometimes I have thoughts that I cannot quite articulate or don't really know that I have until someone else says something just right. That is how I felt while reading most of this book. It was as if the author was peering into my soul and coming back with exactly what I needed to hear or articulate.
It may or may not have brought me to tears multiple times.
The book focuses on various aspects of God's character:
- Goodness
- Faithfulness
- Love
- Wrath
- Mercy
- Victory
- Holiness
- Creativity
- Wisdom
- Rest
- Glory
Each chapter uses his personal experiences in life and ministry and examples from the Bible to display God's character in a way that is so simple that I wondered why I had never understood or thought of many of the ideas before.
Here are just a few of the words that particularly hit deep down:
"What marks Jesus' disciples from His enemies is not theological acumen; His enemies often had the edge there. It's this: Disciples follow Him, bewildered as they often are, while enemies oppose Him, clear-minded though they be."
- This one spoke very much to me as the future holds many more question marks than periods as do many theological ideas, but question marks or periods, we follow, bewildered as we may be.
"God's wrath, in its worst and fullest form, is God turning us over. It's God letting us have our own way. It's God leaving us alone."
- I don't think much on God's wrath. That's too dark and scary. But this thought, God leaving us alone, is utterly terrifying. Choosing my own way, although I do it more often than not, is not worth spending eternity separated from the God of the universe.
"Books often talk about God as Creator - the maker of heaven and earth - but not as Artist - the maker of dragonflies and pussy willows. We extol His power in creation, but ignore His extravagant, exuberant creativity, His sheer inventiveness and playfulness."
- Deep down I long to be a starving artist and creator of things. Thus, the chapter based on the creativity of God was my favorite. I could write a whole post on this idea, and maybe I will, but for now just think about all the things God took the time to create that we will never see. What exactly is at the deep dark bottom of the ocean, or out in the universe floating around? Whatever it is, God created it. I like to think that sometimes, He is just showing off.
"It never comes from pushing. There are some things that only grow in stillness - or silliness - that only flourish in rest, or laughter."
- On speaking of Sabbath and resting in God. We try to push things, to make them happen on our time table, but sometimes all we need is to laugh, to be silly, to sit still, to rest. I like this.
"And faith is finally this: resting so utterly in the character of God - in the ultimate goodness of God - that you trust Him even when He seems untrustworthy."
- Bewildered, questioning, not knowing, but somehow believing that trust is better than not trusting. I hope my faith shows strongest even when He seems untrustworthy.
Those are a very minimal selection of the things in the book that stuck out and struck a cord deep down somewhere inside. I highly recommend reading this book if you need refreshed or are longing to think more on the character of God.
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