Wild at Heart – review

This is a book review of sorts. Wild at Heart is written by John Etheredge and is the focus of one study group I participate with. It comes with a workbook that takes you much deeper into the material asking questions that do not come to mind as you read the book, but this is not a response to the workbook. This is not a knee jerk reaction to the literary value of the work and I am not a book critic, I am just a simple man. So, read the comments with the understanding that I write these words more for me than for you, so that I may better understand the material and where it takes my mind. You will note that I use a hyphenate version of the almighty name. This is in respect and because some of my friends are Jewish and if I wish to reach them with my words, I cannot offend them with my misuse of the most high’s reference.

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Each day I learn about G-d’s grace. I was created in the image of G-d, and in that image I am to understand but a small bit of the exuberance, the joy, the pleasure and the wonder of all that is. The wonder of where and what I am is but a drop in a thimble, for how can I begin to consume all that is within my reach; how can I understand the greatness of all that is, how can I compare what I now know to what I will see on that day I am joined by grace with the others in that place He went to prepare for us? So great is our G-d, that our imaginations but pale to reveal him, but yet he instilled in us those things we desire, those things we wonder, those things that please us. And then, we learn. We learn of patience, compassion, learn of beauty, we learn of companionship, we learn of the pleasure from pleasing others, we learn how great our G-d is because of grace. And we live out this life to learn something for the future, to learn how to observe, how to explore. And so as I read “Wild at Heart” I sense a longing to be free of the constraints, the limits of every day city life. There was a time when there was no radio, people spoke to each other. That time had no television or video games to absorb our hours, no endless lists of requirements and rules. We did that which was required to eat, sleep, and wonder at creation, thanking and praising the one who created it all as we laid our heads to rest in the satisfaction of a day. And we were gifted with women who can see beyond our limited sight, because they were created to live by emotion and feeling and guard us from short sightedness. They produce out of love, children who grow to be like us but yet more than were are.

The book points out another key issue in my personality, the need to be admired, to be wanted, and because of that need I strive. I strive to walk. I strive to earn a dollar because of what those earning may provide to gain the further admiration and devotion of another. It is why a man buys a diamond ring. What purpose, what value to a man is a ring at all. It can’t cut my meat; it can’t drive me to work in comfort. It cannot heat or cool my home; it cannot feed me or my family. It is not a prize for me; it is a prize to have the one who wears it.

So, the question left dangling in my mind so far is this, “Have I lived?” I have spoken a phrase to some that applies to others, “Regret is the strongest emotion of man. As we look back, we often regret and it molds us into action or remorse.” Yes, I have lived and it is not over yet. I have known the hunt and the hike, war and peace, wonder and awe, life and death. I have known love and betrayal and of the last I speak this: How could I understand the pain of Christ in his heart, had it not been the loss of love so precious to me? She was my closest and dearest friend for 17 years. No, I did not create her. No, I did not know her thoughts and her every action, but I knew her love and her potential to share it completely. Is this what G-d desires from His creation? Does he long for the closeness, the admiration, the communication? I believe he does and when we selfishly turn our backs and go about our way, he must feel the agonizing pain that an “ex” feels or that a parent who loses a child feels. I have said, no man should ever suffer the loss of his spouse because of me, because no man deserves the pain of love such as this lost. How much more appropriate then that G-d should not suffer the pain of our lost soul. After all, he gave his only son for a ransom.

It takes Eldridge three or more chapters so far to ask a simple question. “Who are you?” Perhaps having a man simply evaluate honestly this statement and then Eldredge being direct in his philosophy could be a more productive method of addressing manhood. His direction on who a man was originally designed to be is sound, but the next question that immediately came to my mind was, was this written by a woman? Eldredge projects a view of G-d as masculine, so from a chauvinistic point of view I must presume that it is written by a him. Wild at Heart says that men have a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to fight for. It tries to project these activities onto the life of G-d. In the words of the title for chapter two, G-d is “the wild one in whose image we are made.” So, G-d is a wild man? Eldredge’s description of G-d and his “adventure” leaves me with an unbiblical picture of G-d. For him, men are risk-takers and adventure-seekers at heart because G-d is a risk-taker and adventure-seeker at heart. Men are foolish, G-d is not. 1 Corinthians 3:19, “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to G-d. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.” Yes, I was created in the image of G-d, but this is but an image, and often a poor reflection. I had previously attributed this to a physical attribute more than a mental one and I assume G-d is not physical. Even donkeys could think! Balaam’s spoke to him in Numbers 22. Was the donkey created in G-d’s image. I think not. So, perhaps those that men have been given dominion over are here to report on our ung-dly behavior?

Men are wild at heart, but it is because we are defiant at heart. We seek to go our own way, be free from the rules of society and free from the judgment of others or G-d. Men are wild because we have become so out of selfish ambition, not because G-d made us to defy Him. Yes, he knew the outcome of His work and He was sorry, but alas, He was to provide us a veil, a curtain, a “scape goat” to stand between us and His righteous judgment. How great is our G-d? Well, greater than I can imagine in my foolish wisdom. so am I wild at heart? Yes. But out of selfish rebellion, I am a hellion and bound for there am I except for the Grace of a heavenly father.