Just one look at the title and you are probably already
jamming with your air guitar, “Born to be WiiiiiIIILd born to be wiiiilld!”
My sister is a huge fan of the book
Where the Wild things Are. She has read
it repetitively throughout her entire life.
Even now as an adult if the topic came up and she discovered you had
never heard the story well I hope you enjoy story time. It’s inevitable that she’s going to get the
book and read it to you. No matter how
many times I have heard it, it is always a thrill. Not the story so much as the way she reads
it… with passion! I’ll just share one
quote that describes the wild things and if you want to know more you can let
the author read it to you here ...
"And the wild things roared their terrible roars and
gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their
terrible claws." The wild things
sound pretty scary to me, dangerous, untamed… and the kind of book that makes
you sleep in the center of the bed with no limbs hanging off, even possibly
triggering a nightmare or two. Except if
you were able to stare the wild things in the eyes without blinking you would
be able to tame them.
Okay so if you aren’t following the children’s story let me try the adult novels or now movies if you are not a
reader. You have at least heard everybody
talking enough about it to know about Jacob and Edward. Yeah I’m going there I know I know… I hate
doing what everybody else is doing, I’m also not one to read or watch things
that might elicit nightmares and I’m a believer in the supernatural so I wanted
absolutely nothing to do with these fictional stories about vampires. Now that it is almost time for the fourth
movie to come out peer pressure, boredom or curiosity got the best of me and I
found myself watching, reading and loving all of it.
Side note: Well know since I know you girls are dying to know
I watched all the movies not understanding why anybody would want Edward since
Jacob was a total Hottness monster (hmm ironic choice of words since Nessie
gets him in the end) but in the novels aah Edward is so romantic and Jacob’s
sarcasm reminds me of an ex boyfriend so yeah that makes me a …vampire
lover!... There I said it! What have I
become? Dear me! WHO AM I now?
Anyways… Getting back
on track with the point I’m trying to make, in Twilight those that have just
recently been bitten, turning them from a human into a vampire, are called
newborns. As the venom runs through
their veins it burns with fire eventually causing their hearts to stop beating
thus making them immortal. Newborn
vampires are stronger and faster than older vampires. They are extremely thirsty, violent, unable
to control their urges, and their eyes are crimson making them extra terrifying
to look at.
"It's newborns."
"What, like new vampires?"
"The first few months after the change."
"That's when we're at our most uncontrollable, vicious, insane with thirst."
"Something to look forward to."
"What, like new vampires?"
"The first few months after the change."
"That's when we're at our most uncontrollable, vicious, insane with thirst."
"Something to look forward to."
―Edward, Bella, Jasper and Emmett
on newborn vampires
Then eventually they are taught to control themselves. They learn not attack humans, surviving off
animal blood instead. Eventually their eyes turn golden decreasing the scare
factor. With time they become weaker and
slower like all the rest of the older vampires.
This made me think about newborn
Christians and how at first they are passionate and on fire. Their hearts have stopped beating, they are
chasing after God’s plans for their lives, and their desires are no longer
their own because they know His are better.
They become immortal and have a freedom in knowing they have everlasting
life and will spend eternity in Heaven with roads paved of gold and mansions of
precious jewels. They are thirsty for
more of Jesus, ready to do whatever God asks of them, unable to control their
urges to share Christ and are terrifying to the demons. But
then they keep going to church where they learn not to say things like, “That
was one Hell of a sermon, Pastor!” Where
as before they would not have thought twice about giving food to a homeless
person now they are afraid and before they would have invited a stranger in
line at Target to a Sunday service now that makes them a freak. They are no longer untamed and
dangerous. Their Christianity is defined
by what they no longer do. They don’t
drink, they don’t smoke, they don’t have tattoos, they don’t have fun, they
live a boring life and they have forgotten what they are actually supposed to
do.
We have sat around way to long just
coming to church when we felt like it you know when the weather wasn’t perfect
for golfing, praying well when we had tried everything else, inviting others to
church if there was something fun going on there that might not have anything at
all to do with Jesus still calling ourselves wonderful Christians.
However the Bible
says that followers of Christ:
3) Will love everyone as Christ has loved Ephesians 5:2
4) Will share the good news and make disciples in all
nations Matthew 28:19
6) Will do even greater works that Jesus Christ. John 14:12
7) Are capable of the impossible Philippians 4:13
8) Will be Undignified 2 Samuel 6:21-22
9) Will receive power Mark 16:17-18
You see the problem is there’s a
very big dark, lost and dying world out there that half of you haven’t dared
see because you are calm and complacent in your church cages. If the poor, the needy, the enslaved and the
hungry are going to be introduced to Jesus, wild zealous followers of the Son
of God that sacrificed Himself on a cross are the only answer. We need to return to the dangerous passionate
newborns to spread Jesus. In order to
bring Jesus to the least of these we need dangerous fishers of men, fearless
warriors!
The rest of you can sit in church
playing patty cake to the Almighty God, inviting Him to HIS house, singing
about how you are going to dance even though you are standing there like a
mummy if you want to… but I’ve been shut up too long, I’ve tried not to offend,
and feared rejection while friends and family have continued to live their
lives without HOPE. If weird,
rebellious, undignified and fervently courageous is what it’s going to take to
point the world to Jesus the get these shackles off my feet, let me run wild
and free to the ends of the earth. I
want my life look like the spirit of God that raised Jesus from the dead is
living inside of me. To me that’s
the ultimate definition of a wild thing.
"We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we
profess to know a Power the Twentieth Century does not reckon with. But we are
"harmless," and therefore unharmed. We are spiritual pacifists,
non-militants, conscientious objectors in this battle-to-the-death with
principalities and powers in high places. Meekness must be had for contact with
men, but brass, outspoken boldness is required to take part in the comradeship
of the Cross. We are "sideliners" -- coaching and criticizing the
real wrestlers while content to sit by and leave the enemies of God
unchallenged. The world cannot hate us, we are too much like its own. Oh that
God would make us dangerous!" –Jim Elliot
Wild things… are you with me?
The song in the beginning is true you know we
were ultimately reborn to be WILD!
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