Welcome to the Wild Goose Chase

Welcome to the Wild Goose Chase! (By Mark Batterson)

When I first saw this book it caught my attention because it reminded me of something that I used to do every year at work when I worked at the golf course. We would literally chase geese, wild geese. It wouldn’t be just for fun, but it was part of a tag and relocate program with the DNR. Every year it was such an adventure. We would always build a fenced in area, or the pen, the day before.  It would have been nice to go to the pen the next morning at sunrise and find that the geese had co-operated and were waiting for us in the pen. But they never happened. We had to chase them into the pen. Sometimes we had to chase them from the other side of the golf course. The whole day wasn’t about doing regular work. The whole day was about chasing the geese. Chase them we did, with reckless abandon I might add. (P.S. We would do this during a time of year that geese do not fly.)

So after seeing this title I found myself wondering if my experience of chasing actual wild geese would be anything like what Mark Batterson was writing about. So far in the first chapter the answer is yes and no. If you have ever chased a goose you will know that they do not run in a straight line and can turn on a dime! Sometimes it seems that they travel in a pointless direction. Chasing God (the Holy Spirit) is somewhat similar. He never runs in a straight line does He? Sometimes keeping up with Him can be difficult and we often find ourselves wondering if He even knows where He is going. But if we follow Him through every twist and turn, trusting in His seemingly wanderings, we will find that He has lead us on just the right path.

Unlike my goose experience of trying to pen the geese, chasing God is different. We often don’t see it differently though. We usually find ourselves wondering where He is taking us? I am sure that we all have thought “What is His purpose for me? What is the destination that He has in mind for me?”  Here is where we often lose sight of our Wild Goose. We look too far ahead of Him. We try to figure out where He is going and how He is going to get there. The real trick here is to focus on each step of the Goose, not His destination! If we follow Him closely, where ever He takes us we will find that each day we are at the destination that He wants us to be, chasing Him. It’s a moment by moment, step by step chase. It’s about a journey and an adventure. Not about a destination.

Are you ready to chase with reckless abandon? If we choose to chase with a passionate pursuit we will find that the adventure is never boring, but sometimes a little dangerous.

So let’s go Chase a Goose together! Honk Honk!