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By Mark Batterson

A couple of weeks ago, I received a twitter from Mark Batterson inviting fellow twitters and bloggers to write in for the opportunity to review his new book, Wild Goose Chase (www.chasethegoose.com). It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I quickly wrote in pleading my case so that I could be a reviewer!

I was selected (thank you to who ever selected me – I really appreciate it!) and got my book a couple of days ago. I sat down today and made the decision to read the book outside with a pen, a bowl of cherries, a Coke and my feet in the grass. In addition to gaining a respectable sunburn, I had the opportunity to read a book that encouraged and strengthened some of the key lessons that God is currently teaching me in my everyday life!

For those of you who don’t know, Mark Batterson is the lead pastor of Washington, DC’s National Community Church, widely recognized as one of America’s most innovative churches. NCC meets in movie theaters at metro stops throughout the city, as well as in a church-owned coffee house near Union Station. More than seventy percent of NCC’ers are single twentysomethings who live or work on Capitol Hill. Mark is the author of the best-selling In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and a widely read blogger (www.markbatterson.com). He lives on Capitol Hill with his wife, Lora, and their three children.

I’ve read In a Pit With A Lion On a Snowy Day and followed Batterson’s tweets and his blog for quite a while now. I am impressed by his blog and with what he twitters about. As I began to read Wild Goose Chase, I was curious to see if his book would stand up to what I’ve read about him. It does in a big way.

Here’s the thing about Batterson, he doesn’t play games – he hits it hard and just doesn’t stop. I tried to start the book a couple of times this week but just couldn’t get any traction with it. I think the problem was that I didn’t have a pen to underline stuff with. Once I had a pen, and of course a fresh bowl of cherries, I was ready to go. After 2 hrs, the cherries were gone, the sunburn was radiating and the book was underlined so much that I’m going to have to get Lovey her own book so she can read it objectively.

There’s a couple things that I’m going to be taking away from this book. Here they are in no particular order:

• I have to be more interested in the adventure of following Christ, even if that pushes me far out of my comfort zone.
• When I’ve become bored with my spiritual life, chances are that I’m trying to have God serve MY purposes instead of serving God’s purposes.
• The practice of setting up an ebenezer or alter to serve as a constant reminder of God’s faithfulness is something that I need to put into regular practice in my life.
• I need to pace and take time for myself so that I don’t miss the divine appointments that God is strategically placing in my life.
• It’s not about what I can do for God, it’s what He has done for me that matters most. I know this – but knowing is not enough, I need to start living this out everyday.
• If I focus all my energy on my past failures, I will have no energy left over to dream kingdom dreams or pursue kingdom purposes. This one hurts because I spend a lot of energy driving truck over my past mistakes and I can’t do that if I truly desire to be kingdom minded.
• And finally, I’ve got to intentionally choose to live by faith so that my fears do not dictate my decisions.

There is so much that I could write about after reading this book. For his second book, I think Batterson hit a homerun. I specifically liked the continuity of thought between his first book, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, and this one.

My recommendation is that you head on over to Amazon (www.amazon.com) and pick it up. If you haven’t read In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, pick that one up as well. I think both books are worth the read. I think that Wild Goose Chase bears a message that needs to be said and thought about in today’s world. Most importantly, I think that it will challenge you like it challenged me. So I guess now all I need to do now is start my own Wild Goose chase!