Book 2 of my 2009 Reading List was “Wild Goose Chase” By Mark Batterson. I have met Mark in person a few times and attended one of his Church services at Union Station. He is an incredibly humble guy and has always stopped and taken plenty of time to chat with me.

He is also a monster…guy must be like six foot five inches tall.

Wild Goose Chase was somewhat similar to Batterson’s first book “In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day.” I loved every page of it and couldn’t put it down. I have a joke with people when I recommend a Batterson book to them: as I make the recommendation, I always say “don’t read this unless you are ok with quitting your job and going after a crazy dream that is destined to fail!” That is exactly what this book will move you to do.

Batterson is INCREDIBLY motivating…I believe the Holy Sirit is using him to propel many people to take action; and not just any action but reckless actions that can only be inspired by God Himself. He shares and references a ton of Scripture throughout the book.

Some quick hits from the book:

• Batterson covers six “cages” that keep many of us from roaming free with the Holy Spirit as God destined for us to.
• Cage one: Responsibility. Our God-ordained passions tend to get buried beneath the day to day responsibilities of life.
• Without even knowing it we start to practice “irresponsible responsibility.”
• “I’m not convinced that your date of death is the date carved on your tombstone. Most people die long before that. We start dying when we have nothing worth living for.”
• Instead of making a life, many of us are just making a living.
• Why ask God to do something for us when it is within our power to do something about it ourselves? There are some things you don’t need to pray about.
• Some of us live as if God is going to say “well thought” or “well said good and faithful servant.” But He isn’t. There is only one commendation He will use and it is the byproduct of pursuing God-ordained passions: “Well DONE, good and faithful servant.”
• Faith doesn’t follow signs…signs follow faith.
• If you want to see God move, you need to make a move!
• Cage two: Routine. Routines are good, but sacred routines become empty rituals that keep us caged.
• Once a routine becomes a routine, we need to disturb it.
• Don’t wait to worship God till you get to the Promised Land; you’ve got to worship along the way. THIS IS holy ground. Take off your sandals now.
• Cage three: Assumptions. As we age, we stop believing and start assuming.
• We have stopped living out of right-brain imagination and started living by left-brain memory. That puts 8 foot ceilings on what God can do.
• The smartest people are NOT the people who know the most. The smartest people are those who know how much they DON’T know…those who make the fewest assumptions.
• The more faith you have, the fewer assumptions you make.
• Faith doesn’t ignore reality. It just adds God into the equation!
• Cage four: Guilt. Satan uses guilt to get us to focus on what we did in the past. This steals your energy to dream God-sized, Kingdom dreams.
• If you want to impact someone’s life, love them when they least expect it and least deserve it.
• Cage five: Failure.
• Sometimes our plans must fail in order for God’s plans to succeed.
• Cage six: Fear. We have to quit living life as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death.
• The world needs more daring people with daring plans.
• We need to be more afraid of missing opportunities than of making mistakes.
• The will of God is NOT an insurance plan…it is a DARING plan.
• We have to get out of our comfortable Christian ghettos and invade some hellholes with the love of Christ.

Bottom line is this: The Bible says that faith is being sure of what we hope for. BUT, most of us are more sure of what we are afraid of than what we hope for. Get out there and have some smart courage. Count the costs, assess the risks/rewards, and practice due diligence…don’t be mindless, be mindful. But then, do the RIGHT THING regardless of the circumstances.