Call of the Wild

I recently read a really great book called A Different Kind of Wild by Debbie Alsdorf. It was a really good read for me and has challenged me quite a bit. Often I read books like this that inspire my heart and then they get put on the shelf as I pick up the next one. I forget to look back and reflect. I choose not to do the 'work' that would take me from where I was before I read the book to where I want to be after I read it.

I don't want this book to be one of those. I really want to live wildly. So I'm going to interact with this book on my blog for the next bit as I process. Lucky you, you get to hear me think out loud! I am a verbal processor, and there's no better way to be verbal than to have a conversation, so what better place to process a book than on a blog!

I've already wrote a post about this book on the Book Club page for the women at my church. I'm going to borrow just a section of it to start of this verbal processing here. (If you'd like to read the whole thing the link is www.gacbookclub.wordpress.com)

"That’s probably because of the way this book has led me to define a different kind of wild. To me the author was saying that living a wild life is being completely sold out to the process and totally leaving perfection on the back burner. To be content to be caught with my hair in curlers and my make up not on. To be comfortable saying; “I know the Bible says this somewhere I just can’t remember the address right now.”. To be propelled by the next step in the journey not the destination. To be motivated by doing exactly what I did yesterday just slightly more excellently.

Living a wild life calls me to live by a different kind of normal. A normal characterized by devotion to God, surrender to His plan, serving beyond what I feel I can give and daily re-creating the New Testament experience.

“We must learn the importance of informing our thinking with the Word of God. We must learn to take the Word in, dwell on the truth of God’s Word and ponder its meaning and implications. Then we need to explore its implication to our very own everyday life. In other words we must make it a goal to put God’s Word in our brains to think about, then put it into practice. This is how we focus our mind on God and his ways. We must become convinced that the way to real life is through faith and that faith comes from hearing God’s Word.”

In the past I may have said a wild person was like Tarzan or Mowgli but now I see a purely wild example in Noah or Esther. To know from my mind to my core what God has said. Then to take that knowledge and boldly let it inform my life. That is the way I desire to live."