Rediscovering your wild heart

Rediscovering your wild heart.

“We build churches that become nothing more than hiding places for the faithful while pretending that our actions are for the good of the world.”

Erwin Raphael McManus

Once upon a time there lived a wild and courageous tiger. He was a big tiger and when he roared all of the other animals trembled. He was most certainly the king of his jungle. He spent his time, day after day, walking around in his jungle, killing when he needed to, and enjoying his power and freedom until the day that he was captured in a net and put into a cage. He slammed his body against the cage, growled, roared, but to no avail. There was no way out of the cage. He would simply have to get accustomed to his new surroundings. After quite some time, they let him out of his prison and started to work with him using whips and chains until the day that they could get close and pet him. And to be honest, after so much time alone in the cage, he enjoyed the attention. And after a little while longer, they put him into an area with other tigers, all domesticated. At least he was no longer alone. Every once in a while, when he let out a roar, one of the trainers would come over quickly to let him know that this is not the correct manner in which to act. “A domesticated cat does not roar.” And with time, he stopped roaring and accommodated himself to passing the days lying around on a couch, hanging out with the other tame tigers, and receiving affection from the trainers every once in a while. He spent years like this, just hanging out and thinking of how good his life was, everything peaceful, all of his needs provided for, a little attention every now and then, until the day he heard a tiger outside roaring. In that moment, something awoke in him, something deep inside stirred that reminded him of times past when he was someone, when he was free, when he had a reason to live. He looked around himself at all of the other domesticated tigers and then he looked at the window and all of the sudden, something snapped, and he began to run in the direction of the window and in one quick movement, he jumped and crashing through the window fell two stories to the ground. He hit the ground hard and rolled, and then picked himself up, roared, and without looking back, went back into the jungle; back to the life that God had called him to live. For a tiger was never created to be domesticated. He is a creature wild at heart.

What we see today is a domesticated church, everything perfect and in its place, full of people content to lie around on the couch all day waiting to receive the affection of their pastor every once in awhile, but in the meantime doing nothing to change their life or the world around them. I don’t know if you remember when you first gave you life to Christ and you were all excited about what He had done in your life and wanted to tell everyone; you wanted to win the world for Jesus, and you even tried until a “trainer” came over to inform you that this is not how it works. You can’t just go around yelling about sin and hell and the cross all of the time. And then he went on to inform you that even so, your flame would eventually go out, the fire would pass. And unfortunately, he was probably right. He knew because his fire had gone out years before and it was nothing more than a memory. After some more time of the “trainers” working with you, you finally stopped shouting about sin and hell because “that’s not how the domesticated act”.

I never feel so out of place than when I am in a fancy restaurant or some place all formal because I don’t know exactly what to do or how to act. To be honest, I haven’t had a lot of practice at it. I always have fun, but I am always aware that I might be committing some faux paux or making a mistake and that every one around me knows it and will later be commenting about the idiot in the restaurant and laughing. I remember one time in particular when my wife and I were in a restaurant in San Paulo and she almost had a heart attack when I grabbed the bottle of bottled water and put it to my lips to drink. It never dawned on me to use the glass. If they wanted me to use a glass, why did they give me the bottle? Anyhow, after helping her up from the floor, I was informed that in “such a place”, you never drink from the bottle. Live and learn. And this is what happens in the church. When we enter, we enter all half nuts, wild to the max, pointing out every sin that we see and wanting to know why the church doesn’t evangelize the lost or help the poor that sit out in front of the church. But with time, they manage to put a collar around our necks and lead us around with a leash. And after a little bit more time, they put a coat and tie on us or maybe a dress and then tell us, “Now you’re one of us.” We eventually even forget about the things that bothered us when we first entered; the sin that we saw going on inside the church, the lost, and the poor, because it’s so nice to be in the “house of God” laying on our spiritual couches and waiting for some affection. “Why do we need to worry about the world outside?” “We’re inside now.” And with just a little more time, you forget the fact that at one time, you were wild and dangerous, something that God created you to be. You’ve forgotten how to roar. And in the place of roaring, you now sit around “meowing” and purring and rubbing up against the sides of the other domestic cats with which you now spend your time.

And them one day you hear the sound of a real tiger outside roaring and something stirs in you; something awakes and you remember who you were and how it was before and all of the sudden you realize how much you miss you. When you look in the mirror, you don’t even recognize yourself anymore and to be honest, you don’t like what you see. This is not what God created you to be. God created you as an individual, someone different from the rest. God did not create you to be “clone” even though discipleship has managed to clone a generation of Christians. Discipleship was supposed to be the modeling of the life and person of Jesus. “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” He is ultimately the one to be imitated; in action, but not a physical copy of him. I find it rather ridiculous when the disciples of some pastor dress like him, act like him, talk like him; literally imitating how he is? I imagine it must stroke the ego of the one being imitated, but it’s kind of sad for the one who lost his identity in the deal, and I doubt that it does anything to please the heart of God. I guarantee you that this was not God’s idea or intention when he started discipleship. It’d almost enough to make you laugh if it wasn’t so sad to see one more domesticated cat without an identity of its own.

But, every one in a while, one of these domesticated cats hears a tiger outside roaring and he remembers who he is and who God created him to be; something wild. And he looks at the big window in the sanctuary, the stained glass one with Mary holding the baby Jesus, and then he gets up and starts running towards the window and then all of the sudden, he jumps, breaking the window and cutting himself up as he falls to the ground. And as he picks himself up, he breathes the fresh air once again and feels the freedom, something he hadn’t felt for awhile, bringing to mind something that had always confused him. When he was invited to enter into the church in the beginning and be a part of it, he was told that it was to “set him free”, but he never felt free inside with the collar around his neck and being told not to “roar”. But now he was free, feeling the wind in his hair, and at this he let out a roar so loud that the rest of the windows in the church vibrated. If he could have heard the voices of those still in the church, still shut up in the cage, he would have heard the other domesticated cats speaking of him with sad tones in their voices; sad, but more condemning, speaking of one more backslidden cat. The youth are leaving the church today a whole lot quicker than they are entering and it’s not because they don’t want Jesus. They want Jesus. What they don’t want is to be domesticated. They don’t want to be somebody’s pet. And just like that, they leave and are referred to as backslidden.

But, are they really the ones who are backslidden? The church has lost its way today to such an extent that it no longer even knows why it exists. The church in the beginning was a starting place, a place to gather to be eventually sent out of to Judea, Samaria and the rest of the world. Now it’s a place to gather and stay and hide; in reality, a cage; our own self made prison. We don’t go anywhere. We just stay inside hanging out on our couches, taking advantage of the mutual affection, forgetting that God created us to be wild and free not domesticated. He created us to take back what the devil has stolen, to rescue lost souls from the mouth of hell.

It’s a war out there and domesticated cats are not going to be of much help or make anyone tremble. They’ll show up on the field of battle rubbing up against the leg of the enemy, as if that’s going to put fear into his heart. He might laugh, or pet them, but run, never. God is raising up a group of tigers that are ripping off the collars of the traditional church and jumping out of the windows. And sadly they are being referred to as rebels and backslidden, a lot like Martin Luther and every other man of God that got to the point that he couldn’t take the state of a backslidden church anymore and did something. I am not so worried about those that are leaving; at least they know what they are doing. I am more concerned with those that are left inside. Is it not possible that they are the ones that have “fallen away”; fallen away from the reason for which they were saved? My fear and suspicion is that the church has become the very religion that Jesus confronted two thousand years ago; a religion that he hated and criticized; a religion that was deaf to the cries of a world lost and going to hell. I don’t doubt for one minute that if Jesus were to walk on the earth one more time, the church would crucify him again, for He would not keep quiet and content himself to sit on some plush sofa, but would speak out against the prevalent dead religion and sin that we find in our churches today. He would speak out against the religious systems full of rules created by men and the church methods that the people adore rather than God. He would speak out against the pulpits full of sin and the Pharisees who occupy them. He would speak out against them to the point that they would kill Him again. This I do not doubt

So, where do we go? These days, I am not hearing the sound of revival but the sound of a people who are not content with the religious systems of the day. It’s the sound of a revolution about to happen, the continuation of a revolution that Jesus started two thousand years ago. And to be honest, I am hoping for this, I am praying for this, I am fasting for this. What the church needs today is holy revolt; a revolution taking us back to our roots; back to the jungle and our wild heart where we can truly fight against the powers of hell. I know that I risk being misunderstood and maybe criticized for potentially inciting a rebellion, but this is not my intention. I would much rather see changes in the institution that we commonly call the church. But if that doesn’t happen and the church won’t change, believe it; I am totally in favor of an insurrection. I am more concerned with those who are on their way to hell that with the Pharisees who are content to have everyone kissing their rings.

The time has come for us to rediscover our voices and stop pretending that everything is okay in a church full of sin and hypocrisy. The time has come for us to rediscover our wild hearts and rediscover the reason for our lives. The Christian is not a creature that was created to be domesticated; he is wild; God created him like that and like that God is pleased with him.

God bless you.

Pr Jeff